Halloween’s over, bah humbug!

Wasn’t it awesome that Halloween was on a Saturday this year? I hope you found yourself in a frightful or crazy ensemble, enjoying that alternate reality that is Oct. 31. Maybe you are still recovering, or maybe you spent all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. Whatever you did, I hope you got into the spirit and partook in a little Halloween celebration and mischief.

If we examine Halloween without our own childhood contexts, it can seem nothing less than extremely bizarre. Dressing up in spooky costumes and going door to door saying “trick or treat” to get candy, carving faces into pumpkins and lighting candles in them? We may even be familiar with toilet paper and egg activities on Halloween, too. Why are we celebrating all things creepy and wicked?

For all of you international students, as well as homegrown inquiring minds, most of our beloved Halloween traditions come from a very old British harvest festival and day for honoring the dead, that is called Samhain. In the old traditions, Samhain was the night when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was the thinnest.

In other words, there were supposedly a lot of dead souls lurking about, so if you traveled at night, you might put on a scary mask so as to not be bothered by them, or to entice them, depending on your purpose. You would have also carried a candlelit turnip or gourd carved with a face for light and protection.

Trick-or-treating has a menagerie of origins, one of which we get from the Celtic Irish who used to incorporate “house begging” into many holidays. People in villages would go door-to-door looking for handouts. You actually used to have to put on some performance or trick to get the goods, not just show up and yell “trick or treat” like we do now.

In early America (roughly 1600–1800), there was a designated “Mischief Night” on Oct. 30 when children were sort of permitted to run amok. Ah, the good ol’ days. Trick-or-treating and parades were eventually encouraged to prevent vandalism and such and Mischief Night fell out of favor…or did it? (Insert maniacal laughter here.)
Well, we are now officially out of the Halloween season and into that other holiday season. On comes the materialism and advertising, all of which lead up to that stressful and overrated day on Dec. 25. Why is Halloween so much better, you ask? What about the so-called happy spirit that is supposed to be in the air in December? All of that giving and cheer?

To quote my good friend Scrooge, “Bah humbug!”

Halloween has more of the real spirit of giving (not the materialistic kind), less stress and many more incredible memories than that other holiday. Just think of trick-or-treating, for instance. When else would it be acceptable to knock on almost anyone’s door in America and they would answer with a smile and give you candy? It’s amazing.

Think back to Halloweens past. Have you ever just wandered around the city and seen everyone participating in the same fantastic and creative costumery together? What a lovely utopia! People just being that weird part of themselves that is usually kept under wraps. Everyone is at the same party, nobody is being judgmental and outrageousness is the norm. What could be better? At no other time of the year is there such camaraderie among strangers. The mischief is pretty fun too, and the boldness of what people say from behind the masks is delightfully ridiculous.

So, forget that yuletide cheer. Halloween is, hands down, the best day of the year. It totally kicks all of the other holidays’ asses. Hey, that’s something to think about: if the holidays were able to fight like Greek gods or something. Halloween would kick every other holiday’s ass. Especially Valentine’s Day. What a pansy!