And there’s a few reasons for that.
When I was younger, Halloween was a big to-do. I would dress up as something new every year and shit was lit. The streets were packed. Just…all the spooky vibes.
Everything came to a screeching halt when the Great Recession hit. All of a sudden people didn’t want to decorate as much. This meant there were fewer houses to visit, and by extension fewer trick-o-treaters on the streets.
By the time I was in junior high school I trick-or-treated for the last time and…just stopped doing it. I celebrated in a small way at home but even that was short lived.
By high school I just stopped altogether. Part of it was seeing the activity as childish (very few people my age participated) and also not caring for sweets. I’m not a candy person and the whole idea of trick-o-treating just became meaningless to me.
Watching a scary movie or going to a haunted maze (or something like that) is the last thing you’d want to put me through. Not out of fear, but because of my fragile mental health.
I don’t actively hate Halloween, but I keep the occasion at arm’s length. If you wanted to be cheeky you could say I still do. I went to that Halloween bash at Disney California Adventures because my sister wanted to go, so I technically trick-o-treated this year. Just a month early. It doesn’t do much for me personally but hell yeah I’ll take those individual bags of goldfish and carrots with me to work lmao.
Reclaiming the day through my first ever celebration of Samhain and Día de Los Muertos (DDLM) last year helped somewhat. But as I drift further away from Celtic neopaganism I find DDLM to be how I celebrate the occasion. That and the general autumn harvest vibes of the season. Autumn is my favourite season after all.
For those that do celebrate, which is pretty much everyone in a Western country reading this, have fun ^^. Heck, I’ll make you some yummy pumpkin soup and tamales while I’m at it.
