Halloween Can Be Your Valentine//October 135th, 2021

 I recall a silly song from a TV show of my youth, The Fairly Oddparents, in which the lead character sings a line about “a day that wipes the floor with the other 364.”

Okay, okay. The song being sung was about Christmas, but the line has always resonated with me, because, obviously, I feel exactly the same way about Halloween. There is no other day on the calendar that comes close to fulfilling me as much October 31st. 

But strangely, there is another date that always makes me happy when it comes around. For most people, this would probably be Christmas or a birthday. But oddly enough, for as long as I can remember, my second favorite holiday has been Valentine’s Day.

Though nowhere near as exciting as getting the Halloween decor out, my heart always leapt when I would see my mother pulling out the little Cupid silhouette that always hung in our living room window. Choosing which boxed set of valentines I would pass out to my elementary school class was probably my second-biggest holiday-related decision each year, next to choosing my Halloween costume, and sorting them out and deciding who would get what (Had to be very careful what the boys got; couldn’t have anyone thinking I had a crush!) was serious business.

I’m not entirely sure what made Valentine’s Day such an event to me as a child. Perhaps it was those little cards, making me feel important, popular even, when on a normal day, so few other kids would even give me a second thought. Or maybe it was just simply that it was a bright spot in the dead of winter; something to celebrate after that seemingly endless period of nothingness once Christmas and New Year’s had come and gone. Sometimes I even consider that perhaps I just have a massive sweet tooth and enjoy candy-centric holidays. 

But as time passes, I realize that I may not be as alone in my feelings about Valentine’s Day as I once thought. The Halloween community as a whole seems to almost regard Valentine’s Day as a second celebration, and, as I mentioned last year, spooky valentines have been a thing for years and years. The connection between the two holidays seems to go back to almost the very beginning, even before I started noticing all of the devil imagery in Valentine’s-related items in my childhood.

(Devil pumpkin by MimsVictims)

More recently, though, it seems like the Halloween community has almost fought to make Valentine’s Day somewhat of a second celebration. 

The memes referencing eliminating Valentine’s Day and replacing it with a second Halloween used to really bother me. Even in my loneliest stages of life, I never understood all the hatred toward a holiday that, in my opinion, is meant to be about love and happiness in general. People would constantly send me these memes, and I’d grit my teeth and respond that, as much as I’d love a second official Halloween celebration, I’m one of the rare few who actually enjoys Valentine’s Day, and besides, at least in my area, what good would a Halloween in February be? Wearing a winter coat to trick-or-treat was always a pet peeve of mine, on the years when the temperature required it.

I see now, though, that perhaps these memes helped create something amazing. In the last several years, rather than eliminating Valentine’s Day entirely, Halloween seems to have merged with it, to create a special time of year referred to as “Valloween”, during which my second favorite holiday, starts to look quite a bit like my favorite day of the year.

(Little pumpkin by SpookyCutes, pops by LeatherAndJade)

Valentine’s Day has always made me smile so much, that there’s some part of me that would like to keep the imagery with me year-round. And now, thanks to the amazing artists that have helped Valloween come to life, I can do that and still stick to my personal aesthetic. Everything looks better through the lens of Halloween.

(Pumpkin bouquet by HouseOfGhoulishWonder)

I feel incredibly fortunate that my second favorite holiday has merged in such a way with Halloween, and that the community as a whole seems to be embracing it as an almost-second celebration.

(Pin by DulceCalaveritas)

After all, is there any love more worth celebrating, than the love of Halloween? I know that that is the one love that will always define me.

Stay spooky, my friends.