Think About It: Why I Love Halloween
It’s the final Friday of October, my friends, the final Think About It Column in the Halloween Party. You’ve spent 26 days now reading reviews and silly articles about toys, listening to podcasts, and in fact there are still five days of them left. But with Friday’s column staring me in the face, I was at something of a loss as to what to write. For the past few Halloweens, I’ve written silly columns about parties, trick-or-treating, suggesting that you send your kids off to set egg and/or set fire to the homes of celebrities that annoy me and so forth. And don’t get me wrong, that stuff was all gold. I am, after all, incredibly entertaining.
But I didn’t want to do that again this year. Instead, I allowed my mind to wander a bit and landed on something a little different. Why, I asked myself, do I love Halloween? Why have I spent two Octobers in a row packing this blog with creepy content? Why do I still spend weeks every fall trying to come up with an original costume idea? Why did I make a special trip to CVS for the Peanuts Prowling Pumpkin Patch? (Which, by the way, is the coolest musical Halloween decoration ever.)
When you’re a kid, Halloween is all about the candy. As you get older, that isn’t quite enough to maintain the love. It becomes about spending the month drifting through darkness, finding a disguise, becoming something or someone else for a time. It’s fun.
“Well duh, Blake, of course it’s fun. But why?”
We all enjoy being someone else, escaping from our lives for a time, but would that in of itself be enough? We could come up with any excuse we wanted for a costume party. In fact, if you live here in Southern Louisiana (or, from what I hear, San Francisco), we do. What makes Halloween unique is that this is a night where we’re allowed to really tap into our dark side. We all have one, but most of us don’t let it out because… well… we’re decent human beings. Actors always say that it’s more fun to play the bad guy than the hero, and having done a small bit of acting in my life, I can agree with that sentiment. It’s fun to pretend to be evil sometimes. Why?
As fashionable s it is to be all dark, moody and cynical, most of us enjoy that pretending to spend time in the darkness because, in our hearts, it’s not who we are. I know, you’re laughing at me now. Stop it. You know it’s true. I’m closing in on the end of the month of zombie movies and tales about the darkest moments of humankind by me coming to the realization that most of us, honestly, don’t suck as much as we like to pretend. Be honest: if you saw an old woman trying to cross a street, would you help her? If you found a wallet on the sidewalk, would you look for an ID to return it? When there’s a national tragedy, do you donate money, food, blood?
I’d like to believe that all of us would answer “yes” to at least most of these questions, if not all.
Because, deep down, I honestly believe that most of us are decent human beings.
You’ve got five days until Halloween, friends, and I hope you enjoy it. Hit a haunted house. Dress the kids up like monsters. Gorge yourself on horror movies. But remember, no matter what you change, on November 1st, you’re back to being you.
And you is probably better than you think.
Blake M. Petit is heading to a par-tay tonight. Emphasis on the “tay.” Contact him with comments or suggestions at BlakePT@cox.net.