Thanks to Alex Carnevale at Gawker, I saw this today. Heidi Klum as Kali for her Halloween party.
What think you, desis? My initial thought was that I should be offended. Then I thought, why? Is that reasonable? People dress up as versions of evil a range of characters, including ones with religious connotations, every year on Halloween. And this Kali is a pretty awesome costume. Klum certainly pulls it off with panache. Maybe that’s easier if you’re twelve feet tall and a model. She’s got all the details–look at what’s around her neck and waist!
If you click on the picture, you’ll see a gallery that includes her husband, Seal. (Gallery from ohnotheydidn’t.)
UPDATED: Previous Sepia coverage of Halloween.
He might have been polite, but I don’t think he’s earned the right to speak for anyone other than himself. It’s somewhat irksome to see people, and there seems to be a lot of them, calling themselves religious leaders.
I just resent the media taking this guy Zed to be the representative of all Hindus. Was he part of the same group that complained about Xena?
THE PICTURE The picture of Kali is the sum representation of her story in a very artistic way by an unknown artist. The bowl catching the blood and each body part had to be caught else more cloning would have taken place is shown by a garlend of body parts. The many hands required to kill demons and catch the body and blood. The awesome face of rage that is required to kill such a beast. The angry beast within us is hard to control and requires such strength. Many symbolic meanings have also been made. The Mother Kali is symbol of the highest victory of Good over the highest form of evil.
But, but but… what about the nipple?
Again, where did Heidi claim that Kali was evil? This seems to be an assumption on your part.
Another old fuddy duddy with no sense of humor. Love Guru was funny. Loved the new age spoof. It was more satire of America’s obsession with self-help and “life-coaching” than it was of India and Indian culture. Even Deepak Chopra made a cameo appearance to make fun of himself. Good Lord. The Love Guru was not even Indian, for gods sake. This guy Zed and his ilk need to take a laxative.
96 · Pravin said
On Facebook, there’s Hindus Against Hindutva.
108 · Nina P said
Not a very credible group. I invite you all to check on the member links. Some of the names will be familiar to you (e.g. articles in the Guardian UK). Judge for yourselves if these people distinguish between Hindus and Hindutvaadis or take other communities to task for their contribution to South Asian strife.
I would very much like to join Hindus who understand the grievances of their community but understand that secularism & commitment to free speech ensure our people the best future. The great Indic philosophies would never have emerged had we adopted the literalism and absolutism of other faiths.
What’s offensive to me is that people jump at the opportunity to find something like this offensive. Hindus dress up as gods all the time and not just for festivals, so why can’t Heidi? If you go to any famous Kali or Durga temple, specially those that involve a trek, you will find scores of young girls along the way dressed up as little durgas or kalis (with begging bowls). Not necessarily a pretty sight but that’s how it is.
Just because something like this is offensive in some religions does not mean it must be offensive for all religions. Not saying that Hindus don’t have their own stuff to get them in a legitimate twist. If she’d just worn Kali boots perhaps that could be a considered a “hindu” issue. It’s rather pathetic that instead of using such opportunities to point out differences in cultural sensitivities we tend instead to go into copycat mode and feel obliged to take offense when absolutely none is called for.
I just wish some of these people spent as much time being outraged by caste atrocities committed in the name of Hinduism and working against them as they do feigning outrage against silly movies and Halloween costumes.
111 · palab said
What makes you so sure they don’t? Who are “these people” exactly anyway?
I think most activists are capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time.
111 · palab said
Indeed. Unfortunately the only outrage these hypocrites feel is for the “caste atrocity” of reservations for long oppressed low castes, outcastes and tribals.
110 · Divya said
hem hem If you asked such people most likely the response that you would get was that there was a power difference between colonizer and colonized, thus it is perfectly ok for Indians to participate in Halloween and not ok for whites to dress up in costumes based on Hindu gods. And before you shoot the messenger, this wasn’t my idea.
I spent a good time writing my own layout of the story and a step by step analysis of why this is abusive and the events of the story which is so central to understanding Kali. Without the story everyone here fails to understand Kali. Please explain why it has been delete?
Please dont say it was too long. You cannot jusge what peiople are capable of reading and not. If they do not read it then it is their loss.
It was my own views and my own writing. This was no cut and paste from some website. I see no reason why you should edit my opinons to suit your end.
This is not fair and it sopils the arguments put forward.
