Valentine’s Day is long gone and now it’s time to stress upon some ‘Haram Halloween’ time, a few extremist groups might chant.
Let’s talk a little about the advent of Halloween. We might not surely know the history behind the day that is celebrated, and perhaps it’s important to know what you’re celebrating.
To be precise, it is a day to honour and remember the dead, including saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed.
However, a little bit of dressing up never hurt anybody, did it?
On the night of 31st October, the eve of All Saints’ Day, children & adults dress up in frightening masks and costumes, and go out ‘trick or treating’. They hold parties, get togethers and have fun in spooky environments. It is the perfect time for horror fanatics to be themselves and watch scary movies with their best friends and listen to eerie music and dance!
Halloween is thought to be associated with the Celtic festival of ‘Samhain’, when ghosts and spirits were believed to be abroad.
However, most extremists and religious activists claim that Halloween is haram, infact, anything ‘western’ is haram and is ‘spoiling young minds’.
How exactly?
Taking a look at our recent cultural event which was banned after an alleged few deaths due to the dangerous strings being sold (Basant), the fun was taken out of Lahore, where once, Basant was the sprint festivity everyone awaited keenly.
Pakistanis love celebrating Halloween just like in any other part of the world, and why shouldn’t they? Religious activists come out every Valentine’s and Halloween’s, and claim that these traditions are taking ‘Pakistani’ people away from religion and culture.
Which culture? The culture that we’ve put a ban on? Where are the celebrations that once existed, the concerts and the gigs at Defence Club that we once used to attend with so much zest?
Sadly, even if we have to go to Literature festivals, there’s so many barriers and security issues, and none of it is being handled properly by the authorities. Many people walk away, knowing that there’s too many hurdles they’d have to go through just to get a glimpse of an event.
If you are to stay in your limits and if you know of your limits, a little bit of fun never hurt anybody. Why are all these Western occasions stressed upon so much, when so much more evil happens at the streets on a daily basis?
What about the time when Ramadan prices at stores soar sky high and people are robbed of their money to buy the basic necessities for Aftaar? The religious activists don’t seem to complain at that moment.
Being happy should never be considered wrong, and if it is, we have alot to worry about.
When you show misery on local news channels and sell hatred on digital media, that’s not considered wrong. However, a mere festival which brings happiness into our lives for one day is.
Taking a look at the situation in our country, from a pessimist’s point of view, there’s not alot to be happy about. Political instability, street crime on a daily basis, terrorism and threats to schools even, where is the happiness in all of this?
Banning sheesha was a step the government took, after an alleged MPA’s son died. Nobody questioned it, and therefore a popular ‘chilling out’ activity was taken from us, yet again. Well if you mix drugs into your sheesha, you are bound to have fatal consequences.
Going to extremes of everything is going to be harmful and damaging, so why not just stay balanced and claim a little happiness?
Foreigners come into our country and see a whole different Pakistan from what the media portrays it to be, and are surprised by the nightlife we have here.
Isn’t it human nature to love something, and try to adopt it? We want to look like our favourite celebrity, sing like our favourite musician, dance like our favourite choreographer and so on. Keeping uptodate with popular and current behaviours is all what happens in schools and universities here, and people wear and eat and see whatever they like. No one should be telling someone what to do, and how to think, or behave.
The music we listen to, the movies we watch; loving Hollywood or Bollywood or our own entertainment industry is not looked down upon, and it shouldn’t be. Entertainment is an integral part of our lives, otherwise we’d just be limited to brutality in the world, miserable news about people dying and countries being bombed, and the poor and needy starving to death. Empathy and the ability to feel another’s pain is what we have been doing on a daily basis in today’s world, and it is our right as human beings to incorporate some happy moments in our lives too.
In Ramadan, animal markets are overcrowded and the prices are soaring the skies. During spring season, lawn sales and exhibitions go crazy with their prices and women are still desperate to buy those clothes, not to mention the inevitable cat-fights and breaking doors we have seen on social media during such launches. All of that exhibition of wealth and robbing people for a religious ritual that is obligatory, isn’t wrong?
Honour killings and child marriages are okay? We have ALOT to look at, before criticising Halloween, which is now being celebrated in schools, universities, and home GT’s.
YOU DON’T WANT TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN? FINE. DON’T.
But let others live! We want to dress up as witches and vampires, and that’s okay. We want to have a little fun, and that’s okay. We want to forget our worries for a bit and just feel FINE. We want to get out of the misery shown on news channels and social media and feel normal. We also want our children to feel good, amongst all the threats and terrors they have to face every damn day.
NOBODY, and I repeat, NOBODY should be telling the rest of us how to live our lives based on their own idea of religion. Everyone has their own version of religion, and they want to enforce that upon people they know, and even people they don’t know! Don’t do it.
Here’s to more holiday celebrations and more happiness: be happy and celebrate life everyday, and not just on the special occasions!
