Happy Halloween, friends!!! I remember years ago when I was just a kid, writing for the school newspaper, I decided to write about the history of Halloween. Despite all of the work that I put into the article, (this was before the internet/Wikipedia, I actually had to go to the library to research and spend daunting hours sifting through the card catalog and then, musty books) the article was a dud. Even I don’t remember what it said, or what the history of Halloween really is, because the reality of it all is, nobody cares. Holidays, like Halloween, are whatever anybody wants it to be. Little kids will not just wear their ninja and princess costumes, they will BECOME ninjas and princesses. Staunchly religious people will see Halloween as an evil holiday that serves only to worship the devil, and they will shut themselves off behind tightly closed doors and keep their lights out. Closet stage designers will use Halloween as a time to creatively turn their suburban McMansion into an even more elaborate version of Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Stressed out middle-agers will use Halloween as an excuse to blow off steam, and to eat and to drink, to all excess, hiding their stress behind goofy, all in good fun, costumes. Wiccans will likely incorporate more serious ceremony into the day.
Like all things, Halloween all comes down to the perspectives, and the projections that we put on to it, all coming from our own unique life stories and experiences and teachings. And the funny thing is, each Halloween, every year, may be a little different for each of us, depending our moods, on the age of our kids or grandkids, if we are invited to costume parties, and just our own mindset. No matter how you decide to celebrate or to not celebrate Halloween, I hope that this year’s Halloween exceeds all of our best expectations. (I know that I personally have bought some extra bags of candy this year. Even if we don’t get the big crowd of trick-or-treaters coming to our home that I am hoping for, there are no doubts that the candy will NOT go to waste.)