People have always asked me what it is that I love so much about Halloween. Why it's so important to me. How it all came to be.
And this has always been the hardest question for me to answer.
I've never really known.
I just remember Halloween coming into my life one day (October 31st, 1991, to be exact) when I was four years old, and I was never the same again. I was me from that day forward.
But the more I think about Halloween in adulthood, the more I see what an escape it is, for everyone. I think there's a reason why it comes earlier each year now, and why it has such a loyal following, whether you're in it year round or just wait for it to come back every year.
I think the world needs Halloween.
People need to be able to take comfort in the things that maybe would normally not be "socially acceptable". Be who we actually want to be, even if it's just for a short while. I've always thought you could tell a lot about a person based on the costume they choose, provided it's not some forced group or couple getup. (To be honest, this would be a dealbreaker for me in any friendship or relationship. Absolutely no one tells me what to do for Halloween.) Even the costumes I look back on from my childhood and can't remember why I chose, such as Cinderella, or Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I can see connections to my inner self now, looking at it from an adult perspective. Cinderella may well have been a reference to my love for Halloween itself; feeling like royalty for one night, only to have it all evaporate into dull, empty normalcy the second the clock strikes midnight. And Dorothy, well...I grew up always wishing I could have a magical adventure, like in a fantasy movie. And who better to represent that fantasy than Dorothy Gale?
And what about fear? Fear controls so much of so many of our lives. Halloween is a time when we can make light of some of our fears. Maybe the world is a scary place, but when Halloween comes, we can confront our fear of death by dancing with the skeletons, by exploring with ghosts. The spiders become silly, or a glorious adornment to a spooky display. The screams become music, the "what if?"s excitement...For a moment, we almost forget to fear.
The weight of the world seems to lift, at Halloween-time. We embrace what makes us unique, celebrate however we see fit. Those of us who feel out of place, blend in. And the ones who may be a little too serious otherwise, let loose. One last big celebration, with no real obligation other than to just simply be, before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season begins.
Halloween is known as the time when we can be anyone else for a night...But what I really think is, for most of us, it's the time when we can truly be ourselves.
And, perhaps, that is the best answer to the Why? Halloween is the time that the world is the most free. We come out of hiding, and sometimes, the mask is the unmasking.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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