Spook-topia: Five Eerie Examples of Death Celebrations in Utopian Communities
Bonfires. Costumes. Lantern walk. Ecstatic dances. Afterlife assurance. Candy.
To celebrate Halloween, Samhain, or whatever you might call it, this week’s edition of The List is all about these late October celebrations of ‘the thin veil’ in utopian communities from the U.S., the world, and ancient history.
The Shakers’ Dance with Death
The Shakers, known for their unique vision of a communal utopia, saw death as a transition to a higher plane of existence. In their utopian-visioned villages, they would hold ceremonies to celebrate the lives of deceased members. Shaker services often included hauntingly beautiful singing and rhythmic dancing, a symbol, in part, of the soul’s journey onward. This ritual was meant to guide the spirit and create an atmosphere of peace and acceptance rather than fear.
2. The Harmony Society’s All Saints' Reflections
In the early 19th century, the Harmony Society, a religious utopian community in Pennsylvania, practiced an early form of All Saints' Day that blended their Christian beliefs with mysticism. They celebrated by lighting candles and gathering to remember those who had passed, believing that souls lingered on All Hallows’ Eve. Their view of death as a reunion with God provided a unique, solemn approach to Halloween, embracing death as a return to divine unity.
3. The Oneida Community’s Afterlife Assurance
The Oneida Community in New York, a famous 19th-century utopian society, practiced communal living and “complex marriage.” Their founder, John Humphrey Noyes, taught that death was simply a passage to a more advanced community life in the afterlife. Members held annual gatherings to honor those who had “graduated” to this spiritual realm, celebrating Halloween-like themes of continuity rather than separation.
4. New Harmony’s Lantern Walks
New Harmony, Indiana, founded by the Harmonists and later led by Robert Owen, was an experimental utopian community focused on enlightenment and peace. On Halloween, members would walk through the town holding lanterns, symbolizing light guiding souls through darkness. Inspired by European traditions and their belief in human progress, they would read poetry and sing, quietly celebrating life’s cyclical nature with an almost haunting serenity.
5. Samhain Rituals in Celtic Communities
Samhain, an ancient festival celebrated by Celtic societies in Iron Age Europe, was a forerunner to Halloween and marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. While not a utopian community in the traditional sense, many ancient Celtic clans lived communally and shared resources, striving for balance and harmony with nature - a hallmark of many modern utopian communities modeled after such ways of life. During Samhain, the Celts believed the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest. To honor deceased ancestors and ward off malevolent spirits, they performed bonfire rituals, donned costumes, and left offerings for the spirits. These practices underscored a harmonious connection with the afterlife, a key feature of their societal values…and are likely where we get our ritual of giving candy to ghouls, goblins, etc. at Halloween.
How are you celebrating Halloween/Samhain today, if at all? Is it connected to your visions of an ideal place, an ideal life, and ideal state of being? If so, how do those connections overlap with rituals from the example mentioned above?
Happy haunting, y’all.
Warmly,
Jack