The Education Ministry of northwestern Russia's Arkhangelsk region has banned Halloween celebrations at local schools, citing the holiday's harmful effect on children, the FlashNord news agency reported Monday.
The ministry's statement said that Halloween is "incoherent to basic traditional values and causes a negative influence on fragile minds."
The ban was instituted a week after the Russian Orthodox Church in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region called on local authorities to ban Halloween on a similar basis, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported. Priest Maxim Zolotukhin told local STS-Prima television station that children may get depressed after Halloween because they do not understand the difference between make-believe and reality, and so evil will enter their souls.
Russia's regional authorities have displayed hostility toward Halloween many times over the years.
In February this year, a school director in Siberia's Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district was fired for organizing a Halloween party at his school last year, the Snob magazine reported at the time.
And in 2013, the Omsk regional Education Minister Sergei Alexeyev issued a letter against Halloween celebrations in schools. He explained that Halloween includes "death cult propaganda" that can damage student's psychiatric and "spiritual-ethical health," local news website NGS Omsk reported.
In 2014, Public Chamber member Georgy Fyodorov wrote a letter to Russia's Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky asking him to officially ban Halloween. Fyodorov saw the celebration as an "ideological security threat" to Russia and proposed the promotion of traditional Russian festivals instead, the Izvestia newspaper reported.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.