Halloween is less than a week away.
This is a truly exciting time, but I also can’t help but be sad when I think about the fact that, a week from today, Halloween will be over.
Post-Halloween depression is something I’ve always struggled with. It hits me hard every year, once Halloween night’s festivities are done. Even as a young child I referred to November 1st as “the day of despair”. Clearance sales make it slightly more bearable in adulthood, but nothing really takes away the pain of knowing Halloween is gone for another year once November arrives.
In recent years, though, I often catch myself falling into a pre-Halloween depression as well. There is a period of time, during late October, when looking forward to the actual day of Halloween, blends with knowing the season is just about done.
If you love Halloween, you probably know the time I’m talking about. You can’t take two steps toward a fleck of orange you see in the distance at any major retail store without tripping over a Christmas tree. Halloween stores are getting more crowded with people (Can you believe some people actually wait until now, rather than stalk the Spirit store locator every day and fly to the closest location the very second it’s marked as ‘now open’?!) and their shelves are getting bare. Pumpkins start dwindling from supermarkets, events happening in November and December are getting more and more attention, and you just can’t shake the feeling that the time you spend all year waiting for, is about to come to an end.
Most people’s reaction when I mention this feeling, is something along the lines of, “But don’t you try to make every day Halloween?”
While the answer to that question is a very obvious ‘yes’, there is still nothing quite like the small chunk of time when the rest of the world is on the same page. I wrote a poem as a teenager in which I described the month of October as feeling like a huge gift just for me, from the universe, and I will always stand by that feeling. I try very hard to keep the spirit of Halloween in everything I do, no matter what the Gregorian calendar says, but the most magical feeling is when you can look out the window and see shades of orange and red and yellow. When you can drive through a neighborhood and see pumpkins and skeletons and scarecrows on almost everyone’s lawn, and be surrounded by the glow of orange lights in the evening. Halloween items are more accessible in stores, pumpkins are in season, and you can just feel that spooky aura in the air wherever you go. Halloween can be every day, but sadly, October can really only come once a year.
As a child, getting to the holiday itself always seemed like the most important thing. I’m not sure when it started to occur to me that savoring the season as a whole is just as important, but somehow, it never seems like enough time. This year in particular, it’s been a little more difficult to find ways to keep the celebration going, but I hope that everyone has had an amazing October and, in a short six days, will have an amazing Halloween.
It’s truly bittersweet, how close we are to that special day, and beginning the countdown once again.
Stay spooky, my friends, and make the remainder of October a great time.
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