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As we are now entering into the fall, the leaves change and there’s just something in the air. It smells cold and crisp, and there’s the hint of warm cinnamon and most of all, pumpkin. There’s an energy that’s building up - part anticipation and part nostalgia. The cold makes my joints ache in the way that only someone whose childhood has long since passed, but it also fills my heart with an excitement that never grows old. The days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, and before I know it, my favorite time of the year is upon us: Halloween.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like my Thanksgivings and Christmases too, but there’s just something about All Hallow’s Eve, and i’m not just talking about candy and sexy costumes either.
Well, ok, maybe a little bit. *AHEM*
When you think of Halloween, you think of trick or treating, and parties, and way too much candy, but remember, that all happens at the very end. It’s the climax of the story; the big payoff at the end of the movie. But you know, like many movies, that’s not the best part. For me, the essence of Halloween is what you see at the very beginning of it all. You know what I’m talking about; that time at the end or even the middle of september when all the stores start putting up the Halloween decorations. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed. The pumpkins. The black cats. The goofy ghosts and ghouls. The aisles of candy and kitschy ready-made costumes.
Huh? Where did it all come from, you may ask. It just popped up out of nowhere, you might say. And that’s the point. In an increasingly media saturated world, we’re taught to ignore messages and images just as much as we are to listen to and obey them. The benefit of all this though is how it makes the arrival of the Halloween season all the more fun. It’s a surprise; it all happened and you never even saw it coming. Everything has changed in an instant, and for 31 beautiful nights, the rulebook gets thrown out the window.
Think about what it was like when you went out trick or treating on your first Halloween. How strange it was, how scary and exciting it all was. All year long you were told by mom and dad (who if you were my age was still wearing that god-awful member’s only jacket) to not walk in the middle of the road. You’re not allowed to walk around in the middle of the night. They probably told you, wear something sensible and don’t attract attention to yourself. Don’t go bothering your neighbors, and keep your voice down so you don’t make a scene. I’m guessing most people had parents who raised them on these old homespun lessons. But come the Night of Samhain, all bets are off. Suddenly all the ordinary rules you grew up on are null and void, at least for one wonderful, sugar laden, tooth rotting night. In a single sudden moment, every thing you knew about the world changed.
Now when you look back on those times, think of all the things that happened even before Halloween. The funny decorations, the scary masks, that strange and mischievous spirit that everyone seems to have all of a sudden. There’s a certain irreverence to Halloween that doesn’t exist in any other holiday. Subjects that were usually too weird, violent, or morbid to discuss like zombies, alien abductions and psycho serial killers were now fair game. The rules in the world changed, and now the grown ups were acting like kids. To a young child, sometimes it felt strange; such a jarring break from the usual routine. It was scary, but exciting. It was a mystery.
What was going on? Why am I suddenly allowed to do things that I normally can’t? How come I can suddenly eat as much candy as I want? Who in the world are these people that look like my parents, but are ok with me talking at the dinner table about beheadings and zombie guts flying everywhere in Splatterhouse? When am I gonna get in trouble for all this stuff? All of these questions get asked in a child’s mind all in the span of a single sugar saturated, high-fructose corn syrup drenched minute as they try to make sense of the mysterious paradigm known as Halloween. After that though, there’s only one question left, and that’s the most important one in a mystery like this:
How far can I go with this?
Now sure, every Halloween you get your usual group of idiots and trolls trying to ruin everyone’s good time, but let’s leave them under their bridge for a now. The big thing about Halloween for a kid is seeing how far they can stretch the mysterious and seemingly invisible boundaries that rule their lives before their parents have to go back to being parents instead of nerds, weirdos and dorks. So you’re telling me I can stay up past 9PM? I can eat tons of candy too? Can I watch the latest Friday the 13th/Gory Slasher Flick? Can I have a fake traumatic headwound attached to my face to creep out my little sister and aunt what’s her name? It is ok if I build a crazy wicker demon effigy on the lawn and set it on fire tonight?
You see, as crazy as it seems to us as adults, for a kid, it’s the mystery of the rules; the transformation of the world from the ordinary and frankly boring to the strange and limitless. Yeah, it’s scary at first, but it’s also a lot of fun. Where those boundaries lie, and the exact reason we’re all doing this are a mystery to them; a fun one they won’t quite understand, and don’t really care. Let’s be real here; your average 8 year old probably won’t care about the idea of Halloween being a largely commercial Holiday by candy, toy and greeting card makers. They’ll probably be too busy trying to get sick off of 3 bags worth of chocolate bars, shock tarts, and pixi sticks.
Put it simply, Halloween is what a kid thinks when you try to teach them about anarchy. To them it’s not about flipping over
cars, burning public buildings and getting arrested by cops. For a kid, Halloween is about zombies, R rated movies, metric tonnes of candy, and parents for once not telling them “NO” every 30 seconds. For a kid, Anarchy = Halloween, and it is a wonderful thing.
‘Nuff Said.
--Doc Tran (10/1/14)
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