In Defence Of Halloween

There’s a particular time of year that really gets on my nerves. The two or three weeks leading up to Halloween. Not because I don’t like Halloween, in fact I love Halloween. It just really, really annoys me when I go into any shop in town, hunting down the last few pieces I need for my costume, buzzing for a night of fancy dress, music and endless vodka cranberries, only to find aisle upon aisle of Christmas decorations. We’ve genuinely lost the plot.

I love Christmas just as much as the next person, but does the lead up to it really have to span the entire second half of the year? I get that as autumn crawls to a close, and the days get darker, colder and wetter, it’s hard to feel motivated to do anything and we all need something to look forward to. But if that’s the case, then it makes even less sense that we have this strange tendency to breeze right past Halloween. The Scream masks, fake cobwebs and sexy nurse costumes get their (very literal) fifteen minutes of fame in the first week or two of October, and then whoosh! Gone. Then Christmas takes over. Which is why planning your costume wayyyyy ahead of time is so important, by the way. 

There are loads of pretty understandable reasons that people don’t get the hype around Halloween. Some people think it’s too American, or it’s really just a holiday for the kids, or it’s “evil” and demonic. Well, I have a rebuttal for each of these points.

Firstly, the idea that Halloween is a holiday pushed down our throats by Americans is actually very ironic, because Halloween actually started in Ireland. It was derived from the ancient Celtic festival Samhain, which marked the transition from summer and its harvest to the colder winter season. It also celebrated the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It was a beautiful celebration of life and all its stages, plants and creatures alike. Even after Christianity was introduced to the Celts, this Pagan festival persisted, although it became intertwined with Christian concepts. Irish people at that time, despite having left behind their Pagan beliefs, still felt it was necessary to celebrate the boundary between life and death, and so All Hallows’ Eve was born. 

Although the way we celebrate Halloween in the modern day might be very disconnected from its roots, admittedly because most European countries were heavily influenced by capitalist America’s Hollywood interpretations of the festival, traditions like costumes and bonfires keep us connected to its real history. And if you do want to celebrate it in a much more traditional way, perhaps the way the Pagans or early Christians did, there are festivals all around the world that allow you to. 

So, is Halloween a pointless American money machine? Nope. Well, not really. The way we celebrate it today is definitely a lot more capital-centred, but it doesn’t mean it’s not a central part of our history.

Next, Halloween is only fun if you’re a child. Ok, fair enough. Trick or treating was the only thing on my mind for the entire season when I was younger, and I highly doubt the adults in my life found it as exciting as me. But why do so many of us think it’s socially unacceptable to celebrate Halloween after we leave primary school? Does everyone find Christmas boring once they stop believing in Santa? No. Nothing is stopping you from dressing up as whatever you want and getting all your friends around for a costume-mandatory party. Stack the tables with eyeball cookies and slime cocktails, throw around a few of those cheap fake spiderwebs, and you might be surprised at what a fun night it turns out to be. 

If you’re not the party type, and you’ve passed the acceptable age of a trick or treater, then why not organise a spooky movie marathon? You can do it alone or with friends, just grab some snacks and a warm blanket, switch off all the lights and try to relax. If you’re looking for something a little more thrilling, why not visit a haunted house, or go to a scare farm. Essentially, there’s so many ways to have fun on Halloween as an adult. Autumn in general is arguably the easiest season to romanticise. Pumpkin patches, beautiful colours everywhere, hot chocolates, what more could you want? Christmas will arrive eventually, but instead of wishing your life away why not just enjoy the present?

Christmas is great. Presents, amazing music, imaginary snow that we delude ourselves into thinking we’ll see every year. But Halloween deserves love too! There’s so many ways to celebrate it, it’s arguably a lot less stressful than Christmas, and it’s a reminder that death and change are a natural part of life, a universal experience that shouldn’t be seen as taboo. Besides, it’s another excuse to party, so why not?