I awoke this morning to the news that after ten years of unexpected popularity, Halloween is now disappearing in France. According to Le Monde, some supermarkets exhibited a handful of carved pumpkins to the general indifference of their customers, but none indulged in the lavish orange and black displays of Halloween paraphernalia of yesteryear. A friend of mine informs me that the association “No to Halloween” has wound down its activities this year, perceiving that Halloween was dying its own natural death in a country that likes to reject on principle all things American. It made me giggle – only my fellow countrymen would bother to set up an association, with all the hassle and paperwork it involves, to combat a harmless holiday, a celebration, an American one granted, but basically an excuse for a fancy-dress party.
How misguided of me! After a little amused/incredulous research (today is a bank holiday for my project so I am indulging in a slow morning), I discovered that far from being the harmless holiday I thought it to be, Halloween is an ideological menace to everything France stands for. Under the pretence of innocent fun and frolics, and cunningly targeting our vulnerable and innocent youth, it deviously infiltrated French society, promoting American hegemony, cultural uniformity, a McWorld society, the triumph of money over spirituality, and all things similarly un-French.
Okay, so maybe that is taking it one step too far...
Halloween may have some spiritual significance in Ireland or the USA, but in France it is an artificial construct, contrived for purely commercial reasons. Surprise, surprise. Halloween was first promoted in France by the costume company Cesar – a real coup, its turnover rising from less than 90,000 euros in 1996 to 4.5 million euros in 1998 and 9 million euros in 1999. Then France Telecom – the traitors! – marketed a mobile phone called Olaween and placed several thousand pumpkins around Paris.
Worse yet than being a money-making enterprise, Halloween tried to substitute for our own celebration of the dead, All Saints Day. Ignorant French children confused this pagan holiday of derision and morbidity, bordering on Satanism, with our own pious day of Christian commemoration and communion with the enlightened souls of the departed. Such a crime did not go unrecorded, however, and for the last few years, French journalists, sociologists and politicians alike have been theorising on the whys and wherefores of the inexplicable success of Halloween.Phew, therefore, that it is apparently dying the death it deserves. Now on to Saint Valentine’s Day.
“Halloween n'est pas une étape d'un parcours ascensionnelle. Mais elle nous introduit dans un monde sinistre. Elle n'a aucune légitimité religieuse, ni communautaire. Sa signification ne dépasse pas les intérêts commerciaux qui y sont liés et le seul calendrier où elle trouve sa place est celui de la société de consommation. A cela s'ajoute le plaisir morbide qu'éprouvent certaines personnes à célébrer la mort - et par-delà toute destruction-, le crime, le laid et le monstrueux. Sur ce sujet, il y a lieu de s'interroger avec inquiétude sur les ressorts psychologiques d'un tel engouement. Quant aux impulsions spirituelles qui peuvent animer cette célébration, nous pouvons facilement constater qu'il n'y a dans Halloween aucune élévation, aucune libération, aucune espérance, aucune lumière. Dès lors, il est évident qu'elle véhicule, et amplifie par les énergies réunies de tous les participants, des influences qui abaissent, avilissent, et enferment l'être humain dans un monde ténébreux.”
-- Christophe Levalois
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