Comments on: Happy Halloween?

By: nickjb

nickjb — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think Halloween for me was special more for a mood than anything else; that kind of crisp Fall air combined with the notion that it was the closest thing there was to being an acknowledgement of the supernatural. I think I also love it because I truly would love to believe in ghosts and returns from the grave ( or is that Easter?). I agree that Halloween has been co-opted and yuppized, but there is still an almost tangibe atmosphere to it that I only experience this time of year. So do I not want to grow up. Christ , no im 47!!!

By: conrad

conrad — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I still, like you, enjoy the crisp air and the harvest foods and the spookiness. I just don’t like the Tonka crowd beering it up.

By: brevity

brevity — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I agree with you about the flight from adulthood — for 364 days of the year. But why pick on Halloween? It’s supposed to be the exception to the rule.

Other cultures have their wacky dress-up carnival times, this is filling a much-needed gap in ours.

By: conrad

conrad — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think I picked on Halloween because the adults are stealing it from the kids. One thing that bugs me a lot about this cultural infantilism is that children aren’t given the center stage they need to actually be kids; the grownups like to steal their toys.

By: scromp

scromp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

big chain retailers are calling the holiday “Friday October 31″ to avoid offending the people who want prayer and pumpkins but no devils.

Wacky. I live in the middle of the bible belt and it’s All Halloween All The Time here. First I’ve heard of a “harvest party” too, come to think of it.

By: RPS

RPS — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

http://www.viceland.com/issues_uk/v10n2/htdocs/juvenile_hell.php

i think i just like this article for the line, “It�s called ‘Cyclical Maladaptive Patterns,’ bitch.”

but the “Littles” is what you’re talking about here…

By: stimps

stimps — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I agree with you about it. I mean, I like Halloween, and I talk about dressing up every year, and going to a party, but I never do. I really just sit around and smell the air and think about how much fun it was to wander around and come home with a pillowcase full of illicit candy. Growing up in Edmonton meant that you generally had to wear a large parka over or under any costume you wore, so it was quite a challenge for people at houses to divine what you were at times, since everyone looked sort of like a variation on the Michelin Man. I also like to remember how we used to try to push the “how old do we have to be before the adults stop letting us get away with this” limits. And the fear of getting nothing but dental floss from the dentist’s house.

I find it sad and frustrating that kids will not really experience that anymore, except on a very limited basis within “scare aware” sorts of neighbourhoods, with walking beat cops of parents wandering around everywhere. A lot of schools have big parties for kids to go to where they’re safe, but I’m not sure. Perhaps it just seems oppressive to me because I have experienced something else.

I think Halloween needs to be reclaimed by kids, and the old habit of Costume Parties for adults, like maybe at New Years’, needs to be reinstated. Then you’d have a chance to re-use your kangaroo suit. =)

By: Yossef

Yossef — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m with stimps on this one. Halloween’s been killed for kids because of the danger associated with it (creepy people who do Bad Things to candy, general out on the street after dark crap), the attempts to take away that danger, and the co-opting by so-called “adults”. If the days of Fancy Dress parties and Costume Balls and Other Reasons To Look Different From Every Fucking Day were still around, the old ones wouldn’t have to go nuts about this single day.

Personally, though, I was never really big on Halloween. And once you already don’t care, you start to hate it when you get a bunch of “Oh man, that’s the grossest costume EVER!” every year when you don’t dress up.

By: hfb

hfb — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

mmm…Candy corn and caramel apples. Come to Finland where the witches come out on Easter and there isn’t really a Halloween except at Karkki Pussi, the candy shop, where the ghosts go “Hu-Huuu!” and the pumpkins go “P��!” :)

By: swolf

swolf — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Better plan all day
Better plan all week
Better plan all month
Better plan all year –JELLO!
:>