According to the folks who keep up with
statistics like these, Halloween is the second biggest holiday in America, right
behind Christmas. People spend tons of money on candy, costumes, and parties.
And why is that? Because Halloween is a fun night.
Let's get this out of
the way up front. It's not Harvest Day. Those people who have such a death grip
on their bibles that they can't loosen up and have a bit of silly fun should
simply lock themselves up on Oct. 31 and watch reruns of
The 700 Club. People can play around with
something without turning pagan from it. As a kid I loved Halloween. On one
level, I got to dress up in a costume and get candy from all of the neighbors;
on another, I suppose, it was an exploration of the unknown...
I think
that we all have a fascination with death on some level or another. It is, after
all, the great unknown and while we might have faith in what we think is on the
other side of death the fact remains that we don't know for certain at a
scientific level. I also think that many of us are scared of death. Halloween is
a way for us to face our fear and curiosity of death without the common emotions
that such thoughts usually evoke. I suppose the same is true of horror movies,
and that would explain why horror films are usually big hits at the theaters.
I'm by no means a psychologist, but I know that all of this is true for
me.
Originally, Halloween was a Celtic holiday to their pagan gods. Over
the years, and primarily through Irish influences, it has evolved into what we
have today. So while it may have started out with pagan blood sacrifices, it's
now about having fun and toying around safely with the notion of death. The
people who eschew this for Harvest Day are then simply missing out on some good
fun that they could have. If they insist on missing Halloween because of its
pagan roots, they should also quit buying Christmas trees and celebrating
Christmas and Easter. Christmas trees are pagan in origin and, thanks to the
Catholic church trying to absorb pagans by moving Christian holidays to pagan
holidays, both Christmas and Easter are celebrated on old pagan holidays. I, for
one, believe that a holiday is what I make of it regardless of history; if I
celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday then so what if the tree and the date
are historically pagan? It's not for me, and that's what
matters.
Halloween, though, has lost much of the fun from my youth. As an
adult, I no longer do anything except buy candy for the kids who come by our
house and watch some scary movies on AMC, TCM, or the like. I remember the
thrill of Halloween as a kid and the feeling I get now causes me to reflect upon
my lost youth. More and more things these days remind me of older times, better
times even. I'm beginning to realize what people mean when they say that youth
is wasted on the young. They say that old folks enter a second childhood --
maybe I can look forward to that...
