MORE THAN A COSTUME

A story that begins with a child wearing a Halloween costume is really about a society weary of its own identity. In an age when religion and custom have become confused, can we return to our essence?

Two years ago, the Ministry of National Education sent letters to schools asking them not to celebrate occasions that run counter to national and cultural values. Yet even before those letters arrived, many foreign traditions, from New Year celebrations to Halloween, had come to be celebrated in our schools almost as if they were “ours.” Nor was this confined to schools. Halloween and Christmas costumes were appearing everywhere, from scenes in locally produced television series to the shelves of domestic brands.

Although we are not particularly in favour of bans, sometimes they really are necessary. After the ban reached schools, I saw neither extravagant costume displays in stores nor the same costume craze on social media. After all, isn’t it by copying one another that people get caught up in these things?

Recently, while browsing the children’s section of a domestic brand’s store, I heard a young mother turn to her friend and say:

“When I was little, they always celebrated Halloween at school, but my family wouldn’t let me join in. ‘There’s no such thing in our religion,’ they would say. As if dressing up and collecting sweets would make me leave my religion. What’s so bad about it, for Allah’s sake? I used to buy costumes for my daughter and dress her up, and she had so much fun. Look, they haven’t made any costumes this year.”

That is precisely where the problem lies.

Even today, the desire to emulate Europe, to be like Europeans, persists. This affects not only young people but also adults who say, “Praise be to Allah, I am a Muslim.” Drifting away from our essence in the name of cultural similarity… Unwittingly becoming like others in every area of life, from special occasions to clothing, from music to art…

It is much like searching for a product online, clicking on things without thinking, and eventually asking ourselves, “Why did I buy this?”

That mother’s words, and similar ways of thinking, show that religion and custom have become confused in our country. Explanations offered in the name of religion are often far from convincing, reduced to the single word “forbidden.” Telling a child, “This has no place in our religion,” has been mistaken for religious education. Moreover, customs that often have no rational basis have also been presented as religion.

Given this, we should not be surprised by the growing tendency among young people to turn away from religion. The new generation is not as reliant on rote learning or as obedient as the previous generation. We teach them to question and think, then offer them second-hand rules from a religion whose spirit we have failed to explain. As a result, we cannot touch their souls.

For our children to understand and embrace their own faith, we need to explain the essence of Islam to them properly. Religion is not merely a set of rules listing what must and must not be done. It is a comprehensive framework that explains the meaning of life, our own existence and our responsibilities. We should not be content simply to tell our children what they ought to do; we must also explain why. For people can bring values into their lives and consciously uphold them only when they have understood and embraced them.

When people have not learned enough about their own faith or internalised it, they may turn more readily to other ideas and ways of life. Missionary thinking also includes approaches that aim to transform people’s ways of life, beyond converting them to another religion.

We need to consider our present situation from this perspective too. These celebrations, which appear to be nothing more than entertainment, can in fact quietly transform our way of life.

In other words, the issue is not “What’s wrong with celebrating Halloween?”; the issue is our way of life being moulded by Western Christian culture.

In this age, when we mistake being like others for being modern, we face the danger of losing the spirit and essence of our own faith. So how can we embody, explain and preserve the identity Islam gives us without truly learning about it?

Şeyma Demircan Namazcı

More articles by this author

Mirat Haber – YouTube