Mundane Halloween
During my childhood in Germany, Halloween wasn't an event. I'm not even sure I had heard about it (I can't remember). These days, things are different, as neoliberal capitalism exported what ultimately is a big sales event for candy companies to countries such Germany, Japan, and elsewhere.
Leave it to the Japanese to embrace Halloween in maybe the most wonderful way. I think for ordinary Japanese people, it offers a rare opportunity to let loose in a rather rigid culture. You wouldn't know this unless you've visited, but when Japanese people let loose, they really let loose. I saw Halloween twice in Tokyo, and it was quite something.
But there is another, even better trend. Some time in 2014, the idea of Mundane Halloween (地味ハロウィン in Japanese) was born. The idea is simple and brilliant: people re-create the most mundane people or events possible, often focusing on minute little details from their larger culture or (often) work life.
This page has a good overview of some of last year's highlights. The costumes/events all rely on a description being provided. In that sense, they're similar to a meme, except that they start out with the text, and the image is resulted as a consequence (there are conventions where people meet, but a lot of it is also online).
Actually, most of the "costumes" also work without the visuals. For example, I'm pretty sure we all know "a guy who can definitely tell the difference between good and bad coffee". What does this look like? Well, it's exactly what you might imagine. If you're into deadpan comedy, Mundane Halloween is for you.
Also Mundane Halloween takes events from our daily lives: "a woman who’s regretting telling the cashier that she doesn’t need a bag". We have all been there. Mundane Halloween often deals with embarrassing or unpleasant things, whether one's own or other people's. It can be a form of social satire.
I spent a few hours on Twitter and Instagram yesterday, looking up what 2021 had produced (I laughed so much). If you use "#地味ハロウィン" you can look for yourself (there are thousands of posts on Instagram alone -- just copy and paste the hashtag).
And then I decided to make my own Mundane Halloween "costume". In fact, I made two. Inevitably, they're from the world of photoland:
"Guy who really wants you to ask him about his camera"
"Guy who can't wait to tell you how many rolls of film he developed today"
That second one could also be entitled "Guy who buys stuff he never uses at thrift shops, yet refuses to just get rid off them".
I'd add an emoji at the end of the previous paragraph, but I'm writing this on my desktop computer (and am too lazy to look how to do it). Speaking of emoji, did you know that that's also Japanese? You did, didn't you? E is Japanese for "picture" and moji is Japanese for "text". So if you're interested in images and text, emojis (and memes) actually can teach you a lot about their relationship.
Anyway, not every email from this list has to be dead serious, right? Next time, I'll be back with more serious stuff.
As always thank you for reading (and looking)!
-- Jörg