Underlying Reason for our Love of Halloween

Snoopy/Red Baron · Post by **Snoopy/Red Baron** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:52 pm

I was trying to figure out why I loved Halloween so much, why it made me feel so alive. Is it becaue it acts like a timemachine taking me back to childhood? Is it because its a kick-off to the holiday season? Is it because the scary/cozy feel of October, curling up on a couch telling ghost stories or watching scary movies? I think it is all of these things yet I think its something deeper and more fundamental that I can't put my finger on just yet. Any thoughts?

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:13 pm

It's your inner self, your id, being allowed to come out and play! It's harmless fun.

Haunted Horseman · Post by **Haunted Horseman** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:38 pm

For me, it is a combination of things. Halloween is a magical time. A time of fantasy and mistery. Yes it is holiday that brings me back to childhood but it's much more than that. It is the feeling of excitment that comes with dressing up and pretending to be something else. It's also in the Fall, which is a time that makes me want to snuggle by a fire, spend time with family and friends and appreciate the simple things.

spookyboo · Post by **spookyboo** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:21 pm

Hi, I posted my own thread awhile back about this very same thing..this is what I wrote

Its a calling actually Halloween is something I feel and dream about all year. It started when I was a child and has been a steady interest all my 30 and then some years
I used to think that I was the only person in the world that felt so strongly about Halloween
it's more to me than just pumpkins and trick or treats. Its like the feeling you get when you are outside in the fall and there is a chill wind and the smell of burning leaves mingles with smells of the earth and you feel so alive and there is an electricity and mystery about natures last hurrah before winter. The days grow short and the darknss creeps in, you begin to imagine what might be lurking in the shadows and that you might be the only person to be in on its secret. A feeling of wonder that I felt as a child that so many people I talk to have lost but I have held on to it tightly because its the spark of magic that will never let me grow old. It brings a wicked little knowing smile to my face and I know that I am alive. Halloween with its colors and its visual delights its dark and unknown secrets and the veil of mystery it provides beats within me always.

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:01 pm

Great answers from everyone. I do think it can be a deep thing with so many feelings and influences attached.

I recall from back in 1975 or thereabouts...in elementary school, when we sang songs out of the music book (I wonder if they still do that in school?), one of the books had the song "Hallowe'en" by Harry Behn. May have been written in the 40's or 50's.

Anyway the page had an illustration at the top. I could draw it but somehow I don't think I could capture it. But this drawing was of a dark cloud stretching presumably across a sky, and the cloud was vaguely in the shape of a person. Vaguely. And instead of a normal head, it had a jack-o-lantern head! This was all conveyed in wispy, shadowy values. The figure's arms were stretched out to the sides as if it were trying to grasp the whole night sky.

This drawing sent shivers through me! So spooky, and yet so fascinating. We would sing this song accompanied by the teacher on piano and it was quite something to hear a whole classroom singing it.

Nyx · Post by **Nyx** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:01 pm

I agree with spookyboo. Great description.

I can't quite put it into words why I love Halloween so much without sounding cliche, so forgive me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I love Fall so much? This is the time of year when I become more relaxed and feel happier. There's just something about the way I feel on Halloween as well. It has to be the fact that I can be anything I want to be, act how I want to act, and just give into the feeling of being a kid again. There's that truly magical feeling when I step outside at night on Halloween. It's just indescribable.

Coming from a Halloween obsessed family certainly helps too!

SpookieLil.Katriona · Post by **SpookieLil.Katriona** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:48 am

Halloween is a very religious day for me as I am pagan! It is a day to remember loved ones passed on. As well as a day to just be whatever I want to be without people looking at me like I am a freak...

JACKRYAN592 · Post by **JACKRYAN592** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:10 am

I THINK WE ARE ALL JUST KIDS AT HEART. HALLOWEEN IS OUR WAY OF HOLDING ONTO OUR GOOD MEMORIES, THE MAGICAL INNOCENT ONES. BESIDES, IT'S FUN!!

angel222 · Post by **angel222** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:01 am

Well because halloween is a fun holiday and it signals the start of the holidays season. wow.

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:16 am

I was asking the docs at work once..

They say it's wish fulfillment.
The idea is that we would LIKE to dress up more then we let ourselves..slide out of our clearly defined roles as a release...we love the idea of giving things to people, and we love the idea of GETTING things from people for just being us, so it helps break down our isolation from each other.
It helps us deal with death...a primal fear...by making light of the subject and by allowing us to think if we can deal with the small frights of the haunted house or the drive in movie, then we can take on the Grim Reaper at the end.
We love the idea of being able to put all this time and effort into a holiday because it makes us appreciate all we have and all we can afford to use up in it...its' not going to cost us the kids supper tomorrow night.. And how many of us keep score of the trick or treaters and feel down if the number is lower then last year?

Okay, that's what the doctors said, and I can see it from their stance.

What I dig about it is the way it makes everybody a bit happier and nicer and WANT to take small risks.

In the fall I get back to the comfort foods like the pastas, soups, and such. Halloween. Is comfort food for the soul.

Dr Strange · Post by **Dr Strange** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:23 am

Damn Uncle Tor, that was really well written. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Snoopy/Red Baron · Post by **Snoopy/Red Baron** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:57 pm

Wow, you guys have articulated things in a way that really gets down to the marrow of Halloween! I loved "Halloween is comfort food for the soul". I loved Haunted Horseman's statement about Halloween making you appreciate the simple things at the same time as it creates a shroud of mystery over everything. I loved Spookyboo's description, one that could have been my own, were I articulate enough to have written it. And I think that the core of it does have something to do with Halloween being a way to go back to that sense of wonder we had as a child and holding on to it, and not letting your soul grow old. Thanks, you guys are great.

TomAnderson, I remember that song! I am going to look for it now. Happy Hauntings everyone.

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:29 pm

I suppose there are different truths for all of us.

I started to write a response here and then deleted it because I realised that Halloween's appeal for me can't really be put into words.

I've always liked that time of year, the nights setting in, the falling leaves, the chill in the air, the bonfires. But I guess it's mostly about the ever so delicate feeling of magic. I think we all want to believe in magic and at Halloween you get as close as you can get, it's there in the air like the faintest whisp of smoke.

Other events throughout the year carry nostalgic memories but I think Halloween is special because there never seemed to be any obligation to celebrate it was always just about fun.

All I can say with any certainty is that I love it.

Dr Strange · Post by **Dr Strange** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:48 pm

I liked your response Boo, well said.