For hundreds of years people, rich or poor, beautiful or plain, black or white, male or female have been making and using masks for masquerade ball. Did you ever wonder what the attraction is? Why do we like to dress up in our masquerade costumes and pay particular attention to the mask? Where did this tradition start? What was it inside of us that made us want to ‘hide’, for lack of a better word, behind a mask while we socialize, romp and have the time of our lives?
Did you ever hear the term, ‘we all wear masks’? Being social creatures we were brought up to follow certain conventions and rules because they were universally considered good manners or at the very least, the least offensive way to behave. When we think about it, being socially accepted and popular among the other members of our species takes quite a great deal of work and brain power. What is worse is that these rules often change year to year or even day to day depending on exactly what socio-economic category we are taking on. They can even be totally different as our location varies. You are a completely different person at home than what you are at work and if any idiot tells you that he or she knows you in a sarcastic way, ask them how that is possible since they don’t even know themselves most of the time. That is the truth; we have totally lost our true selves in the haze of society that we have created to make sure the wheels of said society run smooth and with the least difficulty.
That is the great irony of the human social phenomenon called the masquerade ball. The fact that we have decreed that it is ‘normal and proper’ to wear a mask at this time has perhaps become a time for us to express what we have inside ourselves. It lets us be ourselves by allowing ourselves to cover our faces and avoid ridicule or whatever other consequences stop us from freeing our true selves. We certainly are not perfect but with no self knowledge, there cannot be a self improvement and perhaps no chance for the eventual perfection of our species. Thus, a simple social gathering such as a masquerade ball or party suddenly becomes a lot more than it seems. It allows us to explore the true part of ourselves, the more creative part, the part that, if there were a spirit world at all, would be most in touch with it.
There are plenty of characteristics in many masks for the masquerade ball as well as costumes to assume that they have a very spiritual dimension. The costume of the court jester for example, seems to have many demonic connotations. Loki, the Norse god of mischief, with whom our very own Devil shares many of his traits looked very much like a jester. So masquerade parties seem to satisfy a deep need for us to express some sort of spiritual part of ourselves that is often throttled in everyday life. This of course is a very healthy thing and woes betide any man or woman who denies his or her deeper, spiritual self. So party on and express yourself in some breathtaking ensemble that tells the world, look at me, this is who I am and I matter.
