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Here's why Christmas movies are so appealing this holiday season
Christmas Movies Are Beyond Religion
The fictional world that holiday movies bring to the viewers provides them solace, courage and reaffirmation to move past the obstacles in their real life.
Though watching Christmas movies during holiday season is a ‘ritual’, the movies themselves do not bend towards christaniity or God, but towards true love, the power of family, the meaning of home and relationships.
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Ancient Origins of Halloween
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, in the area that is now Ireland. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the gho...
All Saints' Day
- On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.
- The influence of Christianity spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was probably done to replace the Celtic festival.
- All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas, and eventually, Halloween.
Halloween Comes to America
The celebration of Halloween was limited in colonial New England, but as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with Irish immigrants, fleeing the Irish Potato Famine. This helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.
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Primary factors that make horror films alluring
- Tension - Generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock and gore.
- Relevance - The horror film may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fea...
Viewing motivators for horror movies
- Gore watchers typically have low empathy, high sensation seeking, and a strong identification with the killer.
- Thrill watchers typically have both high empathy and sensation seeking;they identify themselves more with the victims and like the suspense of the film.
- Independent watchers typically have a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear.
- Problem watchers typically have high empathy for the victim but are characterized by negative effect (particularly a sense of helplessness).
Theories on why we love to watch horror films
- Dr. Carl Jung believed horror films “tapped into primordial archetypes buried deep in our collective subconscious – images like shadow and mother play important role in the horror genre”.
- Horror films are watched as a way of purging negative emotions and/or as a way to relieve pent-up aggression.
- Horror movies are enjoyed because the people on screen getting killed deserve it.
- Cultural historian David Skal has argued that horror films simply reflect our societal fears.
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Why some people savor scary movies, and others hate them
- The Excitation Transfer Process. How you feel AFTER the movie. When watching frightening films, the heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. After the film, the ...