Yesterday, philanthropist and former model Katie Piper posted this message to Instagram:
'It’s not even Halloween and I’ve had over 20 photos on my feed of make-up artists posting Halloween gore-overs.
It’s distasteful and offensive to make temporary burns, scars and disfigurements on someone’s face for Halloween.
Some of us have these differences all year round. When did Halloween turn into people imitating accident victims?'
Katie was left scarred for life and blind in one eye when her ex-boyfriend arranged for sulphuric acid to be thrown in her face. That was in 2008 and since then, she has had over 300 surgical procedures.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be a burns victim exposed to the fact that burns are mere make-up designs this time of year, and verified Halloween-worthy? That you might go to a party and see someone made up to look like, effectively, you? I really don’t know what that would feel like and Katie has every right to take offense to it.
Why is it no longer enough to dress up as a witch or a pumpkin, Dracula or a skeleton? Why do we appear more adamant than ever to outdo one another in the ‘shock’ stakes, creating evermore close-to-the-bone outfits that effectively glorify violence, injury and brutality? Like it’s all just a bit of fun…
Did you know that Halloween was once a very frightening period? The Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland observed a festival called Samhain on November 1st where, it was believed, the gods played tricks on people. It was a time ‘fraught with danger, charged with fear, and full of supernatural episodes,’ the Encyclopedia Britannica writes. During the festival, souls of the dead were believed to revisit their houses. Fires were lit to ward off sinister spirits, and masks worn to disguise people from ghosts thought to be lurking. This is thought to be where the witches and demons part of Halloween comes from.
Later in 12th century Europe, Halloween was a time when people prayed for the dead. A tradition called ‘souling’ was observed, where soul cakes were baked and shared for christened souls; some believe this marked the origins of trick or treating.
Historically, therefore, Halloween was a time to think about the dead. To remember them, to pray for them, and in doing so, deepen the appreciation for life.
But what is Halloween today? A commercialised circus where participants whack on as much make-up as possible, painting on slashed wrists and slit throats, all in an effort to, what, scare? No – to impress. Halloween for grown-ups is a competition: who can be the most outrageous? Whose make-up looks the most realistic? It’s a gigantic competition, with very little thought to what the festival actually means.
So it’s hardly surprising that very little thought so often goes into what the costumes mean either. What does it actually mean if you dress yourself up with artifical burns? That you’ve come up with a great make-up idea? No. It means you believe that burns make a person gruesome and scary. And it perpetuates that myth, albeit unconsciously, all neatly packed under the umbrella of ‘PARTY!’.
It’s traditional to mark Halloween by dressing up. And I’m not suggesting that people cannot have fun whilst they do it. Halloween doesn’t mean entirely the same as it used to and I don’t see that as a problem. What is a problem however is using this festival, which remembers the dead, as a means to make light of violence and death. Forget the make-up… it’s that, that I find truly terrifying.