from Humaira Nabi
SRINAGAR: Saudi Arabia celebrated Halloween and hundreds of residents took to the streets of the capital Riyadh in spooky costumes. The festival with pagan roots was banned in the Land of the Two Mosques and is now shunned by most of the Middle East.
The celebrations for the first such event started on October 27 according to the plan formulated and approved by the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia. This year’s Halloween celebration was called the “Carnival of Horror.”
Until recently, celebrating Halloween in Saudi Arabia was a crime that “encouraged concepts of witchcraft and demons.” Perpetrators face imprisonment and fines. In 2018, Saudi police arrested more than 19 exes who were at a Halloween party in Riyadh. The local moral police then claimed to have raided a house and arrested party-goers for loud music, “disorderly behaviour” and “use of strange masks and costumes”.
“But this year, parts of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, looked like creatures from a haunted house had escaped and taken over the city.” New York Times reported. “Monsters, witches, bank robbers and even sultry French maids were everywhere, leaning out of car windows and lounging in cafes.”
Halloween is celebrated in many countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day. The celebration of Allhallowtide begins, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to commemorating the dead, including saints (saints), martyrs, and all departed believers.
The origins of Halloween are linked to the Samhain festival of Britain and Ireland and would coincide with the return of the flock, the start of the new year and the onset of winter. As people lit their hearths, they would visit their homes with the spirits of the dead. People set bonfires on hilltops and to scare away evil spirits, they wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. The day was associated with the presence of witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons.
On the day, people engage in various activities, including trick-or-treating (or related masking and ghosting), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into lanterns, lighting bonfires, crunching apples, playing guesswork. playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed movies.
However, with Saudi Arabia entering the fray, a debate about whether celebrating Halloween is right in Islam or not has reignited. Netizens across the globe expressed their views on social media platforms and various Hashtags related to the festival took off on Twitter.
“These images were taken in Riyadh. The crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, has started to allow Halloween celebrations in Saudi Arabia, in the name of “reformism”, wrote one of “Twitter” while sharing photos of the event. “This is not reformism or innovation, but dishonor and degeneration. We do not accept this.”
Riyadh’s “creepy” Halloween scenes are being seen as part of a series of such initiatives undertaken by Saudi Arabia to “increase economic and tourist activity”, with a particular emphasis on “non-religious tourism”. The entertainment industry has been identified as an area to boost economic growth and present the image of a more “modern” Saudi Arabia.
The reappearance of the pagan festival is being seen as part of the “reforms” initiated by Saudi Crown Prince MbS. The initiatives include reopening cinema halls, allowing fashion festivals, allowing gala music events, encouraging film-making and bypassing moral policing. Although Western media freely covered MbS’s entertainment push, criticism that political repression has increased and freedom of speech is being denied continues to dominate reporting.
Interestingly, the birthday of the Prophet of Islam (Mawlid) is celebrated all over the world, but it is banned in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
