Happy Halloween in India

Sussanne Khan celebrating Halloween with her kids
Photo Credit: India Today

As I browse through my Facebook feed I find my friends in Bangalore and Mumbai dressed up in their scary best in bunches and ripe in celebration of Halloween.  It did bring a pull at the corner of my lips regarding the absurdity of such a thing, the celebration of Halloween in India, though, I will admit that a good push behind that pull might have been jealousy, the fact that I couldn’t do what they were doing.

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. 

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?

  

Aaaaaaahaaatt...