As a child, Halloween held the promise of sweets and stories of monsters lurking under beds — or in Transylvania. Halloween was also a time to become someone else. The freedom to be whomever or whatever, and spend the night masquerading around the neighborhood, hauling in pounds of candy. Not only did those borrowed identities grant a new identity, but also a sense of excitement, like whatever happened wouldn’t be of significance or relevance past Halloween night. How Halloween is perceived by people, however, appears to change as they age.
“Halloween is all about the most original scary costumes — and candy”, first-grader Alexa Sribar said. Her opinion is shared throughout most elementary schools- candy and scary costumes are the reasons little kids love to celebrate. To most children, Halloween is the one magical night a year when whenever they ask for candy, it’s given to them.
For the majority of Highlanders, Halloween is still seen like that. “Halloween is for being scared out of your… pants,” sophomore Julia Reidy said. She has grown to find that the simple joys she relished during Halloween as a child are the things she continues to enjoy to this day.
“[The best part about Halloween is] Candy. Come on, the candy is mine. Do not tell me to take one — I will take them all,” Reidy said. Her adoration for candy and being scared are echoed by Sribar, a girl who is less than half her age. The love that younger generations feel for this holiday seems to fade with age, though.
“[Halloween is about] commercialism. But, it’s still fun”, French teacher Michael Click said. He is among many adults who’ve turned a skeptical eye to the holiday, labeling it as a ploy among candy companies to increase their revenue. But, as a parent, Click also said that he enjoyed Halloween.
“Halloween is a lot more fun now that I have a little kid, because he gets so into it, and it’s so magical to him,” Click said, “Halloween is really for little kids to have fun.” For Click, and many others, Halloween is mostly enjoyable because they get to see how it rubs off on their family and makes them behave differently. Even if one considers Halloween to be pointless or annoying, it’s possible to find joy in it, knowing that other people are enjoying it.
As time has passed, however, some people find that Halloween is more difficult to enjoy as they grow older. Perhaps they can’t find reasons to feel happy for kids on Halloween, or are simply “over” the holiday. It can be easy to lose zeal, especially with the decreasing amount of effort people put into costumes. These articles of clothing, which grow more childlike each year, have all started to morph into one — the girls’ costumes are short and revealing, and the boys’ costumes are growing gorier year after year. Nevertheless, there are those who still take joy in dressing up, and those who haven’t lost faith in the holiday.
“Halloween is the best day ever,” Sribar said. She, like many other kids, ranks Halloween among the best days of the year — it’s something she says she’ll always love and excitedly wait for every year. To many of the younger generations, the costumes are the most important parts.
“This year I’m pretty sure I want to be Princess Celestia or Applejack [from My Little Pony],” Sribar said. The enthusiasm in kids, surrounding costume choice especially, is so intense that it could almost be considered hyperbolic.
“Last year, [my son] wanted to be a hammerhead shark, and he just decided to pretend to be a hammerhead shark all day,” Click said, “This year he’s already got his costume picked out, and he’s going to be a Red Power Ranger. He goes around doing karate.”
In the average Highlander’s modern day, this holiday is all about provoking paranoia and exciting the imagination. But, a couple years back, Halloween was a magical night when imaginations ran wild, and sweets could be hauled in from all over.
To many people, All Hallows Eve is as marvelous and magical as ever, but it appears that many others will have to find new reasons to love it.
