01-Nov-2011, 07:04 AM
This is with regard to the ongoing discussion on secular festivals. A friend of mine recently shared this message: "Celebrating both light and darkness this week
Happy Diwali and Halloween to everyone!" Speaking of Halloween, I was wondering how what is essentially a parade of grotesquerie became such a popular, and increasingly global, festival and how come people find so much enjoyment in being scared out of their wits by terrifying costumes. The following video clip from a PBS documentary about a similar festival in Switzerland called Fasnacht offered quite a few insights.
Clip from "Carl Jung: The Wisdom of The Dream" (Watch for 10 or so minutes)
The contemporary relevance of the Jungian interpretations is the subject of an altogether different discussion. However, some points made in the clip are pertinent to the ongoing discussion on secular festivals.
(i) Rather than designing 'secular festivals' from the bottom up with a modern idiom, recycling primal pagan symbolism divested of any mysticism, like the Fasnacht revellers, maybe more practicable.
(ii) Revelry involves a suspension of decorum and a greater license for informality than usual and therefore the revelers must brace for some puritanical reproaches (like Valentine's Day protests in India)

Clip from "Carl Jung: The Wisdom of The Dream" (Watch for 10 or so minutes)
The contemporary relevance of the Jungian interpretations is the subject of an altogether different discussion. However, some points made in the clip are pertinent to the ongoing discussion on secular festivals.
(i) Rather than designing 'secular festivals' from the bottom up with a modern idiom, recycling primal pagan symbolism divested of any mysticism, like the Fasnacht revellers, maybe more practicable.
(ii) Revelry involves a suspension of decorum and a greater license for informality than usual and therefore the revelers must brace for some puritanical reproaches (like Valentine's Day protests in India)