And now you have left it open for abuse by likes of DrV who childishly quotes “But, but but… what about the nipple?” Off course anything negative such as this you enjoy leaving it and the postive argument I put forward was deleted.
Please reinstate my post.
105 · Saraswati Palin said
Dear Sarawswati,
Halloween costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils.
Dear Divya
You wrote “What’s offensive to me is that people jump at the opportunity to find something like this offensive. Hindus dress up as gods all the time and not just for festivals, so why can’t Heidi?â€ÂÂ
As I said before, its not the costume but the place where it is worn and the implication of why the costume was worn. Halloween costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Hindus dressing up at festivals are not out to be offensive.
Dear Palab
I also wish to echo the sentiments already expressed and say that yes we are also outraged by Caste differences and crime in the name Hinduism and yes even silly Bollywood movies that does not mean we should let those who abuse the religion continue to do so not make them aware of their folly.
Suraj you have a very good point there.
It seems my answers to the many odd comments made before me were deleted and still have still not been reinstated. It is strange that Admins delete a very good answer that objectively looked at Hindus who misinterpret and westerners who misinterpret Kali. It was a perfectly logical step by step answer to the many comments made.
I don’t even have an apology or explanation from the admin– if it was deleted in error. How do you expect people to participate in a discussion when you are deleting answers?
115 · suraj said
I saw about 4 Barack Obamas on Halloween. There is even a really cute picture of the real Barack Obama fist-bumping a kid trick or treating as Barack Obama. Does this mean people think Barack Obama was evil?
Dear NaraVara
Why should we think that its OK to have a Barack Obama masks on Halloween? Just because some people have sought to make fun of him does not make it right. Not everyone likes him and an attempt on his life has already been made. I just hope he stays alive long enough to be the President.
Halloween costumes are traditionally those of monsters. This great man is not a monster of any kind, but he may be perceived as a monster by a spiteful few.
Whatever their reason for wearing it we should seek to educate these ignorant folks and not laugh with them …..cute masks or not.
I dont believe you are ignorant enough to believe that the Kali costume was worn to respect the Mother Goddess.
Suraj – people don’t only wear witch and devil costumes on Halloween but that’s a minor point. Kali is meant to be frightening, even if she assumes this form to fight evil. One of the words used to describe this form is “bhayankar” (fear inducing). Shiva too assumes this form (Rudra)which is his angry aspect and I’m sure there must be tons of regional gods with similar aspects. Pagan gods are all about personification of the passions so it does not make sense to only look at them in light of goodness and beauty. Nor is it appropriate to inflict deep philosophy on people when the tradition itself is largely expressed in the form of simple stories.
120 · suraj said
I think you missed the point. The people wearing Obama costumes were Obama supporters. People also go out on Halloween dressed as nurses, cowboys, firefighters, police officers, heads of state, historical figures, Greek Gods and Goddesses, Jesus, Moses, and so on.
Wearing a costume does not mean that you consider the thing you are dressed as to be evil.
Do you even know the story behind why kids dress up on Halloween? Originally it was a Celtic festival in which the spirits of the departed were thought to return to Earth and help the druids to see the future. But along with the good spirits evil ones would also come out and walk around. The Celts would dress up as bears, wolves, and various monstrous creatures with the intention of scaring the evil spirits away.
Dressing as Kali is actually not all that different from the original tradition of Halloween. Kali herself is the most fearsome form of Durga, a form she takes on in order to frighten the hell out of the evil ones.
This is question begging. If you’re going to just assume that anyone who takes issue with your conclusion must be ignorant then I really don’t see how we are going to have any sort of productive conversation.
Dear Divya,
“”bhayankar” I hope youre not suggesting that because Mother Kali (or any other Gods such as Shankar Bhagvan or Narshima) is described in this way it somehow makes it alright for everyone to abuse them on Halloween. If you knew the story of who she had to kill and how she had to kill and WHY she had to take this bhayankar appearance and did what she did, then you will not have sought to justify Klum using this dress which is what I assume you are trying to do.
Im not surprised that many have misconceptions and misunderstood Kali. She has been misunderstood by many Hindus and hence one of the reasons why we had the evil outcome called Thuggis. In other parts of India sacrifices took place in her name and which I assume may still go on in some backwards regions of the India. These are the result of misconception of Kali which needs to be tackled today. And we don’t need the likes of this Klum woman to spread or reinforce the already misunderstood Kali.
