The other side of the coin

               

                Theistic Satanism is the belief that Satan is a supernatural being or force that individuals may contact and supplicate to and represents loosely affiliated or independent groups and cabals which hold such belief. It generally includes magic in the ceremonies. Meanwhile, LaVeyan Satanism is a religious movement founded in 1966 by the American occultist and author Anton Szandor LaVey. All religion’s doctrines and practices are codified in LaVey’s book, the Satanic Bible which adepts use as a guidance through ceremonies and festivals nowadays. As a result, several satanic holidays have been described by both Satanists and by Christian authors (even by historians of witchcraft) and many of those holidays and festivals are held around the world but in different ways: Krampus Festival (Germany), Devil Baby Jumping Festival (Spain), Black Mass Festival (Mexico), Diablada De Pillaro (Ecuador), Saint Sebastian Day (Spain), Virgen del Carmen Festival (Peru), Day Of The Dead (Mexico), Burning Man (USA), Walpurgisnacht (Germany) and Summer Solstice (Stonehenge – near England) are some of them. There are not neither a lot of contrastive aspects nor similarities, but we cannot deny they exist. Which are they? Here is the answer.

            To start with, one of the similarities existed among these festivals is, obviously, that people celebrate something related to evil spirits and energies. Although in some places evil is considered good or bad, in each country or town, the main topic of the celebration is a “bad” presence that they want to worship or shoo in different ways. Another big similarity may be the worn of costumes. In every single festival, extravagant and colourful clothes are used. Some of them add masks to the celebration, but even colours are similar (red, yellow and black) because it is said that they represent both cheerfulness and darkness. Finally (but not less important), a thing they all have in common is the amount of people they attract. Hundreds and hundreds of persons assist to this festivals to watch or even participate in the ceremonies. Not only citizens but also visitors witness and like these holidays, coming back later years.

            As it has been seen above, there are not many similar aspects among these festivals, but they do have things in common. Now we are about to see that differences also exist if we refer to these celebrations.

            First of all, one of the biggest differences we can notice is the fact that some of the festivals worship an evil entity but others try to shoo it. In Latin America, for example, (except for one of the Mexican cities) these celebrations are used to avoid the evil to get into people’s lives, but, on the other hand, in European cities, the USA and in Black Mass Festival (Mexico) satanic festivals are used to venerate evil spirits. People here dance and even offer animals’ lives as sacrifice and abundance. Another main contrast found is the moment of the year these celebrations are held. All of them are carried out in different months, related with different events, too. Krampus, for instance, is the anti-Santa Klaus, and it is held in December 6^th as a sign of evil against good before Santa begins his journey around the world giving presents for children. Krampus, on the contrary, used to kidnap little kids to the woods to eat them later. Meanwhile, Walpurgisnacht is hosted in April 30^th and Summer Solstice in England takes place in June 21^st.

            To sum up, all religious and belief systems have their own festivals. Although some of them revolve around ancestors and others are associated with the lunar calendar, different celebrations hosted by satanic people are being known and practiced nowadays. More and more persons assist to them every year and they are becoming more popular as years go by. Not many of us dare to talk about that issue and those festivals shown before, but we can no longer ignore their existence. As we try to think that they do not exist, more people adept to them. They are neither too similar nor different among them. They are not too known in our country, but they are likely to be popular soon. They are not regular festivals, but they are hosted and held around the world. Satanic festivals do exist and it is a very good way to know the diverse of people’s way of thinking. It’s the other side of human’s beliefs and, principally, the other side of the coin.