Argunova is not the only official who has attempted to cancel the holiday. Several Russian schools have tried to replace Halloween with a new, ostensibly more Slavic holiday, which they are calling “Pumpkin Feast of the Saviour”, a reference to three late-summer Orthodox holidays, called Apple Feast of the Saviour, Honey Feast of the Saviour, and Nut Feast of the Saviour. Although the Russian fight against Western holidays has been ongoing for nearly a decade, authorities have doubled down on the issue in recent years.
Administrators at a school in Izhevsk in western Russia announced on the school’s social media that “Pumpkin Feast” would be celebrated this year instead of Halloween. The post informed pupils that “costumes of evil spirits” would not be allowed at the festivities. However, at the last minute the school’s leadership cancelled its proxy celebration altogether, and settled for a “pumpkin festival” themed day.
As early as 2018, the Orthodox Human Rights Analysis Centre, based in Moscow, demanded Halloween be abolished in Russia. “We cannot let the celebration of an occult holiday – with symbols that are clearly aggressive, fear-mongering, and Satanic – become a tradition in Russia,” it wrote. “It is still more unacceptable [for schools] to include it in their educational programmes. This is a crime against childhood and the family!”