The stupid Halloween post
It's only the 22nd, so all the newspapers and idiot politicians have their annual Halloween whining still in the magazine. But before making a stupid post lamenting the loss of traditional values due to the modern evil of the moment, a ritual is necessary.
In fact, Marilyn Manson's name must be repeated seven times:
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson.
This is necessary, first of all because of an established tradition: when Puritans make a stupid speech about how traditional values are threatened by something modern, Marilyn Manson's name must appear at least seven times, otherwise Marilyn Manson will sue you .
When someone from Moige speaks, you can repeat Marylin Manson's name more than seven times.
I advise you to do it at home too: for example, if a TG1 report on the evil Halloween party starts, repeat Marilyn Manson's name out loud seven times. If you happen to hear that comment elsewhere, do the same thing: Marilyn Manson seven times.
This usually exorcises the Puritans and pulverizes the Moige zombies.
Having said that, several things need to be clarified. The first is that the festival does NOT derive from any Samain, a Celtic festival "from thousands of years ago", for a very simple reason. To always celebrate something on the same day you need a rather sophisticated solar calendar, which the ancient Celts NEVER had. Second, the Celts never wrote much, so they were only described by other peoples, who never reported anything like this in ancient times. Very little is known about the explicitly Irish ones.
Before you talk about Stonehenge as an “astronomical observatory”: the vast majority of the stones were moved to their current location between 700 and 800, so they were NOT an astronomical observatory. Furthermore, the land in the area does not offer a stable stone base, and since any land made of dirt shifts over time, there is exactly zero chance that it could have been used as an astronomical observatory. It would not have the necessary precision. Fractions of grade were built by ancient peoples, it's true, but underneath there were meters and meters of healthy, immutable stone. Not like Stonehenge.
The Samain festival itself, at least under this name, is no more than 300 years old. There are no truly accredited previous testimonies. The other typical holidays of neo-pagan religions such as Wicca never existed in the Celtic world, not even the Irish one. Also because "the Celtic world" represents so many different peoples that saying "in the Celtic world" is like saying "among very hairy men". Furthermore, the Celts also existed in Italy, up to Tuscany, they were described very well, including habits and customs, by the Romans, and there is no trace of such celebrations.
The origins of Halloween, sorry, do NOT lie in Celtic tradition. Point.
Halloween (Helloween for metalheads) HAS ancient origins, but they are less Celtic than you think.
Some complain that Halloween is an orgy of consumerism. So is football, unless you consider it normal for a footballer to own 12 Rolls Royces like Ronaldo does.
And if I can say one thing, since you have it in for consumerism (at least, that's what you write with your iPhone), let salaries in Italy fall further, and PRAY to have consumerism back.
You can't curse consumerism and then complain that you can't make ends meet. You cannot curse consumerism and complain that Italy has the lowest salaries in Europe.
It's a bit like when you contemptuously say "petty bourgeois" and then complain about the disappearance of the middle class. They're the same word, assholes. Likewise, “consumerism” and “high salaries” indicate, materially, the same phenomenon.
If you don't get there it's cognitive dissonance. But I repeat, you will soon change your mind about consumerism, more or less when you struggle to make it to the middle of the month.
And then you will pray to have it back.
Is Halloween a consumerist holiday? Yes. And it's good and beautiful.
Let's go to the origins of Halloween.
There are several theories about its origins. The one that I consider most plausible due to the historical traces is the following.
I hope you know what the Harlequin was, or has been, or rather, the “Hellequin Masnada”. Hellequin was the transposition into French of an entity from Germanic folklore, Erlekönig or Hell'sking in Denmark. The king of hell. So we are already in the Christian period. Middle Ages.
The gang of Hellequin, or the mesnie Hellequin is reported already at the time of the chanson de geste, as Familia Herlechinus by Pierre de Blois ( Epistle the spirit of the inhabitants, and has a desecrating and subversive intent. While the country is possessed, no one goes to work, people mate haphazardly, drink and eat their fill (even using up the annual reserves), put a donkey on a throne and call it King, dress up a sow and call it Queen, while the boar is often given religious clothing. Nobles become servants and are stripped naked and mocked, servants become nobles and are honored. The complete subversion of customs, institutions, religion , in a derisive way.
The ceremony begins when everyone goes to kiss the ass of the donkey, that is, the King.
This is not a revolution or a revolt, but an anarchic event that is limited in time, an end in itself, for the purpose of mocking and enjoying it, an act of vandalism against power, it is not for nothing that Harlequin comes andche defined as “Le Chasseur Maudit”, (the cursed vandal) in several texts that study the phenomenon: the Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse d'Amélie Bosquet, 1845).
In practice the ground opens up, the demons come out, enter the town after sunset and the revelry begins.
Here is a little letter that illustrates the arrival of "Hellequin, le chasseur maudit", in a Gothic key (the horse skeleton takes a lot from the totentanz, the dance of the dead, of the Gothic period).
Because it is important? Because with the arrival of the Lombards in Italy, the Italian tradition acquires him, as happens in Bergamo with Arlecchino, or Arlecchi', condensing him into a unique character, who however carries with him a wealth of traditions, that of desecration in derisive.
This element is absorbed by Carnival, and from that moment what should be a Christian celebration (the carnival, in fact) takes on a desecrating tone of power, morality, politicians, and becomes a moment of unbridled revelry.
