Why I Love Halloween
Crisp fall air, the leaves have fallen on the ground. The smell of apple cinnamon deliciousness and pumpkin spice whatever. Fall, it just feels different. Fall is not the same feeling as the first snow of winter, the smell of spring flowers or the tropical warmth of the summer sun. Fall is unique unto its own. A relief for many from the summer heat, a time to reset from summer and get back to a regimented schedule, the crescendo into the holiday season. There is a peculiarity to fall. An ominous warning of the unpredictability to come. Summer is my favorite season, but fall beckons me. I resist fall at first, but it is like a forbidden romance. A darkness there, under the surface and I am drawn to it. I will enjoy fall with taffy apples, sweaters, hot beverages and cute boots. Then there comes the looming chill of the fall breeze. Not yet cold, but a coolness to the air that is deceptive in its lure. Cozy, but will ultimately turn into the bone chilling cold of winter. Still, fall draws me in, it gives a promise of the holiday season to come. The holidays are the honeymoon phase of the relationship. Fall lures and attracts and leads right into the holidays, which brings euphoria. Then winter is here. Winter is the difficult part of the relationship that is hard and cold.
Quite the analogy for a few leaves falling right? I err on the side of the dramatic though, so there you go. Most of my analogies do end up being relationship based, which we all know relationships are one of my many issues. Is she getting to Halloween, because that is why I am reading this blog right now? Yes, I am getting there, I just like a good long introduction! Halloween is the holiday I feel is the embodiment of the seduction of fall. My love for Halloween has layers. I know a lot of people that do not like Halloween and will not celebrate it for an array of reasons or who will just try to pretend it does not exist. As always, I definitely respect people’s beliefs, feelings and convictions on the matter. However, as always, I want to share my perspective. The reasons why I love Halloween just may entice you.
There is the mystical allure of Halloween, which is much of the reason that I was fascinated with it as a child. Where did Halloween come from? Why do we carve jack-o-lanterns? Who is the genius who thought up treat or treating?! What was the idea behind wearing costumes? When did Halloween begin? All solid questions. I find it interesting how we would just do these Halloween traditions as children without having a context for how they began. Later on I found some of the answers that I sought out, but honestly as a child, I just liked the mystery in Halloween…and the candy of course. Some years ago I saw a History Channel special The Haunted History of Halloween. I mean, that is just a good title History Channel, alliteration and spook factor all in one! Besides a fantastic title, I love a good backstory. If you want the full backstory yourself you should check it out, it is quite fascinating. Halloween lore is just fabulous! Did you know that Halloween is believed to have originated with the Druids? Interestingly enough, November 1st was the start of the new year on the Celtic calendar because it marked the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of the winter. The eve before the new year was a festival that was held before the dead cold of winter would overtake the Celtic region. The winter would come with a vengeance to destroy crops and severely increase the human mortality rate, which was of great concern to the Celtic people, of whom the Druid priests belonged. Winter, besides just being cold and obnoxious, was actually quite detrimental back in the day (“History of Halloween”). Maybe that is why I like Halloween so much, a final farewell to mild weather before the bitter cold settles in for the winter.
Halloween - a final celebration before winter that is enhanced with candy! So I have mentioned candy twice now and clearly candy is a huge draw to my liking of Halloween. Candy, namely chocolate, is a huge part of my life and also an addictive tendency. Chocolate is one of the major obstacles in my struggle of self-control, but on Halloween I overlook that concern for one day. Did you know that American’s spent over $8 billion, yes billion with a B, on Halloween last year (Amadeo, “Halloween Spending Statistics, Facts and Trends”)? A sizable amount of that money is just on Halloween candy. I have my qualms with the sugar industry and the subsequent conspiracy therein, but boy they really cashed in on Halloween! As a child, candy was on another level. I love candy now as an adult, but I now have health consciousness and other adult informative nonsense that impedes the true candy bliss I was able to enjoy as a child. Candy, treat or tricking specifically, was magical. You would get so many different kinds of candy!!! Candy that you already knew you loved, candy that you already knew you hated and then there was the mysterious candies you had never come across before. Do you remember the urban legend of poisoned candy being passed out during trick or treating? Or worse yet as the legend evolved candy with glass shards or syringes in them? Our parents were paranoid (a.k.a. loving and caring of their children) and they would check our Halloween candy. Do parents still do that? Hit me up and let me know if that is still a thing. All I know is that I had some quality candy thrown out because the wrapper looked slightly suspect. So sad. I mean, thank you mom and dad for not letting me be victim to a modern Hansel & Gretel type situation, but I really was sad about all those candy bars going in the trash. I hope kids are still being given candy at Halloween and not Larabars, raisins and plantain chips. All that is all great and fine for the rest of the year in my paleo-ish life, but let the kids have some honest to God refined sugar for once!
In order to trick or treat and obtain this candy goodness, one must have good costume!!! Dramatic I am, so costumes it is!!! If you do not want to dress up for Halloween that is fine, but why not?! So many people I know do not like dressing up for Halloween, what is that all about? Please enlighten me with a response on that one. Unless of course the answer is that you just do not feel like wearing a costume, in which case keep that to yourself because I am not trying to hear that. Can I just tell you that I dressed up as a black cat, which on the low I was really Catwoman in my mind, for literally years as a kid? Back to back, to back, to back Halloweens were spent as a black cat. Then there was the token witch costume, cheerleader, zombie and the more refined 1920’s flapper (my mom made that one, that one was cool)! Shout out to my mom right now, she made the best Halloween costume of all time one year for my little brother. He was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and this costume was DOPE! It had stuffing/batting, whatever you want to call it, so he legit looked like a life-size Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuffed animal and it was awesome! Being able to take an idea in your imagination or trying to replicate an already amazing concept through creating costumes is just an awesome form of creativity. Especially when you take someone you admire or something you aspire to do and pay homage in costume form - that is pretty sweet.
