02 November 2014

A haunting experience

[Okay folks, you've read the truncated version in this Sunday's Times of India, Patna Edition. Now here's the full version with the original title...]
 
The last day of October was the day that Patna reluctantly limped back to work after the days of Chhat Puja that followed the Diwali festival. Last  Friday night, a few unsuspecting folk who meandered down New Patliputra Colony  almost jumped out of their skins when they encountered a two flesh eating zombies, a vampire, two witches and assorted monsters  hanging around  outside a couple of houses. An elderly man walking his dog was so fascinated at the sight that he  stood transfixed and took in the scene for a full five minutes before walking on. Halloween has finally come to town!

A couple of years ago, a voluntary organization hosted a small Halloween themed fund raiser in aid of kids from dysfunctional families. This year, a few spots around Patna, mainly private homes, did thrown a Halloween party or two. Scary costumes, food and games, candy and fun is the local version of the festival. ‘Trick-or-treating’ of course is not possible.  Yet. “Trick or treating is when you go up to houses, ring the bell, and ask for candy,” explained Mithun, one of the vampires haunting the street, “obviously we can’t do that in Patna, many Bihari bhais don’t have a sense of humour, so you will see the sight of a poor vampire being chased down the streets by a frenzied mob of irate flat-owners.




“Haunting the street for a few minutes was fun, though. The stunned, curious, surprised, and even scared looks on the faces of passers-by were priceless,” said a lady bank officer in a party mask. “It was my very first Halloween party, and I enjoyed it!”

Apart from Halloween being the second most commercial  holiday in the US raking in some $ 2 billion during Halloween, so it’s likely that we’ll see more of this thing happening once the commercial establishments catch on. Sweet and chocolate are consumed in large amounts, so confectioners and dentists will be very happy, quipped a reveller.

But how do you manage to have a Halloween party in Patna? “Internet shopping comes to your rescue, and there’s enough of things locally available if you keep a sharp lookout, “says a local party organizer. “Local confectioners are quite capable of baking innovative Halloween cakes if you show them a sample picture. Only this time the chat celebration meant that all the bakeries were closed for almost four days, so we had to forgo a sinfully rich chocolate cake. Otherwise, pranks and gags, scary masks, and simple dressing up aids can be bought over ebay or amazon.”

Collect interesting stuff wherever you get it: gothic tattoos with skulls and dragons, pirate badges that come at 10 rupees each, those very realistic collections of plastic creepy crawlies… they all serve to make your party memorable, and you an source them from any small store. My own favourite is a tiny place in Kurji called ‘Prabhat Tara’, the shopkeeper there has oodles of stuff that kids love: strange flavoured candies and other cool stuff that can go well with your scary night.

Some history: “Hallowmas” was a three-day Catholic festival where saints were honoured and people pray for the recently deceased. In the  11th century, the Pope decreed  that it would last from Oct. 31 (All Hallow's Eve) until Nov. 2 (All souls Day), most likely because in that era the Pope wanted to counter the influence of the ‘Samhain  festival’ which was celebrated around that time. According to folklorist John Santino, the exact nature of Samhain is not fully understood, but it was an annual community event at the end of the harvest, a time to gather resources for the winter months and bring animals back from the pastures. Samhain is also thought to have been a time of communing with the dead.

"There was a belief that it was a day when spirits of the dead would cross over into the other world," Santino says.  Halloween provides a safe way to play with the concept of death. People dress up as the living dead, and so on.  "All Hallow's Eve" then evolved into "All Hallow's Even," and by the 18th century it was commonly referred to as "Hallowe'en."


Author: Frank Krishner

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Quite an insightful article about Halloween and that too in our own Patna!

Rivisor said...

Your Halloween story explained why a distraught Frank called me asking if I could exorcise 'something' that possessed him!!!!