Kali is a Divine Energy Shakti or Prakriti and she can never be looked upon in another way accept goodness and beauty. If you try to relate her to anything else then you are moving away from the basic Hindus philosophy and into the realms of other religions and thoughts. Please do take your time to read the full Hindu Puranas to realise Kali.
Let us unite to rid this world of the misconceptions of Kali and where better to start then by educating Hindus first then others like Klum and spread the word of Devi Mata who is worshiped by many as Brahman Itself.
Dear Naravara, Actually I did read up about Halloween history and it is widely supposed that Halloween originated as a pagan Celtic festival of the dead related to the Irish and Scottish Samhain but there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times. (Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton pages 360-370).
The Celts believed that evil spirits came with the long hours of the winter darkness. They believed that on that night the barriers between our world and the spirit world were at their weakest and therefore spirits were most likely to be seen on earth. Bonfires were traditionally lit to frighten the spirits away. The people thought they could trick the ghosts into leaving them alone by dressing up as one of them! Hence the tradition of dressing up as ghosts and evil beings.
Hence today the Halloween imagery tends to involve death, evil, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include the Devil, the Grim Reaper, ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, pumpkin-men, goblins, vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, skeletons, black cats, spiders, bats, owls, crows, and vultures. You may have noble thought but Kali does not fits into these characters today.
Im sure people have a wonderful time whether they dress up as monsters or George Bush! But as Hindus whose religion has already been misunderstood by Hindus and nonHindus alike do not wish to see the good name of Kali tainted further or taken in vain or become and excuse for some twisted person to kill people in her name as has happened in the past.
People do not just dress up as evil entities, ghosts and demons on Halloween. They dress up as doctors and nurses, etc, as well. There is nothing here to suggest that Klum or anybody else assumes Kali Ma to be evil.
Here’s an example of “hurt sentiments” run amok by old-world Hindus;
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/11-08/news2326.htm
These people do not represent me and my version of inclusive, tolerant and fun Hinduism.
People do not just dress up as evil entities, ghosts and demons on Halloween. They dress up as doctors and nurses, etc, as well. There is nothing here to suggest that Klum or anybody else assumes Kali Ma to be evil.
Here’s an example of “hurt sentiments” run amok by old-world Hindus;
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/11-08/news2326.htm
These people do not represent me and my version of inclusive, tolerant and fun Hinduism.
Dear Mohapatra Dibyadeb Dear Dibyadeb Mohapatra
“There is nothing here to suggest that Klum or anybody else assumes Kali Ma to be evil.†After all that explaining you must be very naïve to think this.
The link you provided has no bearing on this topic. But you said “These people do not represent me…….†after the link Which people? No don’t bother answering that, I was thinking out aloud. I cant get into another talk on the rights of the beautiful Hare Krishna sect.
But as a final word on Mother Kali and her abuse on Halloween; I will leave you with these links where she has been abused before. 1) Monster in my pocket. Pocket CARD GAMES for children http://www.raumhafen.de/cgi-bin/showp.pl?pic=/galerie/rubber_guys/mimp/s1&titel=Monster%20In%20My%20Pocket%20-%20Series%201 Look at number 19 0n this list Kali the monster! There was complaints about this and it was removed from the monster packets. But look they also included Ganesha, Hanuman, and Yama.
2 ) Kali – Dark Angel of Trecherous Intent http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/thread-74574.html
3) Ultimate Monsters in Munchkin cards Described as :- Monsters in Munchkin range in level from 1 (e.g. Potted Plant or Goldfish) to 20 (e.g. Plutonium Dragon, Kali or Great Cthulhu) and when a player defeats them they go up one or more levels and draw a certain amount of treasures, both depending on the particular monster and bonus effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchkin_(game)
4) There are more links where Krishna and Arjuna are used as names of villainous spaceships which you have to destroy! I cant find the link to this.
5) Im sure there is lot more trash out their about our religion. Lets not all turn into Gandhi followers and occasionally be like Arjuna and Defend our religion.
Jai Mata Ki
The weeaboo artwork on Link #2 actually offends me more than the fact that they named it Kali.
But it’s pretty clear that nothing about the stuff on that card is anything like our Goddess Kali save the name. It’s like Final Fantasy regarding Shiva as the “Goddess of Ice.”
I agree that the misrepresentations of Kali are dumb. But I see no reason to get offended by it. The intent is clearly not to offend. I would much rather just mock them for their ignorance than take umbrage.
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