Happy Hallowe’en to you all.  Or as we sing it,

“It’s the most won-der-ful time of the year. . .”

For children, Hallowe’en is innocent fun, a chance to dress up, wear a mask and pretend to be something we’re not.  But we don’t stay children forever.  When we become teenagers, we experience social pressures from family, from school, from society, from the media, etc.  As children we wore a mask one day a year, but as teens and into adulthood, we start wearing the mask every day.  Many people fear dressing, looking or speaking differently out of fear (rejection, violence, embarrassment, shame, being cast out, etc.).

Hallowe’en is and may be the one day of the year where we can take off our imposed societal masks, be their true selves without fear or repercussions.   But it’s not just Hallowe’en.  Many countries and cultures have festivals where “normal rules don’t apply” for a day or a week, whether it’s Mexico’s Día De Muertos, Carnival, Mardi Gras, or one of many others.  As mentioned the other day, it even applies to music, fandoms, RPGs, cosplay or other forms of entertainment.

Everywhere around the world, cultures societies have at least one a day to blow off steam, whether we admit that’s why or not.  It’s good and necessary for mental health.  Because every day that you can’t, you die a little inside.  I think this explains incels, TERFs, and fanatical religious types who rape children.  They’re so repressed and unhealthy mentally that they end up lashing out instead of finding a healthy outlet.

I’m never putting that mask back on again.  Let your Freak Flag fly.

 

 

There’s more below the fold.

First, “Celebremos Lo Inevitable” (“Celebrate The Inevitable”) is the new single by Diablo Swing Orchestra, released in September 2021.  DSO are a Swing Metal band from Sweden.  The song is about Mexico’s Día De Muertos On November 2.  Online and offline, Mexicans I know or read online are in as much in love with the song as I am.  The group’s singer Kristin Evegård worked with a vocal coach to get the inflections and pronunciations perfect.

 

 

As mentioned the other day,  Lux Interior was one of my heroes.  Without Queen and The Cramps to live through vicariously, I might not have survived my teens, 20s or 30s.

In the past I lacked to courage to dress as Lux Interior for Hallowe’en, and post transition I never go out socially dressed when dressed “male”, only to work.  But on Saturday night I made an exception, dressing as Lux in tribute since what would have been his 75th birthday passed recently.  Excuse the wind blowing the hair.

The only bad part about the costume?  Only one person out of 300+ recognized it.  But that didn’t surprise when nobody knows good music anymore, it’s all that “dj” crap at parties.

 

 

As a Goth, I agree with the sentiment:

 

 

And a few bits of humour about the pandemic: