Leading up to All Hallow’s Eve on
the 31st , I’m wondering if I am the only one excited about dressing up
as a creepy person? Wenne beh. This year, I hope to take on the look and feel
of a nasty wart covered witch as opposed to last year’s blood drippy vampire. The
dark sunken eyes, scaly skin tone, all black, long gnarly fingers with bloodied
fingernails, the works.
 |
| I will ride off into the moon with my wolf pack at my heels, cast a
few spells, brew a dozen potions and stir up some havoc. People to scare, places
to destroy, infants to eat. *evil witch cackle* |
I know Halloween isn’t celebrated
here as it is in other countries, but that won’t stop some of us from getting on
the festivities full-scale, right? Sri
Lanka to me, is the hub of everything supernatural in Asia. We’ve got seducing
handsome manly spirits, beautifully taunting women in white sarees who eat
babies, an almost infinite number of demons and perethayas who are known for
their co-existence with us, undead corpses that are woken up to wreck havoc, vicious
women seeking revenge and kattadiyas or the exorcist who we give a shout-out for
when we need to get rid of any and all of the above creepy folk.
When we think of a Halloween
themed Costume Party here, I have personally seen some very pathetic attempts
of men dressing up to look like hairy women with buckets of lip paint and a ton
of powder. As much as that, in itself gives me the creeps, it’s not very
creative, is it?
Following I have a list of some
creepy personage right out of our local book of legends, explained in vivid
detail so as to kick start your imagination to come up with your own unworldly
wardrobe.
Kalu Kumaraya
Taking after the name’s sake,
this legendary “Dark Prince more-than Charming”, is the local form of an incubus.
That’s a demon spirit that seduces people, only women in this case, into explicitly
loosing themselves in the demon. Village nandammala
warn and prohibit young girls wandering out after dark in fear of this sexy
spirit enticing them into doing things that they would not do under sound of
mind. I think it’s called hormones but whatever, it’s probably just an old
wives tale. Or is it?
Mala Mohini
This lady in white has been in
pop culture for some time now. Dressed in a plain yet untidy white saree, she
haunts lonely roads carrying an infant. If you see her, she will ask you to
hold her baby while she adjusts her saree and when you do, that’s when, *sorry thama* she gets you. Some say if you
were to take a closer look at her, you will see her eating the baby with blood
drooling down her saree and intestines drooping down her chin. Nasty bit of
work there but a shoe-in for a costume party nonetheless.
(I wonder if you remember that
advertisement of the wise young man who did not get caught to her wild, evil,
womanly charms because he was an ardent reader of a popular local newspaper. I
thought that was quite a bit of creative marketing right there. )
Pilluwa
An undead corpse that has been
woken up to commit heinous acts of crime against an enemy. The conjurer would
select a corpse and give it life. Life not in its original form but just enough
to reanimate the body and use it as a tool to wreck havoc. Decaying flesh,
sunken eyes filled with pus and maggots, skin as pale as death itself, balding
head, tattered and torn cloths, stiff body movements, stop me when you hear
something you like.
Kinduri
A pregnant woman expecting child birth had been brutally abused and killed. Course, like every horror, she didn’t stay dead. She now goes from house to house
knocking on doors looking for the perpetrator. If you’re a woman, you’re safe.
But if you’re a man opening the door to her knock, I’m sorry but she’ll
probably kill you. It’s nothing personal. She just doesn’t like men anymore.
Yakkas & prethayas
When it comes to demons and devils,
Sri Lankan myths and legends form the creepy icing on the cake. We practically
co-exist and thrive off each other. Ruled under one King Wesamuni, these
curators of hell, form a large, diverse community with various skills and an all-around
hellish disposition. Once free to attack and eat humans at will, they have been
restricted to only afflict diseases and suffering under the keen, watchful,
multiple eyes of said Big Boss who has threatened them with not one, or two
punishments but 32 in all including boiling, roasting, impaling, and pouring
molten metal down the offender's throat etc. Assembling every Saturday and
Wednesday at the yaksa sabhawa, they exchange their stories of gruesome
acts and have a nice soiree of yaksha merry-making.
Significant yakshayas and prethayas
to inspire your wardrobe would be
·
Maha Sona – Guardian of the grave yards.
Originally one of the ten giants of Kind Dutugamunu, he was defeated in a duel
and had his head chopped off and replaced with that of a bear. His
powers include death and illness on humans. Usually seen in ‘prey mode’ in and around
cemeteries, he keeps an eye, or several eyes out, for human prey. (Come to
think of it, I’d be pretty pissed too if my head was replaced with a bear’s.
Talk about adding insult to injury. And what about the poor bear? No one
thought about its feeling, now did they?)
Said to be 37 m
tall, bear headed, armed with a pike, blood redden skin, with three eyes and
four hands, he rides a pig while drinking the blood of an elephant he carries
in his right hand. How do you know you’ve met him? A giant hand/paw shaped
bruise between your shoulder blades cuz you’d just been slapped on the back by
a bear-headed giant, that’s how.
·
Reeri Yaka - It is said that one can expect his visit
when he is at his deathbed. You’ll know him when you see him. In his maru
avatar state, he will look something close to a pygmy, body of a human and
the head of a monkey, skin a fiery red, he’d stand by the dying man with a rooster
on one hand, a club in the other, and the corpse of a man in his mouth. Picture
perfect? Definitely.
His powers
include afflicting illness. Hemorrhages and blood diseases are his specialty.
Last but not least,
The kattadiya. - The dude
everyone summons when they’ve encountered any of the above.
Dressed usually in a white sarong
and red coat type costume, you will notice him conducting the ritual,
sacrificing chickens, dancing around the fire, breathing fire, talking in local
filth to intimidate the entity out of the human host and casting inaudible incantations.
Traditional exorcisms such as the
Sanni Yakuma ward off demons when a person is possed. The exorcism
rituals itself is a long, elaborate, costly affair that involves dance items
done by vibrantly dressed dancers, sometimes in masks depicting various demons
and devils. The dancing itself is loosely connected to the Pahatharata dancing
form and is accompanied by the dramatic beating of drums to create a truly
exotic experience for the audience. A sacrifice is presented in exchange for
the human to be released of the deadly clasp of the demon.
So a costume that radiates fire
and heat and repels demons would be spot-on. With maybe a fake human finger
necklace around your neck. Rough and rumble cloths; baniyan and sarong
for the men and an ominous hattei reddai for the women. There is no
gender bias when it comes to costumes. (although I have noticed that our ghosts
are a tiny bit gender biased. For example, mohini goes only after men while
kalu kumaraya snatches the ladies. Personally, I’d feel discriminated and
left-out, if it were me)
Think as though there is no box.
Go creepy with the costumes.
(All this being said, I ask you
to take caution if at all you are brave enough to impersonate any of the above.
These are legends and myths for a reason. We don’t want to provoke any
unworldly entity out there by intention or by chance. )
P.S. I did manage to visit the
cemetery and chat up some folks there. Tune in for later issues this month if
you want in on the findings. So long. And stay safe, away from dark alleys and
lonely grave yards. Or not.
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