French saints see off Halloween

Christianity is fading in France and churches are closing for want of parishioners and priests, so today's festival of All Saints is something of a paradox. The holiday, in which families visit cemeteries and lay chrysanthemums on graves, is enjoying a comeback. Florists this year are reporting high sales, churches are being attended and traffic is heavy around cemeteries in towns and villages.

Curiously, the revival of the traditional Toussaint, is being attributed to ... anti-Americanism.

The explanation is that the French return to cemeteries is a reaction to the commercial excess of Halloween. The festival of pumpkins and witches may have been Celtic in its origins, but it was the American version that was imported to France in the mid 1990s. By 2000, supermarkets,  cafés and boulangeries were decked out in black and orange and children were encouraged to buy the paraphernalia of tricking or treating. Patriots and purists decried the phenomenon as alien, commercial and American and an anti-Halloween society was founded.

Then the tide turned and the invasion of Iraq spurred a rejection of the United States. This year, Halloween passed almost unnoticed. A few plastic pumpkins and broomsticks are languishing in the supermarkets near my house in the southern Cevennes hills, where we have spent this week on holiday.

The "No to Halloween" association, led by Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin, has disbanded. "Halloween was just a fashion," Guyot-Jeannin told Le Parisien. "There are a few remnants in some supermarkets and provincial restaurants but today the festival is passénd very provincial."

Benoît Pousset, head of the César costume company, attributed the festival's demise to "a cultural reaction linked to the rise of anti-Americanism".

Pousset is not heart-broken. His company is the biggest fancy dress supplier in the world. Its thriving American division, Disguise, supplies one third of all US Halloween outfits.

The fading of Halloween à la française is also being attributed to an aggressive fight-back by the Catholic church. Bishops depicted the witches' night as macabre and pagan and they encouraged their priests to put the energy back into All Saints services. Many churches are illuminated and special masses are being celebrated. To end with an ecclesiastical note, the church's Journée de défunts is of course November 2, but November 1 is the French public holiday attached to the festival that was... imported from Italy in 835 AD to replace pagan celebrations.

Comments

[Andy McDowall]

I think that you may well be right - at any rate, yesterday eveing I was only disturbed once by a bunch of small children being shepherded by a very polite and somewhat apologetic mother. So, about a 600% decrease on last year, although I am not sure to whom or to what this decrease should be attributed.

[Maggie G]

Mr Bremner, I don't think it is correct to say that 'it was the American version of Halloween that was imported into France' or that the 'commercial excesses of Halloween' are American.

I speak as a Canadian, but I think that Halloween is about the same in Canada and the United States, where it is basically a family / neighbourhood thing. The commercial excesses of Halloween in France, in my opinion, were entirely French. It was a (French) businessman who decided to introduce Halloween into France, and it became far more commercialized here than I ever saw at home.

They took OUR celebration and changed it almost beyond recognition, and then started complaining about the 'nasty American influence'.

One difference is that they already wear costumes for carnaval here, so for Halloween to be different they overly emphasized the macabre aspect of it. In North America, besides the witches and goblins you get clowns, princesses, pirates, rabbits, gypsies, astronauts, frogs -- you name it. Most kids make their costumes themselves and try to come up with something really original. My son's best friend once found an abandoned street lamp and made himself into a gigantic eyeball.

Then Halloween falls during the holidays here, when parents are looking for ways to distract their kids, so it became the Halloween 'season', much like the 'carnaval season', with events strung out over two weeks.

At home, Halloween lasts about three hours. The kids get home from school, carve the pumpkin and prepare their costumes, and head out about six in the evening, maybe 5:30 for the really small ones. By 9 o'clock, it's all over.

Halloween in North America is magical. You see flocks of weird creatures flickering through dark streets, where almost every house has a Jack-o-lantern burning in the window or on the step. A lot of the houses have some kind of pumpkin-head scarecrow sitting in a rocking-chair by the door, and often the householders who wait for the children are disguised as well. People who don't want to give out candy don't put up a pumpkin, or they draw the curtains, and generally they don't get bothered.

I remember when I was in grade five our family (five kids) had a great time making a tape recording of eerie noises. (One was a squeaky kitchen drawer.) My father dressed up as a ghost, and when kids knocked on the door he would silently motion them to come into the darkened hall, with the eerie music playing in the background. Our house was a hit all over town!

