Hate is a very strong word – especially since it’s only one half of my bipolar feelings for Halloween. So to pre-empt any self righteous indignation on behalf of this annual dress up party, I’ll first state some of the things that I LOVE about Halloween.
I love candy. I love little boys and girls in pirate costumes. I love little boys and girls in princess costumes. [Okay – so the little boys dressed as princesses are just hypothetical since their fathers won’t allow it. But those that settle for being princesses in their hearts will eventually have their day in Key West.] I love chilly nights with glowing, grinning pumpkins. I love the sound of a neighborhood party and the sight of men unafraid to wear tights in public (even some of the aforementioned censorious fathers). I love the idea that for one night you can put on a costume and pretend to be someone else. Because don’t we all entertain the idea of being someone else every once in a while? Even just for a minute?
So with that out of the way… I must confess that I also hate Halloween (at least 50% of the time). Why? Um – because it’s scary.
I have mentioned previously that I do not enjoy horror movies. The Ring did not give me thrills and goosebumps. It made me want to throw my TV out the window screaming, “never, never, NEVER do that do me again! How am I supposed to sleep at night now that I’ve seen that?!” I’ll stick with Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin thank you very much.
But how can you avoid the truly scary stuff in these October weeks? I live in fear of channel surfing in the evening. You may be clicking through, looking for something entertaining – perhaps a Will & Grace rerun, or maybe one of those Danielle Steele movies on Lifetime – and out of nowhere you are confronted with Linda Blair screaming obscenities and spewing green slime. That is just not something I’d like to see. Especially as a surprise. I don’t particularly like nice surprises, let alone those of the demonic variety.
Another thing I don’t like about Halloween: the undead. The whole premise of this day is that the dead come back to visit, and my very least favorite droppers by are the ones that don’t know how to stay dead. At its very core, the idea of the dead coming back to life is decidedly NOT fun. Yet every year, people strap on their fake gore and find each others’ missing heads and terminal wounds delightfully amusing. Exactly when and how did the undead become festive?
But then there is this whole other world of candy corn and superhero costumes. It makes me feel so conflicted… Especially when I find myself talking to people who are entirely against Halloween. One coworker told me that her kids passed out candy, but did not dress up like their friends. The reason being that their grandmother felt very strongly about Halloween and called it the “devil’s day.” My response was that “it’s not if you go as a fairy princess.” But given my own aversions to Satan and the undead, I can see her point.
In the end – I do not ban Halloween, and OF COURSE I encourage my children to dress up and have fun. But there will always be that part of me that says, “wait – why are we doing this again?”
No need to give me a history lesson – I know the background. But I kind of think that the Hallmark corporations of the world have made us forget about those very serious superstitions and instead, turned the day into a Disney themed party where both lovely and horrifying creatures coexist with only theoretical bloodshed.
My own unreasonable fears and phobias will never allow me to fully buy in though; and I’ll be more likely to avoid the dark basement at night than to gleefully festoon my front lawn with fake corpses. I think I’ll just stay home and pass out candy to three year old ladybugs. And I’ll stick to Netflix movies until November first.
*Sorry for the repost – but it’s a busy week – and this is so old you’re probably reading it for the first time anyway. Happy Halloween week!
Oh this is too funny because as I was reading it I was thinking to myself, gosh this sounds familiar. I swear she's told me these exact things before. Doh. You'd told us all! haha!
I can't wait to see my fairy princess all dolled up this year! I love it all! Except the gore, and the scary movies. I hate those too.
When I was 17, my best friend talked me into going with her to a midnight showing of Don't Look in The Basement and Last House on the Left. OMG, I was scared to death. I hate scary movies, and I doubly hate slasher films. I spent most of the time in the lobby and I had plenty of company there.
I love all the older scary movies, like the Freddy and Jason ones. And as I'm sure you know by now, I love Halloween. I just think it's so fun! But I can totally understand why someone wouldn't like it. Just remember…this too shall pass and it's only a movie!
Hehe!
I hate hate hate scary movies, with a passion, and all things undead as well :) So I feel your pain!
I'm kind of with you on this day….Halloween and I have a very love-hate relationship as well!
