So Halloween gives every a chance to be a kid again. More so than any other holiday. There comes a time when you stop trick or treating, but there never really comes a time when you stop dressing up, hosting costume parties, drinking 'blood punch,' eating some candy, and celebrating a time to act stupid and childish and gleefully careless. This should be appealing to most people. This should be something to look forward to, and plan for, and take to a bit of an extreme that isn't usually encouraged on any other day of the year. It gives us a chance to dress up as things that maybe we weren't allowed to do when we were younger. Your mind allows you to be more creative. It's more than just your parents suggesting things for you to be based on the old clothes and props you have around the house. And you don't have to be the saddest clown ever. [Insert picture of me from 1989] So go be that seductive vampire, go be a pimp from Oakland, or a disheveled librarian, and have fun with it. Be childish again. Take your kids trick or treating, make them feel its all about them, then tuck them in and go be young and careless. It might be worth it.
I'm not to this point yet. I'm caught between dressing up for fun and dressing up to reclaim my childhood. I'm more in the dressing up because I want to look sweet at the bars. But it usually doesn't take much planning, effort, and usually doesn't let me reclaim any of my childhood memories. More times than not it just makes it harder for me to drink with some awkward costume on...
The other draw of Halloween for the adult world is the opportunity for an escape from their every day lives. Once you enter the working world, most likely, you spend most of your time trying to get away. Vacations. Holidays. Etc. Well what better way to get away than to change your identity and pretend to be someone or something else for a night? Halloween is the layman's version of those saucy ballroom masquerades, where the lack of knowing who you're talking to only extenuates your senses and exaggerates your excitement. It is that relative feeling of uneasy scintillation that allows people to experience something that they may only get once a year. Even if the interaction is only with your partner, it still adds an element of mystery and deceit that can provide such an escape from the drudge of 9-5, mon-fri that it warrants legitimately looking forward to.
This doesn't get me either. More times than not, girls are wearing less and less, and trust me, there is no mistaking their identity. And I don't know if I've ever had a costume where people legitimately didn't know who I was. So that whole masquerading and sneaking around is once again, let's just drink with costumes on...
So based on this, I never look forward to Halloween anymore. It's always a let down. I was never one to go over the top on my costume, never really let myself go, and never walked away thinking that the night's experience was worth any of the time, effort, or thought that I put into my costume. So what's the point? Well I'm not sure. But for the weeks leading up to October 31st, I never get too excited. I downplay the day, I express my concern, I never get too excited for a costume, and generally I look forward to Columbus day more than Halloween. Until about October 30th, coincidentally today. Then my black and orange blood gets flowing, my costume is all taken care of, and instead of grabbing pillow cases of candy, I will go forth and collect pints of beer. I hope you all do the same and enjoy this chance to be dumb without responsibilities (no one will know it's you!)
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