Newswise — David Frankfurter, professor of religious studies and history at the University of New Hampshire, is available to discuss the positive aspects of dressing up in Halloween costumes and how for centuries, cultures have used costumes and monster masks to control their fears of demons. He is the author of Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History.
According to Frankfurter:
"Although today's Halloween costumes can be completely revolting to parents, children are able to master their fears through dressing up in images of evil. Children have always been exposed to stories and movies with all sorts of predatory monsters: mass murderers, mutants, vampires and witches. These monsters capture both children's subconscious fears and the anxieties their parents communicate about terrorism, technology, foreigners, neighbors and strange places.
"Parents are particularly anxious because bad things don't come clearly marked. Criminals and disasters creep out from innocent-seeming backgrounds. People who seem nice end up being cruel. Terrible crimes are committed by people who themselves suffered as children. In real life it is very hard to label people as evil or as monsters. But in the world of story or of horror movies, evil is clearly marked. And putting on a monster mask that conjures such fears allows children and adults an opportunity to control and even laugh at the evil and the horror that monster can provoke.
"The same thing has happened in the history of demonology. Cultures imagined horrible demons with animal feet and bloody fangs that eat babies. But as people exchanged stories about where those demons lived and why they would act the way they do, the demons became familiar and controllable. Perhaps you could even ask the demon to protect you from even worse demons. This is a common pattern in the religions of Asia and of the ancient Near East."
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