This Is Halloween
It's Halloween in
China, where I currently live, but only the foreign teachers here know to celebrate this wacky
holiday. I personally LOVE Halloween. It is a day where people celebrate
creativity and let go of their inhibitions for one night to dress up, have fun
and willingly do that which usually terrifies them. Its also a day like other
holidays where we give to others. Some of us spend our Halloween celebrating
innocence and fun of young children by passing out sweets to the neighborhood
or taking our own children out Trick-OR-Treating. Some of us spend the day
trying to get as scared as possible. Others go out and celebrate with friends
with a party.
More and more I meet
people who see no value to Halloween, just another useless holiday, but it is
so much more than that. It’s the creativity of people trying to come up with
the coolest costume or scariest decorated house. It's people putting aside their
inhibition to look ridiculous, go door to door (which salesman are afraid to do
these days) or just to a party with others who also are letting another side of
themselves show. You can learn about your friend's interests, values and
favorites just by seeing what they decided to dress up as. Halloween is all
about fantasy. Imagine what can be possible or what could be different about
what is. People who have no creative outlets at their desk jobs all year on
this one day can show up to work, or after work if you have a lame job that
won't let you have a little fun, and blast out their creative side with an
awesome costume.
The other side of
Halloween is the fear aspect. We all love to get a little scared. Watching a
scary movie, going to our neighbors creepy decorated house or even paying to go
through a professional Haunted walk is something many of us can't resist. Why? I
think there is something about controlled fear that thrills us. In our everyday
lives there is very little that we can control sometimes. We can't control the
traffic, or our boss, or the fact that we have to get out of bed when that
stupid alarm sounds. We never know when something unexpected could mess up our
day. But in a scary movie there is a sense of predictability, even if the only
thing we know is that at the end no matter what happens to the characters we
are still alive and fine. I think we can gain a sense of stability just from
watching crazy unstable events happen to others on screen. And there is a
thrill to being scared and then realizing everything is ok.
Another cool aspect
of fear is it gives us the chance to be brave. How often in our lives do we
turn down chances to take risks because its not practical? At Halloween we can
take calculated risks that feel crazy, impress our friends and just are pure fun.
We can enter fear and come out alive with no battle wounds. What other time of
the year gives you this golden opportunity?
Even Christians have
a purpose in the fear of Halloween. As Christian horror film director Scott
Derrickson described there is an innate desire in all of us to see good
conquering evil. We reach a deep desire inside of ourselves when we watch a
horror film where we are rooting for the protagonist against some seemingly
insurmountable evil. The philosophy behind horror films is really fascinating
to study and I recommend reading into it sometime. Every good horror film has a
deeper philosophy behind it that speaks to some part of our souls. I'm not
saying that everyone should watch horror films, but I am saying if that is your
thing there may be a deeper reason for your interest and it isn't a crime.
And if facing your
fears, conquering evil and getting creative is not the way you spend Halloween,
maybe you already loosed your inhibitions enough to your content, there is
always the purely kind act of giving candies to the children. Every day of the
year we tell our kids to stay away from strangers and definitely don't sell
your Girlscout cookies door to door, at least not without an adult. But on
Halloween we break all those rules and our neighborhood is almost safe again.
Our neighbors go out and spend their hard earned money to buy free treats and
candy for our kids. And what is their reward? They get to enjoy seeing the
smiling, excited faces of the kids all cute and dressed up in their little
costumes. It's also a good way for older folks to stay in touch- I mean think
of all the questions they'll have after they ask "who are you dressed as
little girl" and she replies "Hannah Montana" or "Nicki
Minaj." They'll learn more about pop culture on Halloween than they ever
would through the normal course of a year.
Ok I am being
somewhat facetious with the pop culture thing, but still what a great day where
all of us are encouraged to give candy for free and get candy for free! It's
the one day where having a 20 gallon bag of candy is not looked down upon.
Besides that would stores even sell those bulk candy bags if it weren't for
Halloween? It’s a good thing.
In conclusion,
Halloween is AMAZING. It’s a chance to show your creative side, let go of your
inhibitions and show a new side of yourself to your friends. It's a time where
we can feel in control of our out of control lives by entering into fearful
situations and coming out alive. Or a time for us to brave what we usually hide
away from. A day where we can realize evil is out there, but face it head on
and celebrate good conquering that evil. A day where fantasy is celebrated and
the deeper sides of the mind are reached. And it's a day where we can out of
our goodwill give to others and enjoy seeing the innocence and imagination of
children as we are encouraged to be imaginative ourselves.
Today I am going to
share all the wonders of Halloween with Chinese students. I don't have a
costume, but I've got my Halloween Spotify playlist, The Adam's Family dvd, and
enough crazy Chinese fashions to throw something together last minute.
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