'You can not flirt with dark forces': how in Russia they tried to cancel Halloween

Voices against Halloween are heard every year: priests concerned about the disappearance of spiritual bonds, parents and individual deputies talk about the dangers of the holiday. In addition, this year Chelyabinsk priests were frightened by the film “Joker”, and those who were dissatisfied were able to change the theme of the organ concert in Omsk on October 31.

Edition with the BBC collected the latest attempts to fight Halloween.

“Synthesis of destructive religious action with Orangeism”

The Chelyabinsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, like deputy Vitaly Milonov, annually warns the public on the eve of Halloween. But this year the priests saw an additional threat - the recently released Hollywood film "Joker".

The image of the Joker, the authors of the appeal argue, symbolizes a rebellion against the realities of bourgeois society, therefore, “on Internet resources with a specific “orange” coloring, “recommendations” began to appear to celebrate Halloween in Joker costumes.

This is a provocation, pushing young people to protest, the diocese believes. At the same time, they cite as an example mass riots that occurred in Paris in 2018, in Cologne in 2017, in London in 2015 on Halloween. The example is strange, because on these dates there were no riots in either London or Cologne, and in Paris last fall the “yellow vests” actually protested actively, but this had nothing to do with Halloween.

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“Before our eyes, there is a synthesis of destructive religious action with “Orangeism” - a protest movement formally aimed at eliminating existing social injustice, but in reality seeking to destabilize, destroy Russian statehood, and have a destructive impact on our spiritual identity,” the priests write.

“As a result of public efforts, no zombie parade was held.”

On October 31, the Sibir hockey club has a match with CSKA. The club’s website invited fans to come to this meeting in Halloween costumes: “We will give the best souvenirs right at the game and show them on the scoreboard and in official social media accounts!”

Soon, Deputy Governor Sergey Nelyubov was sent a letter demanding to cancel the masquerade at the match.

“As a result of the efforts of the public and the measures taken in 2017-2018. There was no public zombie parade in Novosibirsk. Now, in 2019, businessmen of the Sibir hockey club have begun to propagate dangerous destructive fun,” the authors of the letter worry. They remind you that, according to the law on protecting children from harmful information, children must be protected from images of cruelty, disease, and suicide. But even minors come to hockey, the authors of the letter recalled.

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“In Russia, the Siberian Federal District ranks first among other federal districts in terms of the number of teenage suicides. Is “propaganda of the cult of death” among children and adolescents necessary in this situation?” - they ask.

The appeal was written by a certain Novosibirsk Coordination Council in defense of morality and traditional family values. This is not the first time they have written outraged letters to the authorities: in 2018, the council protested against concerts of the Leningrad group at the same arena of the Sibir club.

Otherwise, very little is known about the council. The situation is reminiscent of the story of demands to cancel the concerts of the rapper Husky, the group “Friendzone” and several other musicians in the fall of 2018: then letters to the authorities were written on behalf of parents or the public of the region, but then it turned out that no one knew the authors of the letter, and city organizations made such calls did not support.

“They shouldn’t be flirting with dark forces!”

The Omsk Philharmonic has announced an organ concert on October 31 dedicated to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. She invited the audience “to celebrate the most twilight holiday - Halloween, the eve of All Saints' Day, accompanied by the menacing and solemn sounds of the organ!”

Archpriest of the Church of St. Tatiana at Omsk University Alexander Alekseev responded to such an announcement in the Philharmonic group on the social network VKontakte. He started an argument in the comments and then discovered that the Philharmonic group had blocked him. "For what? Because I wrote to them that it was in vain that they were flirting with dark forces, that’s how the priest commented on this blocking. “It’s okay, Annushka has already spilled the oil... Christ save them!”

The priest is not the only one who did not like the idea: in the comments, some users write that Halloween is “not our holiday, not a bright one,” while others argue that “evil spirits do not exist.”

Journalists found out that the philharmonic society went to meet the dissatisfied and renamed the program.

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“The concert is no longer dedicated specifically to Halloween, it was renamed the Night Ball to the sounds of the organ,” said the press service of the Omsk Philharmonic. The Philharmonic organizes literary and musical programs regularly, and the organ concert on October 31 is still dedicated to Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula,” but there will no longer be vampire presenters in the foyer.

“We just wanted to prepare a program in the foyer and add some entertainment. But, unfortunately, it was received ambiguously, the press service explained. “We haven’t canceled the entertainment program, but simply adjusted it: it will be a ball in the Gothic style, not a costume ball. We try to take into account everyone's opinions and would like our programs to meet the needs of the general public."

“If someone wants to spend Halloween, sorry, it won’t be good.”

This year, as usual, State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov spoke out against Halloween. This time he said that the holiday was not only inappropriate for Russia, it was also illegal. Milonov recalled part of the “Yarovaya package”, which amended the law on religious associations: according to it, religious ceremonies can only be held in special places, and Halloween dates back to the ritual of ancient European peoples.

“Today, there is no church in Russia that would authorize this holiday, that would allow it to be celebrated in an authorized manner. Accordingly, any attempt by any stupid teacher to hold a Halloween holiday at school is nothing more than a gross violation of federal law,” Milonov said.

Recall that the law was adopted recently, in 2015, and caused outrage among many Muslim and Protestant religious leaders: they felt that their freedoms were violated.

Milonov called on parents to tell him if their children’s school celebrates Halloween. “We, as parents, as deputies, will monitor. And if someone wants to spend Halloween somewhere, sorry, it won’t be good,” he said.

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Milonov’s performance was traditionally laughed at on the Internet, but this year Halloween received an unexpected defender, Natalia Poklonskaya.

She, also a State Duma deputy (and former prosecutor of Crimea), took a photo in an embroidered shirt, signing this photo on Facebook: “I, as a native Ukrainian, cannot share the wary attitude of my colleague Milonov towards watermelons (pumpkins). In my opinion, our youth are able to independently determine which holidays to celebrate and on what occasion to have fun. For my part, I invite teachers and parents to report to me any cases of pressure on schools in this matter.”

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