Culture vultures out for a killing
When Britain's ancient Druids first lit bonfires to placate the Lord of Death, they could never have conceived of the cultural pandora's box they were unwittingly opening.
The festival was later incorporated into the Christian All Hallow's Eve or Halloween and down through the ages all manner of methods were made to ward off beelzebub: people dressed up as ghouls, rode broomsticks and hollowed out turnips to frighten away evil spirits.
In Ireland a boy named Jack was said to have wandered the world carrying a lantern after playing a prank on the devil. Irish immigrants later took the myth to the New World and hollowed out pumpkins for torch light and so the Jack-o-Lantern was born. The ancient Druidic nocturnal custom came to spawn a worldwide industry that eventually returned to haunt the Old World and these days Halloween is big business.
From Hollywood "Scream" masks to children plaguing the neighborhood shouting treat or treat, pax Americana has rampantly expropriated this most ancient of northern European customs in the relentless pursuit of profit.
In Poland, the Halloween bandwagon tends to grate more than elsewhere for the simple reason that it's never been a popular festival. Poles are far more thoughtful and sensitive around this time of year, with the celebration of All Saint's Day on Nov. 1. It's a time when families visit the graves of their ancestors bearing flowers and candles. Such reflection does not sit well with pumpkin wielding ghoulies up for a party.
Since 1989, Poles have grudgingly accepted many of these Western imports at the expense of opening up to the wider world. They've seen Valentine's day replace their own St John's Day (better know as Love Day), when lovers threw posies of flowers and lighted candles into rivers around the country. More offensive still for most Poles is the commercialization of Christmas and Easter with Santa and the Easter Bunny often upstaging Jesus as the focus of the festival especially with children.
Most realists in the country always knew that embracing the West would come at a price. Foreign investors arrive in all shapes and sizes, from international vehicle manufacturers to the makers of chocolate Easter eggs. Gaps in the market are inevitably filled by rapacious Western companies out to make a dollar. But economic change brings cultural change and most Poles agree that with more money and new ideas come the eroding of traditional values. Poland's sacred All Saint's Day will always be an important day for Poles, but Halloween parties will also become an inevitable cultural fixture in the future. Such is the price of progress in the 21st century.
