Why do adults like Halloween?

[johnnie]

I'm not knocking it but I wonder why so many people like Halloween so much. I can understand the little kids dressing up and even passing out candy to see the little ones, but after the age of 10 or so I think it's time to give it up.

Yeah, I had to dress up last weekend so I could go to a party, but if it was up to me I wouldn't have. I just wanted to party..lol. I took off what I had on pretty early into the party though and still had a good time.

So what is it with this "holiday" that people like?

[Loonman]

1. Adult life is frequently boring and sucky

We look upon times like Halloween and summer vacation to remind us of carefree youth.

[Richardo]

2. You got me.

I think it's stupid in the extreme.

[fudge stripe cookays]

30. Well, see if YOU get an invite next year.

MISTER.


fsc

[Richardo]

39. :P

[Fox Mulder]

3. I do it because for one, It's fun...

and secondly, the fundies hate it so it makes me love it even more.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. This is the first year in ages that we haven't decorated

the entire house, yard.

Long story, but has to do with Grandpa moving in, and my son moving to the spare bedroom which was storage...I can't find anything.

I think the reason it is so big lately is because there isn't any family guilt associated with Halloween. You know the 'last year we spent Thanksgiving with your family, now it is my turn, blah, blah, blah'.

But that is just my opinion.

[sundog]

33. ding ding ding

halloween is a time to party without all the guilt crap

thanksgiving & christmas are often toxic holidays

[Midlodemocrat]

40. I won??? OMG, I never win anything!!!

What is the prize, sundog? some calamari, perhaps????

[Shell Beau]

5. It just gives us an excuse to be child-like again and it

brings back good memories for a lot of us. Also, it is another reason to have a party!!

[Corgigal]

16. That's it for me also

I also remember back in the days when the kids were young and I took them out. Lots of fun memories.

Now I get to see what the kids are wearing this year and giving out goodie bags.

[Left Is Write]

23. Yes, for me too. It's fun to let go and act like a kid again.

I love the neighborhood decorations and the haunted house set-ups people do for the trick-or-treaters. I love seeing little kids in their costumes getting all excited. It's also fun to see the holiday through the eyes of my own children.

I made doughnuts and we carved jack-o-lanterns yesterday; tonight, after trick-or-treat, I'll give the kids popcorn and apple cider and let them watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" before they go to bed.

It's a change from the same old boring routines. It's an excuse to have fun.

[Swede]

6. Because I like French maids and nurses in miniskirts.

The bars will be very interesting tonight.

[driver8]

28. Amen, Swede! Amen!

I also like:

Cats
Hookers
Little Red Riding Hood
Catholic School girls
Catwomen
Wonder Women
"police women"
Playboy bunnies
Elviras
Cheerleaders

[Semi_subversive]

42. My 22 year old son went to a party dressed as a Tampon

I was soooo proud to be a parent at that moment.

[LeftyMom]

7. Dressing up is fun.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Pagan roots, candy, dress-up, no-religion, pisses off fundies --

What's not to like?

[liberalitch]

9. I'm an aging Goth so.... any number of things attract me BUT.....

It's the memories.
Not only did we dress up to go trick or treating but so did my dad (who was a big kid).....
He was the guy who believed that at Xmas it was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for everyone to have a TOY to unwrap (clothes and record didn't count)

[Deep13]

10. Halloween is wasted on children.

It is the one day of the year that we can be uncivilized and go batshit-pagan-crazy.

[dethl]

11. Its fun to dress up!

I'm currently dressed up as a woman, with a huge curly wig and a black dress...I'm also wearing fishnet stockings. I'm also in college right now as well, so I'm getting a rather good lesson in humility. My friends shaved my arms and legs last night.

It's awesome to have people making a double take when they see me. Freaking people out is great!

[meganmonkey]

12. We get to dress up AND get drunk, and that is just a n adventure

waiting to happen!

[Loonman]

13. Youth is wasted on the young

Uh huh.

[Wapsie B]

19. Damn you got that right.

[kick-ass-bob]

14. Because it is an excuse to

scare the shit out of people!

[bertha katzenengel]

15. 1. It's fun to dress up and go to a party. Or 2. it's fun to see the kids

when giving out candy.

My favorite costume has been done to death but I'd never ever seen it when I wore it: "Cereal killer."

[Pithlet]

17. I'm jealous of cultures

that have deeply rooted customs like Brazil with Carnivale, and China with its straditional costumes and festivals where everyone dresses up and has a good time. I think Halloween is popular in the US parlty because we don't have any one thing like that, being a mishmash of so many cultures, combined with our puritanical roots that seem to frown on such frivality. So, Halloween has taken that part and is the mini-Carinivale of our collective culture. And, it's just plane fun. It may not be everyone's thing, but I don't think it's stupid or silly for adults to celebrate Halloween at all.

