Skipping Halloween

Well, I'm off my sick bed.  Finally!  There's still a cough and sniffles, but things are much better.  So, I have a little rant in my head.

Today is Halloween.  Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, but this year I'm just not feeling it.  Halloween, like many other holidays has lost its meaning.  I am going to jump past its meaning as a Pagan ritual and instead go into the more recent meaning. 

When I was a kid, Halloween was about having fun.  My first costume was a cheap mask from the dollar store.

One of the people in my neighborhood transformed his house into a haunted house and dressed up as a vampire.  I think I was four the first time I went out.  That house TERRIFIED me (I learned later that same man was also my dentist which then made me slightly afraid of my dentist).

As I grew older, trick-or-treating was a treat, but the bigger treat was the haunted hay ride and the time with friends.  I NEVER went out with just my family.  It was always a big group activity. 

I think my most elaborate costume was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (although I could be completely wrong and making this up). 

By the time I entered middle school (I was 11) I was done trick or treating.  Sure, I probably could have pulled off a couple more years, but really the trick or treating has always been for the younger kids.

Halloween through middle and high school was about reinventing yourself.  For one day you could be whomever or whatever you wanted to be.  Magic was real and everything was special.

Over the past few years, though, I've become disenchanted.  For most older kids and adults, Halloween is just about dressing trashy or cross-dressing.  There's no originality.

I'm sick of seeing age-inappropriate kids trick or treating.  If you're old enough to not need an adult escort, you're too old.  If you're too young to say, "Trick or Treat" or eat half the candy you acquire, you're too young. 

If your parties are about getting hammered and dancing then maybe you shouldn't call it a Halloween party.  Maybe it's just a well-timed costume party.

If you think Halloween is about the candy, then maybe you should just celebrate Halloween on Easter or Christmas since lots of candy is given out then too.

I know I'm probably pissing a few people off, but I'm kind of in a crabby mood.  Some people out there really remember what Halloween is about, but so many more seem to have forgotten.  Maybe next year I'll be more excited.  Maybe next year, I'll have the haunted house.  Maybe next year I'll throw on some elaborate costume and portray myself as some grand historical figure (Anne Boleyn would be fun.  You could do pre-beheading for just a fun costume or post-beheading for something scary).  This year, though, I'm just not feeling it.  Sorry.