In France, you had the children suddenly decide to adopt Halloween without having the other half of the equation -- the householders waiting for their visit. Then in France, the walled houses with locked gates are not exactly conducive to trick-or-treating.

In North America you know Halloween is coming because there is a lot of candy out in the supermarkets, and some masks, but I never saw stores selling 'orange bras for Halloween' like I saw here a few years ago. They really went overboard here for awhile -- no wonder people reacted negatively.

Yesterday on Europe1 they announced that Halloween was finished, and invited listeners to phone in with their views about this. Every person who called was in favour of Halloween and defended it vigorously, but they were all parents of young children, so perhaps if young families arrange among themselves to leave one parent at home to receive visits, a more sane version of Halloween will continue in France. It's a pretty special feeling for kids, to be out in the night dressed up in a costume and seeing all those other strange creatures flitting about.

But they really don't need it here. THEIR holiday is the Toussaint, and that's what they should be celebrating. I'm glad to see that it is making a comeback in reaction to Halloween. My father-in-law was a horticulturalist and made his earnings for the entire year in one week of selling chysanthemums in front of the cemetary in Nice.

The first year I was married I helped with the sale. I remember they were selling pots for 25, 30 and 35 francs. This lady came by inspecting all the plants, looking for something special. Just as she was moving on to the next stall (run by another family), my husband suddenly called out, "Madame, I'll sell you this one for 45 francs!" The lady came back and bought it. As she was moving away my husband turned to me and said, "You see, she was just looking for something expensive."

[Germain]

Oui, mes boulangeries préférées étaient cette fois épargnées par l'affreuse décoration d'Halloween.
L'explication est simplement qu'il est plus facile de nos jours de créer une mode passagère que d'implanter durablement une nouvelle coutume. L'anti-américanisme est certes un trait essentiel de la culture française. Mais la vague Halloween dans les années 90 coïncidait avec le réveil de l'anti-américanisme, qui n'a pas attendu Bush et la guerre d'Irak, mais était une sorte de réaction - sous Clinton - à la chute du communisme.
Ainsi donc, dans la France laique, la Toussaint a terrassé Halloween. Dire qu'au plus haut de la vague, certains parlaient de "vacances d'Halloween" au lieu de "Vacances de la Toussaint"...

[Tara]

I've noticed here in America the rise of people who speak out against Halloween. When I was growing up, it was a harmless day of fun. Now...I hear it's a day to celebrate the devil, and how in the world could I consider passing out candy to celebrate Lucifer? Good grief.

More power to the French. If we Americans sit around and think of silly things like "freedom fries", then by all means, go for the anti-Halloween feeling!

[colin grayson]

what nonsense ! in most of europe halloween was just a passing fashion , a couple of years and it was regarded as old hat ! have just visited the uk and notice the same syndrome , and the catholic church there is more concerned about overcoming the paedophilia scandals than halloween ; 20years and it will come around again no doubt
and charles , does it not seem incongruous to note ,in the same blog ,the rapid decline in the influence of the church together with the idea that it can sway people to give up halloween ?

I can only speak of where I have a home [ not far from the cevennes ] ; here toussaint is as it was in the 80's , the only thing different being the amount of money available to spend on such things as flowers !

[Sarah Hague]

I agree with Colin Grayson that Halloween here was a passing fashion. People can attribute this to whatever they like, but fashions come and go for a variety of reasons, and I think people have just got bored. They have no links with Halloween here, but it was a laugh to dress up and have a costume-party. Without some solid basis, however, it was unlikely ever to keep up the pace.

Kids here came and requested sweets for the sheer fun of being out at night in the dark and daring to knock on their neighbours' doors. The shops had hardly any decorations this year -less than last year, and it just seems to have fizzled out.

Perhaps where people could not be bothered to do Halloween, they decided, instead, to follow Toussaint traditions which have a much firmer basis in French culture.

[tkel]

Speaking about anti-americanism because we french are not following this celebration, is it a typical english introduction to maintain french cliché ?
I'don't care if it's american or not, in france shop fast-food etc etc... tried to establish this celebration but without historical roots, only for money and creating an event, targeting the child. Sorry, but american people and their tradition are not aimed by our reaction.
I know, it's difficult to read this...

