Why I'm not afraid of ghosts

MANILA, Philippines –  The lawn is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return gently at twilight, gently go at dawn, the sad intangible who grieve and yearn....

— T.S. Eliot, “To Walter de la Mare”

Now it is the time of night that the graves, all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite in the church-way paths to glide.

— William Shakespeare,

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Apologies for being a KJ (or killjoy) this Halloween’s eve, but I am not afraid of ghosts. Why? I do not believe in ghosts, because it is my belief — based on past readings of the Bible, though I am not a religious person — that human beings who die either go to heaven or hell, not linger here on earth as ghosts. It’s pure hogwash, fiction, myth, wild imagination!

Why have so many people through recorded history believed in and even feared ghosts? My theory is that in that bygone era before Facebook, text messaging, the Internet, television and shopping malls, most people in the evenings were bored to death (pun intended) and they badly needed entertainment, so, voila: writers and storytellers had to somehow concoct inexplicable supernatural beings or various tales of ghosts.

Blame the global fascination with ghosts and ghost stories partly (or largely) on us writers who, since ancient times, have explored their wild and limitless imaginations to give the world such exotic creations as Count Dracula, the so-called “friendly ghost” Casper, the phenomenal spooky adversaries of sorcerer Harry Potter and the modern-day bloody teen romance of the Twilight series.

Although Halloween is a Western and secular concoction — which every year helps drive more bar revenues and hotel costume parties plus a spike in global candy sales due to the kiddie “trick or treat” custom, the belief in and fascination with ghosts is also very Asian.

In the world’s oldest continuous (5,000 years and counting) civilization of the ethnic Chinese, one popular and age-old belief of our ancestors which continues in modern times is the so-called “Ghost Month” or more accurately “Hungry Ghost Month.” During this time of the year, starting on the 14th or 15th night of the seventh lunar month (not the Western Gregorian calendar), ghosts or spirits of the deceased are supposed to come up from the lower realm to walk the earth.

Hungry ghost month

During this yearly Ghost Month, many of us in ethnic Chinese communities — whether in Quezon City, Greenhills, Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Penang, Berlin, Vancouver or New York — refrain from starting new ventures, signing new contracts, holding weddings or start construction work on a home or factory. This Ghost Month is different from the Qing Ming Festival for visiting tombs, which is similar to the Catholic All Saints’ Day.

My theory about this Ghost Month, nowadays so much in vogue all over East Asia because of the economic vibrancy of Confucian-based societies, is that this tradition was concocted ages ago by some clever Chinese Mandarin bureaucrats of the Emperor who probably wished to enjoy a yearly rest for one whole month from the frenetic workload of drafting so many imperial edicts, launching new imperial public works projects like palaces or schools, being wedding planners for the numerous nuptials of the polygamous emperor and his noble kin.

Truly, the Confucian culture is so hard-driving with its nonstop hard work and iron determination, this fantastic tale of roaming spirits to justify an annual Hungry Ghost Month has proven to be an entertaining way to keep the imperial bosses, nobles and feudal landlords all over China from overworking too much.

This writer is certain that those who concocted this mythical and imaginary (sincere apologies to my paternal and maternal ancestors for sounding like a skeptic) Ghost Month were for sure writers too, since all the educated Mandarin elites of China and East Asia were schooled in the literary classics — including fiction!

By the way, I’m all for upholding the ancient tradition of Ghost Month, so that many of us in Asia could have one month of real good rest every year.

Kris says no to mangkukulam role

What about our local Philippine versions of diverse ghosts in the bestial forms of aswang, mangkukulam (Kris Aquino recently revealed that she was horrified and turned down an e-mailed GMA Films movie script proposal from Anette Gozon-Abrogar proposing that she act as a store manager who will kulam or bewitch her staff Dingdong Dantes so he will marry her), the half-body mananaggal, barang, duwende, the cigar-smoking kapre, tiyanak, santelmo and others?

Again, my theory on the surfeit of Philippine folklore ghosts can easily be explained in one phrase: That’s entertainment! Why? A majority of the Tagalogs, Ilongos, Ilocanos, Cebuanos, Bicolanos, Warays, Kapampangans, Tausugs and others were so oppressed and bored by the tyrannical Spanish colonial regime and by economic poverty back then, the creative storytellers among them had to conjure up all these fantastic tales for sheer entertainment.

And if we want to put a “conspiracy theory” spin on this entertainment basis for our folk ghost stories, perhaps the Spanish colonizers and the friars themselves might have been complicit in further spreading all those horror tales to keep the subjugated masses all over the archipelago in perpetual state of suspense and even fear so they wouldn’t unite in angry revolution.

Seriously, beyond the half-joking (and half-truth) theories of this column, this writer sincerely wishes to shine the light of truth on the darkness of our inchoate and illogical fears of ghosts. I am at heart a subversive and a rebel, and I view this billion-dollar global cottage industry propagating ghosts and even glamorizing ghouls as a form of really insidious cultural and spiritual pollution which we should liberate ourselves from! No kidding.

It’s okay to look at ghosts as funny clowns like Casper comics or those in Ghostbusters and even our local Imortal teleserye with John Lloyd Cruz as a suave vampire and his love interest Angel Locsin as a sexy werewolf. However, please let us not forget that the real prince of darkness whom that fallen angel Lucifer called Satan is real, that numerous manifestations of human evil like Hiltler’s Holocaust, the Maguindanao Massacre, the Japanese military invader’s oppression of our “Comfort Women” (whom the Philippine Supreme Court tragically didn’t give justice to in an allegedly plagiarized decision), the conscienceless corruption of our many politicos and generals which cause the masses’ grinding poverty are more horrific than any mythical ghosts! Those real-life evils are the ones I fear and the ones we should all stand up against. 

What is the best antidote to fear of ghosts? It is not absence of fear; let us overcome our fears with the light of knowledge and truth, with the silver bullets of courage, prayer and faith.

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Thanks for your letters, all will be answered. willsoonflourish@gmail.com or my fan page at Facebook or WilsonLeeFlores in Twitter.com.