It’s Halloween night. The crisp air is filled with the laughter of kids dressed up in costumes and the crinkle of candy wrappers. Most people would describe it as one of the best holidays to celebrate, especially with all the free candy and fun parties. Handing out candy, taking younger siblings trick-or-treating, getting dolled up in a DIY costume, carving pumpkins into spooky shapes or funny words – people love it all. In my opinion, though, Halloween is full of bitter, cold and scared faces and not a whole lot of fun at all. I’m not a pessimistic person, but Halloween is over-appreciated, overdone and I am over it.
My dislike for the creepy, scary holiday stems from a few things that happened in my childhood that I would like to address so Halloween lovers can have an easier time understanding where I am coming from.
At six years old, my grandmother made popcorn balls for all the trick-or-treaters that came to my house. They were loved by all the neighborhood kids and my house quickly became a mandatory stop on everyone’s candy-driven neighborhood tour. I went with my parents to trick-or-treat with my brothers, and when we got back all the popcorn balls were gone. I went on with my night and was getting ready for bed when I heard a little knock on the door. My mom answered and there was a little boy, close to my age, that had come to the door by himself hoping for a popcorn ball. He was sadly disappointed when we did not have any left, and my six-year-old brain was filled with so much sympathy for that little boy that I sobbed my eyes out for the rest of the night. It still makes my heart break and I get choked up about it even still. Halloween is filled with disappointed children and sad, cold nights walking home without popcorn balls.
When I was seven years old, a family friend had a huge Halloween party complete with a haunted maze through the woods behind their house. Once it was dark, my family decided we should all walk through the maze to get the most from our night. About five feet into the maze, there was a jump scare that knocked me to the ground screaming for mercy. The teenage boy quickly took off his mask and apologized, thinking I would calm down. However, there was no calming down for seven-year-old me, who couldn’t shake the scare. My whole family had to leave the party, and to this day I do not understand why anyone on this Earth enjoys getting scared and having a rush of adrenaline so strong that your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.
To me, there is no reason to celebrate such a trivial holiday like Halloween. There is no joy brought by eating so much candy that your stomach aches, getting scared so much you can’t sleep and being frozen like an ice block from being outside during the cold weather. My Halloween night consists of warm apple cider, cheesy (and, more importantly, not scary) Disney Halloween movies and laying on my couch in sweatpants and a Halloween shirt that my mom forces me to wear because it’s her favorite holiday. There isn’t even a true meaning behind Halloween, unless you want to go the old-timey route and invite demons into your house to haunt you for the rest of time. If that’s the case, go right ahead. Less nightmares for me.
Story by Gracyn Shulista