Post
by Murfreesboro » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:14 am
Hi! I'm new here, but I've browsed for a few days.
I'm in my mid-50s and I love Halloween. I have always said it is my second-favorite holiday, next to Christmas. My husband teases me and says it is really my favorite holiday, though.
I live near Nashville, TN, and I have several friends who are at least skittish about celebrating Halloween, and some who determinedly will not do it. There are area churches that offer "alternative" events, too. I have no problem with people's celebrating the season however they like, or leaving it alone, if they wish. But I do not want other people preaching at me that they think it is "evil" or Satanic or whatever.
What I have always loved best about Halloween, even in my childhood, is the masquerading in the dark, hitting the streets, seeing the flickering pumpkins, etc. For me, an indoor costume party is a weak substitute. There is just something magical to me about the streets in the dark. For that reason, I am irritated with those who wish to limit Trick-or-Treating to daylight hours. Halloween is no fun unless it's dark.
Every culture I know of has a masquerading holiday, and Halloween is ours. The fact that the impulse is so universal tells me that this activity is answering to some deep psychological need. I can't believe that God frowns on it.
I also love ghost stories and scary movies, although I prefer the eerie ones rather than the bloody ones. During October, I seek out various activities that are related to the season, like local ghost tours, community Halloween bashes, commercial haunted houses, corn mazes--you get the idea. There's plenty of that stuff around if you look for it. But Trick-or Treating on the night itself is the core event. My youngest child is 12 this year, and she has told me she doesn't wish to Trick-or-Treat this season. I am hoping she will change her mind. If she doesn't, I think I'm going to costume and walk the streets without her! I won't gather the candy, but I have to be part of the fun.
To my way of thinking, those who put down Halloween are being puritanical. Shakespeare has a good response to that type of person in Twelfth Night, when he has Sir Toby Belch say to the puritan Malvolio, "Dost think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"