I’ve always loved Halloween. When I was a kid, living in farming places, it was a big deal. We’d make Halloween crafts in school and put them on the walls of the classroom. As you walked to gym or music class, you’d see Halloween adornments lining the corridors. Halloween was a kids’ celebration that was encouraged.<\/p>\n
An interesting point about Halloween is that while it was promoted by the parents and teachers, the children agreed.\u00a0 Rarely was the community so successful at directing the children’s interests.\u00a0 Halloween was an occasion in which virtually everyone wanted to participate.\u00a0 Even the “un-crafty” liked making Halloween crafts.\u00a0 Halloween didn’t only resonate with children, either: even a “stick in the mud,” with no children, would buy a pumpkin and carve it into a convincing jack-o-lantern.\u00a0 They’d have treats ready for the children whom, most other times, they’d rather not tolerate.<\/p>\n
Perhaps one appeal of Halloween is its non-judgemental aspect.\u00a0 You can’t choose the “wrong” costume or carve a jack-o-lantern “wrong”.\u00a0 When people go out for Halloween – either trick-or-treating or supervising – they enjoy the variety of costumes and jack-o-lanterns they see, rather than just pointing out the best and worst.\u00a0 Since Halloween has a grim dimension to it, you don’t have to seem happy while you’re celebrating it; you’re not expected to smile.\u00a0 After all, with disquieted spirits everywhere about, doesn’t it make sense to be on guard?<\/p>\n
Without a doubt, Halloween stokes the imagination like no other holiday.\u00a0 It encourages people to imagine what they can’t see – and even encourages them to believe that it’s really there.\u00a0 Perhaps above all, humans are imaginative creatures.\u00a0 Halloween invites people to bring forth their spookiest conjurings.\u00a0 It’s a labour of love for minds that are too often suppressed.<\/p>\n
To be sure, Halloween’s connection with death makes it resonate with people.\u00a0 Human beings constantly struggle with how meaningful life is in the moment, yet how fragile it is – and the certainty that it will end.\u00a0 Yet, does it end entirely?\u00a0 Halloween offers an endless array of ghouls who seem to relish being dead.\u00a0 Although we might fear them, we find them reassuring as well:\u00a0 it they have survived death, can we yet do the same?<\/p>\n
Even without Halloween, the feelings would manifest.\u00a0 Farmers’ fields, harvested and laid waste by frost, show the inevitability of death.\u00a0 Yet, something seems to remain there, waiting to be visited.\u00a0 People know they likely will not go there, but can’t help but wonder what they might find if they did….<\/p>\n
Happy Halloween.<\/p>\n