Just as I loved trick or treating as a child and eating the acquired delightful morsels, I equally enjoy being the holder of the candy. The keeper of the treats, custodian of the goodies, empress of the sweets – in other words, the adult who passes out the candy! Passing out candy to those adorable little babies in cute little costumes just melts my heart. Cute little babies is just a general blanket statement about all children who come trick or treating that are under the age of teenager. If you are a teenager, you are no longer a cute little baby in costume. A teenager is a person who tries to act like they are an adult for the whole year and then on Halloween think they are a cute little babies who can go trick or treating and get free candy. Dear teenager, you know who you are, get a job and buy your own Halloween candy (better yet, wait until the day after Halloween and get 50% off). Teenagers - do not come trick or treating at my door. If you come knocking on my door, I am about to eat these Reese’s in front of you boo boo. These are only for the cute little babies…and for me.
The jack-o-lantern, another Halloween symbol for artistic expression. Time for an honest moment that may hurt a few people’s feelings. Let us face the fact that most of the jack-o-lanterns that you will see will be not very good. Many will be undecipherable as to what the intended vision was actually supposed to be. I will take a moment to acknowledge that carving a gourd is not an easy task. Turnips and potatoes were prevalent in Ireland and Scotland where the carving tradition began. Certainly turnips and potatoes were far easier to carve than pumpkins. It was not until the tradition came to America that pumpkins started to be carved because they were an abundant indigenous fruit in America (“History of the Jack O’Lantern”). Why it was thought to be a good idea for children to attempt carving a gourd with a sharp knife is beyond me. The good news is that even though jack-o-lanterns far more often look tragically jacked than like mystical masterpieces is fine. Since these creations are being carved by adorable little humans, who are artistically expressing their thoughts of what a pumpkin’s face should look like, they end up being very endearing pieces of art.
Going to the movie theater and seeing the first run of Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family and Hocus Pocus are ingrained memories in my mind. Recording the Halloween episodes every year of Family Matters, Home Improvement, Garfield, Ricky and Buttons along with other Halloween specials just to replay them over and over in the years to come was so satisfying. (If you are and 80’s baby and you know what I am talking about, we may be destined to be Halloween friends for life). Listening and dancing to the soundtrack of Halloween with Thriller, Monster Mash and Love Potion No 9 were rites of passage. Watching Bram Stoker’s Dracula on VHS with your parents and they were cool with it (well, semi cool with it) because it was literature and not the normal R rated smut you would not be allowed to watch. These are a few of my favorite Halloween things!
Are you ready for the finale?! The main reason why I really love Halloween is the real reason I wanted to write this blog. We live in a society where we barely speak to one another. Everyone is busy, if you are not busy our society tells you that you are not doing enough. Due to the constant striving toward busyness, more often than not we do not actually get to know our neighbors. We barely see the people around us because we are so busy being busy that we are missing our human connections with those right next to us. How many of you know your neighbors? What I mean by know your neighbors is that you actually know their name (first and last), where they work, what they do, about their family, where they are from, what their aspirations are, etc. I will go ahead and confess to you right now that in my adult life I have never gotten to know any of my neighbors. Never, not once. Sure I have known what my neighbors looked like, if they had children who lived with them, if they had a significant (or not so significant) other living with them and I knew what kind of car they drove. Anything deeper than those surface facts I have not ever known, nor have I attempted to know. I am telling you this because I do not want to come out here and say no one knows their neighbors anymore when I myself have not. It is the beauty of Halloween breaks down those barriers.
You can actually meet your neighbors by passing out candy to them when they bring their children to your door. Or if you have children of your own, you can make ever so brief small talk with your neighbors as you take your children trick or treating. You can say more than hello, you can have a conversation even if it is only to talk about the type of candy you bought or how many stores you had to go to before you found just the right costume for your child. We are so isolated in a saturated population. Halloween is the rare occasion when you literally are able to knock on your neighbor’s door and ask for a handout and not have the door slammed in your face and vice versa. You actually answer your door on Halloween, as opposed to the rest of the year when the doorbell chimes and you hit the floor with the lights out and pretend you are not home, just in case there are Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door. Tell me that is not cool! You actually speak to your neighbors and give them candy for completely free! Not only do you want to answer the door and give away candy, but you are really upset if no one actually rings your doorbell. Then you end up sad and subsequently eating your weight in Halloween candy before the end of Hotel Transylvania.
The moral of this Halloween tale is that Halloween brings people together. If you are someone that does not celebrate Halloween because there are too many “weirdos” out there, perhaps take a moment and ponder why they are weird. Oh, you do not know? Why is that? Oh, because you do not know them? Why is that? Oh, because you have never spoken to them? Oh, why is that? Ooohhh…because you just now realized you are the “weirdo” who refuses to speak to their neighbors, huh? Interesting. What about those of you that have wanted to get to know your neighbors, wanted to feel a sense of community in your neighborhood, wanted to get to know other families so your children can have friends to play with in the neighborhood? Why are you not handing out candy and knocking on their doors the ONE day it is socially acceptable to do so? Seems like this could be a potential open door…see what I did right there (insert winky face). How are you going to pray for an opportunity to get to know your neighbors and then refuse to open your door when they knock? How can you reach the lost and lonely if you never even open your door?
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:7-12 (NIV)
“For the son of man came to seek and save the lost.” Luke 19:10 (ESV)
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
References:
“History of Halloween.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2017. http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Halloween Spending Statistics, Facts and Trends.” TheBalance.com. Oct 17. 2017. https://www.thebalance.com/halloween-spending-statistics-facts-and-trends-3305716
“History of the Jack O’Lantern.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2017. http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/jack-olantern-history