Halloween has long been my favorite holiday. This is probably pretty obvious to those who’ve been reading here and at the old Where the Dolphin’s Play blog for awhile as it’s the only holiday that I create a brand new custom theme for each year. We also throw an annual “Orange and Black” Halloween party at our house (where attendees wear orange and/or black clothing). Actually I guess it’s more accurate to say that I throw an annual Orange and Black party every year, and TheBoyfriend™ politely sits back and let’s me do my thing (though he makes spiced hot apple cider each year which is always a hit). I also carve at least one jack-o-lantern every year (I used to do two or three but for time’s sake now I usually just do one), but I’m guessing that’s a bigger to do for me than it is for most people. I fire up Adobe Illustrator about mid-September and start to work creating a custom pumpkin pattern for that year, picking at it here and there ’til I finally get something I’m completely satisfied with. Then, having the pattern established, I visit several pumpkin-selling venues to find a pumpkin that is perfectly suited to my specific pattern. Once all of that is done and it comes time to carve the pumpkin (generally the day of the party), I get up early so I can take my time, and 5-7 hours later, I have the perfect Halloween jack-o-lantern just in time to spend another 2-3 hours decorating before guest begin arriving.
Why Halloween is my favorite holiday is a little harder to figure out (even for me). Truth is I don’t really know why I’m so draw to the spooky festivities. I’m not one of those who runs around in all black and listens to death metal (I actually scarcely own any black clothing and Metallica is about as hard rock as I get, though I do love me some Metallica). Outside of the occasional scary movie (and of course this holiday), I’m not big fan of the macabre, and I’m not a part of any religion that celebrates Halloween above any other holiday (or really in particularly at all).
On second thought, that last sentence may be on to something. Most holidays are a specific celebration of SOMETHING. While I’m more than educated on the history of Halloween (from Samhaim to All Hallow’s Eve’n), the modern American version of Halloween isn’t really a celebration of anything (though I’m sure the CEOs of Brach’s and Hersheys have alot to celebrate this time of year). Halloween is just a day (a full month depending on how you look at it), we just celebrate because it’s a fun thing to do. That’s pretty powerful if you ask me. How cool is it to have a day set aside for fun that exists for just that purpose without all the baggage of commemorating some specific event, person, of idea)?
On the other hand, maybe Halloween IS celebrating something after all, and THAT is why I love it. Halloween kicks off the harvest season. This if the time of year where (agriculturally) we reap the benefits of a year’s worth of work, even as all of nature begins to “die off” for another season. There’s an irony to that. The plants we harvest during this season have spent the year devoting their energies to producing luscious fruits and vegetables. Having devoted themselves entirely to this goal, they run dry and die just as it is achieved. Still, the crop they produce leaves behind the seeds for rebirth when spring comes around. That perfect dichotomy of death and (the seeds of ) new life, is magical indeed. Perhaps it’s that magic that makes Halloween so special.
Perhaps though, it’s just that Halloween comes first. Humans cross-culturally choose the coldest, darkest time of year to hold their flashiest festivities. In a world pre-dating climate controlled homes, refrigeration or other advanced food preservation techniques, and electric lights, winter would have been a difficult time. Merriment with family and friends would have been a great way to warm both the body and the spirit. Is it any surprise that winter became the “holiday season.” Halloween really kicks off the holiday season, so maybe that explains it’s appeal. Does Halloween get a boost from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s? Probably for the same reason people like Fridays. On Friday, you know the weekend is just around the corner. On Halloween, you know you’re facing an imminent onslaught of fun, food, family and friends.
There are those who vocally object to Halloween due to its spooky emphasis. To them, I say, the world can be a spooky place. For most of the year (in our culture) we avoid acknowledging that fear and death are a just another part of life. Halloween allows us a time to break those taboos and explore that part of life in a safe and fun manner. We decorate our yards with grave markers, form foods into the most ghoulish of shapes, dress as various undead creatures, and empty the horror film section the movie rental stores. It’s the one time of year where fear isn’t something to be avoided but something to be embraced.
No discussion of Halloween is complete without talks of costumes though. Many adults choose not to wear costumes for Halloween. I think that’s a real shame, because we are the ones who need them the most. Children live in their imagination, but too often as adults, we forgo escaping into our own fantastical worlds to spend more time in the mundane world of work, bills, etc. Halloween should be welcomed by adults as a chance to completely give oneself over to imagination in a perfectly socially acceptable way. Take one evening out of the year to not be who you are every other waking moment of your life.
None of these probably adequately explains why I love Halloween. It’s probably a mixture of all of them plus things I’ve not even thought of. Whatever the reason, Halloween will always be special to me.