Halloween and Hinduism: A Clash of Cultures in an Indian-American Home

Facts from the original

• The author, Vineet Chander, experienced Halloween as a clashing of cultures between his Hindu immigrant parents' world and the American suburban world around him.
• Halloween tends to coincide with a number of Hindu holidays because Hindus use a lunar calendar.
• When Diwali fell on October 31, the two holidays went head-to-head.
• On such conflicts he could either go trick-or-treating and watch the Nightmare on Elm Street marathon, or visit temple and exchange sweets with relatives, but not both.
• His mother called it a depressing holiday and questioned the plastic skeletons and cardboard tombstones decorating neighbors' lawns.
• His father called it a waste of time even as he begrudgingly bought bags of cheap candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters.
• Some of his parents' more orthodox Hindu friends objected more strongly, calling the meditation on death and gore and the open celebration of ghosts and goblins 'ashubh', or inauspicious.
• His parents proudly displayed the jack-o-lanterns he and his sister carved at school, but the family never carved one together.
• His parents dutifully doled out candy to neighborhood kids but without the gusto of other parents who dressed up and distributed treats in character.
• His parents were content to let the children go trick-or-treating, though he cannot recall them getting too excited about it.
• Most years, as long as it wasn't too expensive, the children convinced their parents to buy whatever superhero or horror movie monster costume was popular that year.
• In some years, parents stumbled across the idea of having children dress as an 'Indian prince' or 'Indian princess' by dolling them up in finest Indian party clothes, perhaps with a makeshift turban or tiara.
• The neighbors loved the Indian prince/princess costumes, the parents felt cultural pride and saved money, and the children thought it was incredibly lame.
• Later, as kids old enough to see trick-or-treating mainly as a means to free candy, they co-opted the tactic by willingly wearing kurta pyjama or salwar kameez outfits to avoid buying a costume.
• Now a parent himself, the author wonders how to minimize the culture clash for his Indian-American daughter and integrate Halloween and Hinduism for her.
• A Christian colleague asked him what he thought about having kids dress up as Hindu deities.
• There is precedent in Hinduism for dressing up as deities, including parents dressing children as Lord Krishna on Krishna Janmashtami.
• Ramleela, dramatic re-enactments of Lord Rama's epic pastimes, involve children and adults donning costumes to depict figures such as Lord Rama, the brave Hanuman, or the demon king Ravana.
• There is a Bengali tradition of dressing up as the goddess Kali — blood-red tongue, carrying a machete, and wearing a garland of skulls — for the holiday of Kali Puja every October/November, which the author calls the closest direct link between Halloween and Hinduism he has found.
• His local Krishna temple in New Jersey hosts a children's costume contest on Halloween, inviting kids to depict any character from Krishna's life story.
• The author asks whether it makes a difference when a Hindu deity costume is taken out of the context of a Hindu holiday or temple pageant and mapped onto mainstream American Halloween.
• He asks whether it denigrates Hinduism to have Lord Krishna soliciting candy door-to-door alongside Spiderman or Harry Potter, and how people would feel about children dressing up like Jesus or Buddha or Mohammed for Halloween.
• He asks whether it is okay to wear a costume depicting the goddess Kali because you find her look gruesome and cool, even without connection to her religious significance.