Why I Love Halloween

Some of my friends think my almost giddy excitement about halloween is amusing- not like I’m a kid anymore!  I was at Universal’s Horro r Nights on opening night with front of the line passes so none of us would have to wait to be terrified.  I’ve always been a fan of well-done scary movies and there is just something about Halloween that appeals to me.  I think there are a few reasons – first, it brings the kid out in you.  You can wear a crazy costume, act a little silly, and not worry about what anyone thinks – it’s Halloween after all!  I also think it allows you to have fun with friends or family without the trappings of Thanksgiving or Christmas. No weird family dynamics. No expectations about gifts. Focus is on candy and treats vs. alcohol. It’s just a day to let go and have fun.

There are some who think Halloween is evil – to them I say, you don’t get Halloween then. While demons and creatures might be the costumes and themes of the night, Halloween is more about the shift in seaons toward the “dead months” where trees lost their leaves and crops lay dormant. To me it feels like the doorway into the Winter season. It’s the countdown to the start of the New Year.  It’s a good time to start taking stock (personal inventory) and prepare for the coming year. What a great metaphor for the process of growing and changing in sobriety!

Here’s a little history courtesy of Wikipedia:

Halloween has origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain [pronounced: sow- wen] (Irish pronunciation: [?s?aun?]; from the Old Irish samhain, possibly derived from Gaulish samonios). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year”. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Celts believed that on October 31 the boundary between the world and the otherworld dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks being worn at Halloween goes back to the Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white.