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| Sussanne Khan celebrating Halloween with her kids Photo Credit: India Today |
Simplifying
the words of wise historians, Halloween came into being as an effect of
cultural intermingling. Where the Christian
tradition of All Hallows’ Day (a time for honoring the saints and praying for
the recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven(A)) and Gaelic/Irish/Celtic/Pagan
traditions regarding prayers for the dead came together. The pagan traditions involved “people going
house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in
exchange for food”(B).
Coming
back to the topic, the blatant imitation by my friends and my desire for such a
thing does pop up the question, do we really need new festivals and traditions
in a country like India which is more or less overloaded with its own? This question can then be further expanded
philosophically to wonder into the mental westernization the youth of India and
how a global generation is trying to set itself at par with their peers in the
movies and TV shows.
Of course
it is easy to accuse the Indian youth of such fallacies, especially in the political
climate we're in, but it should also be observed that there are other parts in
the world, outside of the United States, where Halloween is celebrated. The major catalyst in this regard would of
course be the above mentioned Halloween and TV shows.
Maybe
at some point in the future it will happen that the digital world will unite
and decide on a common set of festivals that are global and universal. Such a list would of course have a lot of
American festivals, especially, like I said twice, they are the most well-known
and the most attractive. For example my
affections regarding Christmas does not have anything to do with community or religion,
but is more about Die Hard and Kevin McCallister, that Home Alone kid.
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| I carry the chunky DVD box in my collection to use on just one day, Christmas. |
Adopting
and celebrating festivals that are uncommon or unrelated to us should not be viewed
just as pandering, a degradation of morals, or blatant westernization. What it is, is a generation connecting with
itself on the other side of the Earth. And
that is how society grows. All that we
have today in the way of traditions and festivals, much like Halloween, are an effect
of intermingling of traditions.
Even
in India Hindu festivals often draw a lot from Mughal traditions, Persian
traditions and others who made this great soil their home. Christian traditions and festivals in India can
find very little in common with the western traditions and more with the Hindu and
Muslim customs back home. Same is true
for Muslim traditions in India.
It should
not be a matter of debate that what usually took hundreds and thousands of
years, in the age of digitalization merely take decades. Much like Moore’s law regarding microchips,
progress will only go faster as time goes on.
In effect,
it's okay. We shouldn’t be too worried
about it, especially since at the parties I was referring to above, the
Lincolns and Bushes had been easily replaced by the Manmohan Singhs and the
Modis and American pop culture characters with character from old Hindi horror
movies and shows. Remember Aahat?
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| Aaaaaaahaaatt... |
