filed in Holiday Cheer
Are You Getting Psyched for Halloween?
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12 comments for “Are You Getting Psyched for Halloween?”
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I love the idea of the country stopping to give kids candy but my dog died right before Halloween last year and I’m still grappling with grief. Hoping to honor her and maybe move forward. A guess this is kind of a ghost story. She haunts my heart still
Oh, I’m so sorry Beth. I cherish my dog so much, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when she’s gone. I’m sending you a viral hug.
I don’t get the growing importance of Halloween on the holiday spectrum. I find it disturbing somehow that adults are entering so wholeheartedly into a kids’ holiday.
I’m not a big Halloween person. I don’t find the aesthetic of the holiday appealing. And I’m a grump about dressing in costume. I much prefer Thanksgiving.
I was raised until I was 8 by a very strict Orthodox Jewish father who believed that Halloween was a Christian holiday and not to be celebrated by Jews. Consequently I was not allowed to participate in trick-or-treating activities with my peers and never quite seemed to get what the big deal was about dressing up in costumes even after he passed away and my less restrictive Mom started allowing me to participate. Even today I try and plan activities which will take me out of the house on Halloween so I don’t have to give out candy.
That’s fascinating, Michele. When you were a kid, did you feel like you were missing out?
Always. Halloween was bad but Christmas was worse. Especially the performances in school because it was long before political correctness and celebrating diversity and everything was Santa, Santa, Santa and my dad forbade my participation. I burst into tears when Santa came to my Kindergarten class room because I didn’t know whether I was allowed to accept a present from him or not. Even New Years was verboten because it’s the 8th day after Christmas, the day of Jesus’ bris. (Rolling my eyes at this one.) It’s no wonder my favorite holidays today are Independence Day and Thanksgiving. Both rooted in national tradition with absolutely no religious connotation.
I grew up in NY, where it seemed to me that everyone was Jewish. I never felt like much of an outsider. But Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday too. I appreciate that the sole focus is on food.
I’ll put in a minority opinion on Halloween – I love it. For me it runs neck and neck with Christmas as the two best holiday seasons of the year (I tend to sort of smear Thanksgiving and Christmas together under the umbrella of the “winter holiday season”). I find all of the other holidays to be more “intellectual” holidays, by which I mean I understand and approve of the point of the holiday (the remembrances of Labor Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, etc),and I enjoy the excuse they offer for traditional merry making, but they don’t especially move me. Christmas and Halloween, on the other hand, have always struck me as *magical* times of the year. I find something deeply numinous about them both. There is a pervasive mood that seems to permeate the air with a sense of wonder and mystery for weeks. I think for me Halloween is a delight because it is a kind of focal point for all that I love abut Autumn, which has always been by far my favorite season the year. I love watching each day as late September turns into October and the world transforms around me, the air becoming cool and crisp, fires beginning in the fireplace with their smoky, comforting warmth, the trees bursting out in a final blaze of color before they go to sleep, etc etc. I find it all magical as I find the Solstice holiday magical, though the specific feeling is different.
As we enter another week in L.A. of temps nearing 90 degrees, it’s hard to imagine the picture you paint. But it does sound magical.
I used to love Halloween–my ex-husband and I loved decorating the house with all sorts of ghoulish decorations. And we loved dressing up for parties. Best costumes one year, he went as Glenn Beck (imagine that horror!) and I dressed as a hippie. But since the divorce, I have lost that childlike love I had for the day. I associate it all with him–in essence, the day is forever ruined for me.
Forever, really?