I hate scary movies and haunted houses and all that nonsense. Chris said just this weekend, "Oh, we should find someone to keep the baby and we go see that new paranormal scary movie!" Riiiight.
I used to enjoy it when I was a kid and you could actually Trick or Treat versus now the rage being 'Trick or Trunking' as all the lunatics of the world have made Halloween uncute and unsafe. Bastards.
That said, I don't want to dress Arwen up this year. She's 8 months old and can neither hold a bag for herself nor eat candy. Chris wants to though so I went to 5, yes 5, places to find her a costume. Who knew you had to shop for those things 4 weeks in advance!? Now, I get to drag a child that hates getting dressed in and out of a stupid costume to put her in the car seat.
Bah Humbug to it!! Enjoy your cuties and their candy though! :)
I am not a Halloween person for pretty much the same exact reasons. I am horribly squeamish and do not do horror movies. The whole zombie/dead/ghost thing freaks me out. I don't understand why anyone would want to be purposely scared out of their minds. The candy is the best part, and let's face it, there's Easter for that.. with its very unscary bunnies and chicks and pretty dyed eggs. :)
Great post!
I have a huge and real hatred of Halloween, too.
For me, it began on my baby's first Halloween. At 12 weeks old, he got a high fever, and was hospitalized for two weeks with a bad kidney infection. No first Halloween for him, no cute Pumpkin pictures. Just huge worry in a hospital room, lots of tears.
This week, two years ago when I was pregnant with my second son, I was in a bad car accident and I spent a few hours in a hospital bed monitoring my unborn child.
Then last year, Halloween eve, my oldest son got sick again. Had a severe case of pneumonia, was again hospitalized for two weeks. Needed surgery to drain fluid from his lung, chest tube, etc. NIGHTMARE of my life.
Another 'ruined' Halloween. I don't plan anymore. I don't think about it. I haven't even gotten my youngest son a costume yet. I can't let myself look forward to it, as something bad always happens. I hate this.
I hate the scary stuff too. I've been letting my girls watch Charlie Brown on DVD all week. ;)
I blame Martha Stewart.
For the commercialization of Halloween among other things.
I don't care for the horror movies either, unless it's something old school with Bela Lugosi in it.
I hope it's okay to share a link– I've been told my perspective has been helpful to others before, regarding this season.
http://onbradstreet.blogspot.com/2008/10/samhain-transformative-sabbat.html
I'm not a huge fan of horror or spooky things – I don't get particularly scared (except by gory films) but I just don't see the appeal.
I thought I'd read this before…
I'm dreading halloween.
It is kind of an odd holiday if you think about it… I just try to focus on the fun things – the costumes, the chocolate, the parties. And I, like you, detest horror movies, so I just avoid them altogether.
I love the scary stuff. Hate the candy. We should try to blend ourselves into one perfect Halloween enjoy-er.
i hate horror movies. hate them.
i never liked Halloween b/c of the pressure to have this great costume. I'm soooo not crafty, I never came up with anything particularly worthy of "wow that is so cool"
We have a love/hate thing with Halloween. I hate the ghoulie, bloody, grose Halloween. I hate teenagers with pillowcase Trick Or Treating at 9:00 p.m. I hate that I have to stalk the TV so I don't have a screaming 6 year old (even the kid channesl have creepy stuf fon this week).
I too love candy! I love fairy princesses, the social part when all our stop by. I like that (for the most part) it does not require hanging out with rellies. :)
I heard somewhere that the spending for Halloween decorations is second only to Christmas. It definitely wasn't this over-the-top when I was a kid.
And I'm with you.
Hate. Scary. Movies.
Really, nothing is safe the whole month of October!
Halloween is a love/hate relationship for me, also…. Since I tend to "dress up" everyday, I find it annoying when other people dress up on Halloween. And I love to dress up myself on Halloween, but still find it a bit annoying to have to do it on a special day. I mean, why can't we do it every Friday? You know, Halloween Fridays.
I am with you – mostly hate halloween hate the whole scary thing, love candy, chocolate and kids in costumes. The first year we came here it was just after we got married and I will never forget opening our first bank account and being served by Dororthy out of Wizard of Oz, it was surreal.
Well said. Pretty macabre all the way around. But still we buy into it.
Oh and I've never seen The Exorcist. It's just not for me.