Halloween: Is it a Time of Hiding or Revealing

Halloween has had a  Long History of wearing masks, but under and behind the wearing of masks and costumes there is something more to explore. Something that has longed to be expressed and experienced; For so many, it is the only occasion where they have been fully authentic in their expression of themselves; While for still others, it is treated as a Sacred Holiday.

Halloween as a holiday takes on many guises. There are those who feel it’s all about scary monsters and spirits [not all spirits are bad]. Others observe it as marking the change in seasons from summer to fall. A time of shorter days, when the veil between the mortal world and the worlds of spirits and the dead is at its thinnest.

This thinner veil allows spirits and the dead to pass between worlds, existence between the two becomes one.  The Pagans thought we were closer than ever to our ancestors. This for some can become a serious season of introspection and thought, where rituals are performed in the guise of games, the results given as a nod towards the player’s future.  Apples were associated with the otherworld and immortality and were involved in a few of the traditions such as apple bobbing. Trick or treat also has its origins in the old ways of Samhain [which is one of the names Halloween was known by in Celtic culture]. People used to go from house to house dressed up as the mischievous spirits that emerged through the thin veil between the worlds asking for food for the spirits. They lit their way with a carved turnip [we use pumpkins now] hollowed out and used as a lantern. It also signaled that we were on the cusp of winter.

In times past it was understood that Masks represented supernatural beings, ancestors, and fanciful or imagined figures. This adapting a piece of paper, clay, metal, or even make-up and/or feather these items to form the mask for such incarnations. It is not so much the materials of the mask but the context of wearing that mask is where the full meaning of the wearer is associated with the imagery, and cultural elements. 

Are Masks to hide or to be seen? That is the question.  In Gay and Queer gender communities, Halloween may have been the only time you could show your sexual and gender curiosity or truth in this country or the world. Even if it was for one night only.  It gave people the opportunity to experience, more fully their feminine or masculine sides and for some a clue into androgyny. 

Of course, there was that one decade in the U. S of A’s history when there was that anomaly: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was released in 1975. Soon after there was a cult following of the movie where we saw not only gay but straight men and everyone in between wearing high heels corsets and lipstick. Mouthing the songs from the movie's character Frank N Furter: “I’m just a sweet Transvestite from Transylvania". This was a time when the veil came down and individuals celebrated, Not only on Halloween but in movie theaters every Friday night at midnight throughout the country.

Photo Credit: Robin Adams, General Manager, UA Cinema, Merced California, 1978., CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Halloween is a night when we can embrace our inner beauty as well as creatures, trying on identities that might feel off-limits the rest of the year.  Where people take to the streets as whatever they want to be. That freedom has long been alluring for people of all ages, who use Halloween as a safe space to explore and play in the messiness of identity — so it’s no wonder it has developed a reputation as a most important holiday.

Halloween has historically in the United States at least,  provided a space where gender diversity isn’t just allowed but celebrated. It is one night ony when cities in every region of the country relax their laws prohibiting cross-dressing, Halloween has always been a rare moment of freedom for all people no matter gender, to peek behind the curtain.

I ask you, Is Halloween a time of putting on a Mask or is it really a time when one lets down their Mask to explore other areas of who they are?

Stay Curious

Calvin