[Anne Armitage]

Wholeheartedly agree with my Canadian neighbor(our)! In the US Hallowe'en is primarily for little children--in fact, anyone over the age of twelve or thirteen is pushing the "little kids' only" aspect. Many parents go out of their way to make sure the costumes are utterly magical, and totally shun the scary stuff. I made my daughter's costumes for years, and they will live in my memory box forever--a Red Riding Hood, a Piglet, a bunny, a gypsy, a luscious cat with an orange boa tail, a squeaky-voiced pirate. For years that went by far too quickly, I lived with all the wriggly giggles of excitement, the carving of pumpkins and the roasting of the seeds for a once-a-year treat, watched my neighbor(our)hood glow with candle lights in carved pumpkin faces. The sound of children walking up my hill, the oohing and aahing of appreciative neighbors, the laughing calls back and forth--magic: the true magic of childhood. This year my oh-so-sophisticated teenager was utterly scornful of the idea that I should still decorate the house and carve my five or six pumpkins, until she became a host sister to an exchange student from France. Three nights ago, twenty five French students and their American host students "did" Halloween, for one last time capturing an event of their childhoods and giving it to their visitors, who were enchanted: we had a Peter Pan and a Fee Clochette, a French "American hot dog" (!), and assorted critters from about 5'2" to about 6'4". We were blessed with a classic warm autumn night--a rarity as we head into a New England winter--a beautiful moon, still-colorful leaves visible under street lights, and the glow of flashlights swinging up and down front porches. At about nine-thirty, forty tired kids crammed into my house, conducting in two languages another post-trick-or-treat ritual: swapping candy, peeling off costumes, and laughing at it all. My patient neighbors suspended the normal suspicion of tall trick-or-treaters, and one even polished up the rusty French of his Canadian childhood. It was wonderful.

And as for Toussaint? Ah well! In my Roman Catholic childhood, we used to fast before a feast, so before the costumes and the candy, we had fish chowder: the first of many winter batches. The next day, we went to Mass for All Saints' Day, and on November 2, paid a visit to church for All Souls Day. And the lessons carried for a lifetime? The innocence of childhood, and the hope of the Resurrection. What churchman could possibly quarrel with that? I love Hallowe'en--and I live one town over a bridge from the Salem of the infamous witch trials and the tourists who arrive by the busload for a commercial Hallowe'en. But here, barely two miles away as the crow flies, it is all high-pitched giggles, and shy little voices saying "Trick or treat, please" before flitting away to the next house, where another householder eagerly awaits sparkly costumes, shy eyes, tiny hands, and little feet scampering off to the safety of the Mum or Dad patiently escorting them 'til they finally head off to bed: peeling off costumes, wiping whiskers off cheeks, and heading to bed clutching bags of goodies they swear they will make last 'til Christmas...

[Sandrine]

I think that here in Washington, Halloween is obviously a very important holiday. My daughter really enjoyed it, she went back home with so many candies, she was able to wear for the first time her costume of Cinderella (she was sooooo cute with it), she was so happy to speak with others in English (I was proud of her). And people in my neighborhood took this holiday very seriously. It was a heck of an evening !!

And as someone said, it only lasted two or three hours and then it was over. But I'm sure my daughter will never forget her first real Halloween.

[robert furlong]

i can only imagine what the french did to screw up such a wonderous holiday as North American Halloweeen. i didn't experience the french version firsthand. when i went to visit my four-year old grandson in illinois, a full month before Halloween this year, he was already wearing his costume of a "teenage mutant ninja turtle" -- 80s-90s vintage stuff. his parents and their gen-x friends loved seeing again one of their beloved saturday morning cartoon characters. his pre-school friends had not the slightest idea who he was supposed to be which made it all the funnier. for his second year, he was totally blown away with the notion that one could dress up in a costume and mask and actually receive candy from total strangers in the dark. there's something about the americans and french: often they don't seem to "get" each other very well. the jerry lewis syndrome??????

[Nasty N8]

I would just like to say that something as simple as whether Halloween should/shouldn't be celebrated in France, or if it was because of some deed the United States has done, can be solved with one thing. Love for all mankind. So what if some holiday doesn't get celebrated all over the world. Let's just be happy we are alive and love ourselves and each other???