This custom, which comes from Normandy, spreads quickly in the Anglo-Saxon world, which however does NOT have a carnival, or at least not a carnival to be grafted onto and has a certain number of internal religious feuds, so it does not look favorably on these anarchic things .
They then carry out the usual operation of syncretism (in which the church was the master) and the event is given a beautiful dark day, dedicated to the dead, of the Julian calendar, at the end of the eighth month of the calendar which was called "of Romulus" ( i.e. October: the year began at the end of February). Later it was also acquired in the Gregorian calendar, only that then September, which previously had 29 days, takes 30, leaving one in October, and therefore in reality the 31st has moved by a day and was originally November 1st .
The assonance between “Hellequin” and “Halloween” remains.
No, I don't buy the story of “ Hallows' Eve” because at that time English did NOT have either of the two words, not even mispronouncing “All of the saints” as “Hallows”. Sorry, Christian historians, but you're taking a piss too far.
Why do I consider this theory more credible?
- At the time, English was just a kind of deformed German/Norman. There were no such things as "eve", most of the words that Catholic historians invent to appropriate Halloween did not exist.
- There is a strong similarity with the belief attributed to Samain, that is, the earth opens up, demons and ghosts come out, and occupy a country, putting it in turmoil. The difference is that no historian tells of this belief in the ancient Celtic world, while there are historians and testimonies of the harlequin gang. That is, sources. I like the sources.
- There are clear similarities between what ErleKönig does and what Institoris, an author of the Malleus Maleficarum, says about the witches' sabbah. Even on the Sabbath the devil arrives, that is, the King of hell, and the first thing the witches do is revere him and kiss his ass. Exactly like what happens to the donkey that takes the place of the King (or the local noble) during the arrival of the Harlequin gang.
- The figure of the harlequin carries with it, wherever it arrives (including Bergamo), something has NEVER been part of the Catholic carnival, that is, a satirical, anarchic and denigratory intent, which remains in the various carnivals even after important historical developments, as happens on Mardi gras in Louisiana.
For this reason, if only for an economic reason, I think this theory makes more sense:
Helloween and the "satirical" carnival have a VISIBLE common root born in Normandy. Which is a place that we could define as "Celtic", but the first evidence of these beliefs arrives in the Middle Ages, when the chronicler speaks in Latin and that place is officially "Catholic".
The common root seems obvious to me, with all its incarnations, such as the Bergamo Harlequin.
But the Irish Celts have almost nothing to do with it. If anything, Brittany has something to do with it. Which in that period was not entirely "French", etc., etc.
But if it's a carnival, even if more gothic, what need does Italy have for such an event? And what need does the Latin world have of it? Isn't there already a carnival?
The point is that, at least in Italy, the carnival has been domesticated by the civil and religious power. There are no more obscenities because someone has decided that the carnival is a party for children and families, political satire has now disappeared because the parades of floats are expensive and require sponsors, and as for the mockery of morality and of the Catholic hierarchies, open heaven.
Carnival has no longer been an open-air rebellion for years.
So, it comes back in a different form.
- First of all, Halloween is not a "family event", a Christian Democrat/VespaBaudo term to indicate those people who live to await death. In general “for families” in Italy indicates a decomposing mummy. Maybe one day Halloween will also be “family friendly”, but so far it still manages to piss off the puritans. Carnival doesn't even piss off Moige anymore.
- It is a precious opportunity for sexual liberation. The "bitchy costume" of Halloween doesn't need artistic alibis like the Brazilian dancer, it doesn't need cheerleader hypocrisies like in a float parade in Viareggio, it has a mask and therefore does what it wants.
- It contains elements of Satanist/magical iconography, enough to irritate the priest: it therefore has a function of derision of the Catholic hierarchies, which underlines their irrelevance in civil society.
In this sense, Halloween has a vital carnival function, and since the carnival has become an event "for families", that is, for mummies in chronic decomposition (in the traditional vision, marriage is in fact the "end of life" of spouses).
Perhaps the only similar thing is Gay Pride, although the desire for normalization will liquidate this component in a few years. By 2050 I predict that Gay Pride will become a “family” thing, if not a religious procession. Moreover, already the most flamboyant people of the event, the trans people, are starting to desert it due to the violence of the terf lesbians, the bisexuals left years ago, so the flamboyant part will soon disappear in the normalization.
The point is that in any civilized culture there exists something like the harlequin gang , the moment in which society must free itself from inhibitions and prohibitions, from the false narrative of virtues, from the opportunism of morality, and must give rise to a similar event, where the rules no longer apply.
There are also societies that do not have these events, of course: none are, in fact, truly civilized. History begins when you start writing things to pass them down, civilization begins when you start criticizing written things, so as not to pass on bullshit.
Consequently, I think that Halloween is just one of the eternal returns of the Harlequin Masnada, and all attempts to prevent its return are doomed to failure.
The Harlequin Gang is immortal, the priest is not.
You transformed Carnival into a "family" event, and the result was that the Masnada was back in the form of Gay Pride. You are normalizing and regulating the GLBT world, and now the Masnada is back like Halloween.
And don't fool yourself, when Halloween will also be a family event, the Masnada will return in another form.