Ghost in olive green rocked Halloween, a party that even the pope blessed – 01/11/2023 – Sérgio Rodrigues

This Halloween —All Hallows’ Eve (1/11), which in turn is All Souls’ Eve—, the most successful haunting was Military Malaise. Whoever discovers what took this old ghost out of the coffin where he sleeps his lightest sleep wins a sweet treat.

Of course, that’s an easy one: the Military Malaise would, according to some reports, have taken to the streets shouting “boo, trick or scam!” after the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) confirmed Jair Bolsonaro’s ineligibility and, as a result, applied the same penalty to General Braga Netto (PL), his former Minister of Defense, in addition to fining them both hundreds of thousands of reais .

Violating the rules of the democratic game does not even give rise to military malaise. On the contrary, he is a mischievous monster who, with his olive green outfit and his main accessories being a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and a tank that spits black smoke, loves mischief. What upsets him is the punishment for wrongdoing.

There is strong evidence that Military Malaise, like his colleagues Pumpkinhead, Skull, Zombie, Vampire, Wicked Witch and Killer Clown, is just a Halloween costume, an imaginary monster that certain groups – in this case, journalists – take from the closet to scare unwary people in exchange for candy and candy.

However, both on Halloween and throughout the year, the fear of paying to see what is hidden beneath the grim mask of Military Malaise has prevailed in society. The proximity, on the calendar, of Halloween Night to the Day of the Dead helps to ensure that no one forgets the recent time when his bullets were made of lead instead of sugar.

This proximity is not fortuitous. Although it may not seem like it, Halloween is related to the Catholic tradition beneath its playful – and in recent times very popular, commercial – orgy of pagan beliefs. Its name is an abbreviation (of Scottish origin) of the Old English expression “All Hallows Even”, that is, All Hallows’ Eve.

But how did that gallery of nightmarish characters end up alongside the cloaked and haloed phalanges? Everything indicates that it was due to religious syncretism and cultural miscegenation. All Saints’ Day, which was celebrated on May 13, was moved to November 1 by Pope Gregory III in the 8th century.

Gregory did not explain his motivation for changing the calendar, but many historians saw in the change Rome’s desire to apply a coat of Christian paint to a Celtic festival, Samhain, whose popularity refused to wane in newly Christianized Britain. If you can’t beat the pagans, join them – the thesis will probably never be proven, but it makes sense. The fixation of All Souls’ Day on November 2nd came later, in the 13th century.

This is yet another reason why, in addition to being rude, the nationalist slogan “Halloween is the shit” is useless, which for years has been unsuccessfully trying to combat the supposed “cultural surrender” represented by the success of this party – in its American version – among the new generations.

Like it or not, Halloween is today an unavoidable fact of globalized popular culture. Saci-Pererê fans would do better if, inspired by Gregório 3°, they tried to incorporate into the party the fantasy of the one-legged kid with a cap and pipe.

I give readers a well-deserved vacation. Until 7/12!

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