Musings on Halloween and Indian society

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Tonight is 31st October, 2020. As I opened one of my social media pages I was flooded by some unusual pictures. Well you must be wondering about the content of the photographs.

Photographs which are uncommon in this part of the world. Yes, pictures of young Indian kids, dressed as devil's, vampires and ghosts happily posing for the camera. It was a shocker of sorts for me as Halloween which is celebrated in the Western countries has invaded Indian homes. Shockingly, parents who are active in social  media (though they would find it difficult to write a proper sentence in English) have dressed up their kids just for some added advantage in the form of likes and comments in their several social page handles. They just want to be active on social media by hook or by crook and these innocent children are being made scapegoats of their parents desires. These Indian parents would shamelessly and blindly follow anything celebrated in the west. Even though we consider ourselves Independent, are our minds free in reality?

As far as Halloween is concerned, it is a night when the dead are remembered and prayers offered by the Christians. In our Indian culture, we have specific days to remember the dead and offer our prayers to the departed. How many kids know about Pitripaksha? How many would know about the customs and rituals associated with it? I guess none, even the parents decide not to participate in such rituals as they are time pressed. Who would like to pose in such a boring attire? Yes, dhoti is still out of fashion, so once the westerners adopt dhotis will it be in trend once again.

Just for the sake of aping the western culture, are we not forgetting our own culture? Are we not invading the children's mind with trash and junk? Let me clarify that I am not against Western culture, but certain useless customs without much value and it's inclusion raises a big question mark. Don't ape another's culture and tradition to be in limelight, do something great for the society, for the world, for humanity. 


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