As Halloween is celebrated all across the world on October 31, children and adults alike will dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, and visit haunted houses where monsters and ghouls abound.
Halloween is now widely considered a secular holiday that anyone can enjoy, although it is not much celebrated in some regions, including Southeast Asia. However, the sociocultural business of fear – what scares us and why – endures wherever you may live.
Halloween’s origins are murky, with various different theories about how it came to be, although most commonly it is thought to have its roots in Ireland some 2,000 years ago with the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which signaled the end of the harvest season and the start of winter.
It was also thought that the veil between this world and the realm of the dead was at its thinnest at this time, leaving ghoulish spirits free to roam the earth.
To guard against ghostly home invasions, bonfires were lit and disguises worn to trick the dead into leaving the living alone, and traditionally turnips were carved as part of the festivities rather than the modern day pumpkins.
Despite Halloween not being “native” to Southeast Asia, the idea of the Gates of Hell opening and spirits spilling out is one that still resonates.
Parallels to Halloween exist across the region, the most obvious being the festival of Nyepi on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali in Indonesia, which usually falls in March or April according to the Balinese calendar.
The premise of the holiday, much like Halloween, is that evil spirits fly over the island, and thus everyone is required to stay inside, so that the ghosts will believe that the island is deserted and will not trouble it for another year.
So serious is the aversion to an invasion of hostile spirits that Bali’s international airport is closed and all flights grounded. All light sources are also extinguished, and the internet is disconnected and giant demonic figures called ogoh-ogoh are paraded around to clear the island of negative spirits.
Across the world, what haunts us the most is intimately tied to the things we most fear here in the earthly realm and, in global folklore, women unfortunately often bear the brunt of unsympathetic demonic depictions, including the wailing banshee in Ireland, ghostly sirens (different from mermaids) luring fishermen to a watery grave and various versions of the White Lady – the ultimate symbol of unrequited love.
We have also long been terrified of women thought to possess supernatural abilities, leading to crimes like the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, which Teen Vogue described as “a story of patriarchy, persecution, and misogyny.”
And so it goes in Southeast Asia, where there is a ghost for every occasion, yet many have their roots in common societal problems and the various misdeeds of women, including historic high rates of maternal death, violence against women and infant mortality across the region.
Myriad horrible female spirits abound, including the kuntilanak in Indonesia, which takes the form of a pregnant woman who died in childbirth and who has been left with a gaping hole in her stomach. Kuntilanak particularly like to suck the blood of men, although they terrorize anyone who comes across their path.
In Cambodia, one of the most sinister ghouls is the ap, described as a woman’s ghostly head connected to floating exposed organs, who died after practicing black magic that backfired. In Thailand, a similar specter exists called a krasue, or a cursed woman who lived a life of considerable sin while here on earth.
In addition to women, the spirits of unborn or illegally aborted children can also be problematic.
In a country where poverty is rife, the Indonesian tuyul is a particular menace, and usually takes the form of the ghost of an unborn fetus that steals money and valuables from unsuspecting members of society.
If you are able to capture a tuyul, which is similar to a goblin or elf but with giant fangs, it is possible to harness it to bring material fortune, although it goes that you are likely to die or become seriously ill in the process.
Due to cultural differences, even among the undead, there are no traditional European vampires in Southeast Asia, or zombies. Fairies are also in short supply, as are headless horsemen, and werewolves do not exist, although myriad other more appropriate shapeshifters do, such as were-tigers and bats.
In Europe, vampires were thought to have originated as a way to rationalize death and bodily decomposition, and similar schools of thought exist in Southeast Asia, where a hasty burial sometimes leads to the presence of pocong, or a figure who has been improperly wrapped in a traditional white funeral shroud, and who then rises from the grave and hops around, upsetting people.
While ghosts, monsters and ghouls may differ by region, the rationale for how they came to be – to reflect back societal ills and our own internal fears – has parallels all over the world.
As Halloween night’s darkness falls this year, it is a time to ask: What truly scares us, and why?