It’s Time To Celebrate Ghosts !!! Yes… you read it right!
Have you ever worshipped a ghost ?? Most of you will say no. Afterall, Ghosts are scary, terrifying, bloodthirsty creatures, aren’t they?? Why should anyone revere them or worship them ?? Is that what you also thought ? Well, that’s where comes the festival of Halloween !!
Halloween etymologically means the all Hallow’s day (Hallow pertaining to ‘holy’) or All Saints’ day. This day was dedicated to remembering and revering the martyrs of Christ during ancient times by the Church.
However, another fascinating origin of the ghosts associated with Halloween comes from its Pagan roots. In ancient times, the Celtic People who lived across europe used to celebrate the festival of Samhain which fell at the end of Summer and beginning of the winter. Celts considered this time as having a thin boundary between this world and the other world which enabled them to connect with the dead. This is from where comes the genesis of “hauntedness” in the celebrations of the festival of ghosts — Halloween. In those times, Halloween was celebrated as a day of remembering the dead spirits.
Across the Europe and American continents & especially in the USA, Halloween is celebrated with all ‘horror’ themes — with the classic lanterns made of gutted pumpkins with scary faces carved, skeletons and ghosts hung in houses and pranks played on each other. The young children wander on streets mimicking Celtic Gods’ behaviour of ‘trick or treat’ and collect chocolates and sweets or money.
But celebrating or worshipping ghosts isn’t just limited to Americans. Across the globe different cultures revere ghosts and goblins. In India, during Diwali, ghosts are worshipped in the eastern parts. The day of Naraka Chaturdashi is also called ‘Bhoot Chaturdashi’ (bhoot meaning ghost in Sanskrit and most Indian languages) in Bengal-Odisha-Assam. Sometimes they put images of ghosts around the villages for worship. The night of Bhoot Chaturdashi is said to be the darkest night of the year and hence to shun away the ghosts and goblins, 14 lamps are lit up and kept across different places in the household to ward off the malevolent spirits away before the celebrations of Diwali begin next day. People also cook 14 different types of leafy vegetables on this occasion assuming vegetarian food disliked by ghosts will repel ghosts from the house.
Likewise, in the Karnataka-Maharashtra’s coastal towns & villages, many communities worship the Ghosts called — Bhootas. These aren’t malevolent beings but the spirit guardians of the forests and the villages. The villagers give them their favourite food, clothes etc and request for protection and peace. Every once in a while they also perform the dance ritual called ‘Bhootakola’ during which a specific villager gets possessed by the ‘Daiva’ or the ghost and answers questions of the villagers. One can see the same in the blockbuster Kannada film — Kantara.
Apart from this, in many parts of India, there are temples of ghosts that are located outside of the villages, usually in farm lands, around cremation grounds, and near water bodies. They are called by different names like Yaksha, Mhasoba, Viroba, Munja, Pisach, Vetal etc or the female spirits are referred as Hadal, Dakini, Aasra, Mari Aai, Satvaai, Yakshini etc. Often before beginning of any new project, or weddings, or before sowing/harvesting, these ghosts are worshipped and requested to not trouble any of the family members. The stories of the ghost — Vetal giving wisdom to the emperor Vikramaditya, testing his intelligence and helping him later save his life, are famous across India in form of Vetalpacchissi.
In many south east asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, the folklore depicts stories of ghosts as hungry spirits. Particularly the folklore from Tibet tells the story of a ‘yidag’ with slender throat and huge stomach with insatiable hunger. And hence this ghost is ‘killed’ ritually with a dagger so that it passes to the next birth.
Similar folklore from China tells the story(ies) of hungry ghosts. The annual Zhongyuan Festival of China is about revering and worshipping the dead ancestors who are believed to have been released from hell or heaven. Typically these ghosts are believed to be the spirits of those ancestors who didn’t leave behind any descendents. Large feasts are held offering ghosts the food, drinks, clothes etc, of which samples are taken back home as talismans to ward off ‘evil eye’. Lotus shaped lanterns are also released into rivers to guide these spirits to the afterlife. This quite resembles the ancestor worship in India that happens during the 15 days period of ‘Pitru Paksha’ where ancestors are offered food, clothes etc and given gratitude for giving birth to the present generation.
The vilification of ghosts as dreadful ugly looking ogres like beings with supernatural powers is perhaps a phenomenon rose post birth of monotheism where anything apart from a central divine figure is not worthy of worship. And the modern picturization of the same via movies and popular culture further reinforced the image. However, at the core of ‘ghost’ is the idea of a neglected (invisible?!) being which is hungry — with hunger for food, affection and validation. Ritually, they are remembered, given due dignity & validation and requested to stay away from the human settlements in return for the gifts they like.
So next time when you hear the word ghost, don’t be scared!! Perhaps, they are there near you to get a buddy to hangout with and gossip stories of the other world with you…!
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