Halloween. Why do I love it so much? Why do we celebrate it? How do we celebrate it? Let's take a look, shall we?
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| My house on Halloween |
The Origins of Halloween
Halloween is a secular holiday that has become a community event centered on kids eating candy from neighbors, college kids getting plastered, and a generally un-scary atmosphere surrounding it but it's origins go back to the Celtic holiday known as Samhain. Samhain consisted of lit bonfires and costumes worn to scare away ghosts. Later, November 1st was designated All Saints' Day, a day to honor saints and martyrs. It incorporated a lot of Samhain traditions. Flash forward to 1993 and thank Tim Burton for successfully combining Halloween and Christmas and, in my opinion, creating Halloween as a truly marketable holiday celebrating with more than just candy and costumes.
How Do We Celebrate Today?
Sure, we still hand out candy to the kids as they come by in whatever popular costume their parents bought them this year. Personally, I think Halloween has begun to depart the simple personality it has obtained in the last century. We now decorate our homes as heavily as we do for Christmas with a variety of inflatables, wooden and metal cutouts, and lights that stocked store shelves as early as August. We attend party after party, dressed in different costumes. I won't touch the countless whiners that think it is just an excuse for women to dress slutty. Who cares? They can dress as they want. We have gatherings where we drink themed libations and munch on tasty decorated treats. We watched one of a thousand Halloween themed movies on Netflix. We go to the Halloween themed overlay at our favorite theme park.
The way we treat the holiday may change a little here and there but at its core, we should attempt to honor the dead, tell a scary story, enjoy a selection of bad for us treats, dress up in whatever crazy or slutty or scary costume we want, honor traditions, hand out candy, and have fun.
As a child, we went trick or treating every year. Usually, my mother would take my brother and I out and my dad would stay home passing out candy to other trick or treaters. Everyone played their role. Dad's treat was picking through our candy for his own reward. The important thing to remember is that someone stayed home, with the porch light on, to help other kids enjoy the holiday as much as I was. In recent years, I see less lights on and that makes me sad.
Alyssa and I decorate indoors and out and we set up strobe lights and fog machines and a giant fire pit and we sit outside handing out candy. Families stop to take photos with our decor, which photos don't do justice to. They chat with us. They wish us a happy Halloween and we do the same. We enjoy some cold beer as much as we enjoy the joy in the eyes of the kids as they walk past our life size Jack Skellington.
We make an event of it and you should to.
Decorate.
Bake.
Drink.
Dress up.
Socialize.
The way we treat the holiday may change a little here and there but at its core, we should attempt to honor the dead, tell a scary story, enjoy a selection of bad for us treats, dress up in whatever crazy or slutty or scary costume we want, honor traditions, hand out candy, and have fun.
As a child, we went trick or treating every year. Usually, my mother would take my brother and I out and my dad would stay home passing out candy to other trick or treaters. Everyone played their role. Dad's treat was picking through our candy for his own reward. The important thing to remember is that someone stayed home, with the porch light on, to help other kids enjoy the holiday as much as I was. In recent years, I see less lights on and that makes me sad.
Alyssa and I decorate indoors and out and we set up strobe lights and fog machines and a giant fire pit and we sit outside handing out candy. Families stop to take photos with our decor, which photos don't do justice to. They chat with us. They wish us a happy Halloween and we do the same. We enjoy some cold beer as much as we enjoy the joy in the eyes of the kids as they walk past our life size Jack Skellington.
We make an event of it and you should to.
Decorate.
Bake.
Drink.
Dress up.
Socialize.
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