[asthmaticeog]

18. I love Halloween.

Most of my friends are insane artists and musicians, so the costumes tend towards the wildly inventive and the parties are completely over the top. The costumery is a creative outlet that, let's face it, unless you're in theater, is a once-a-year opportunity, so I really dig it.

[DainBramaged]

20. NOTHING is more fun on the East Coast than The Village

On Halloween, nothing. It is an amazing and fun time when we're on the verge of fucking frozen wastes and bitter dull thankless mornings as the sun grows cooler on our faces. It is the last refuge of childhood before the darkness of Winter.

And for one day a year, no one gives a shit if we act goofy.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. Becase most Americans are ignorant shitbags

Oh, wait, that's the answer to "Why do so many vote republican?"

Never mind.

We like Halloween cuz it's FUN!

[CBHagman]

22. Just for starters...

*It's a chance to explore our shadow side.

*Many of us have roots in the Celtic/pagan tradition, so we naturally turn towards the old ways.

*It's a harvest celebration plus a last stand against the onset of winter and cold, dark days.

*A fascination with the supernatural and unexplained.

*Good old nostalgia, love of our childhood memories, more innocent times -- homemade costumes, seemingly endless supplies of candies.

*As an old Catholic, I remember that I used to get the day after Halloween, All Saints' Day, off from school. So it was two days of fun instead of one.

The actress Claudia Shear once observed the same thing one of the posters wrote above -- that Halloween is a wonderfully uncomplicated holiday, just dressing up and candy, no relatives to worry about, no guilt.

As for me, even if the kids don't come around to trick or treat (and they just don't in some areas where I've lived), even if I don't go to a party, I LOVE this holiday. I'll be sure to read the Robert Burns poem on Halloween tonight, as I've done in years past, from a book I bought in Edinburgh. Maybe I'll read Washington Irving or some other writer who deals with the mysterious and supernatural (or just plain pranks).

I'll also go to the vigil mass for All Saints, and this month I will be commemorating the ancestors who have gone on before. I want to learn more about the Day of the Dead, too.

Happy Halloween, DUers!

[Left Is Write]

24. Very well said.

[Bridget Burke]

36. Here's some info on the Day of the Dead...

For a serious article with an anthropological slant: www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/muertos.html

The article points out that many of the more "serious" celebrants are rural folks in southern Mexico. Around the turn of the 20th century, urban Mexicans enjoyed satirical calaveras--depictions of politicians & other "modern" folks as skeletons. Printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada is the most famous creator; you may recognize some of these images.

http://muertos.palomar.edu/posdad.htm

Today, the Day of the Dead is celebrated throughout the USA. Some older folks just attend the masses. Others recreate older customs--but many of "our" Mexicans came from Northern Mexico, where indigenous practices are not as common. Learning about Day of the Dead was often part of Chicano Pride. And many of us without Mexican blood find that we respond to the holiday. Here's a summary of activities taking place in Houston this year:

www.houstonculture.org/mexico/houston.html

[alarimer]

25. I hate it

I have always hated it though. I stopped trick or treating when I was 9 or 10. I never liked figuring out a costume or dressing up. I won't do it now.

[StaggerLee]

26. Catholic schoolgirl costumes

Well for me anyway.

Yeah I'm shallow like that.

[tigereye]

31. as a former Catholic schoolgirl

I find the fetishization(sp?) of this incredibly amusing. What is it about those plaid skirts?

[StaggerLee]

35. IMHO

I believe it's the contrast between the blouse (business look) and the skirt (playful).

Of course with the costume it's probably exaggerated more.

My 2c for what it's worth.

[lakemonster11]

27. I love Halloween.

Of course, I like any excuse to do something out of the ordinary, if it it's just something seasonal rather than specifically related to a holiday.

It's fun to dress up in costumes, it's fun to carve pumpkins (one of my favorite things to do all year), it's fun to watch scary movies, to eat candy, to party with friends, or even just to stay home and greet the trick-or-treaters.

Halloween is a particularly excellent holiday, in my opinion, because it has this great "spooky" theme that lets you explore your dark, supernatural side. And the best thing about it to me is that the Halloween spirit is, simultaneously, scary, goofy, and fun. It's all about scaring you into laughing.

I don't think Halloween is a children's holiday, anyway. Trick-or-Treating is for kids, but that's just one aspect of Halloween. There are definitely adult traditions, too. Parties are the main adult tradition, but there are also pumpkin-carving and costume contests, scary movies showing at local theaters, and traditional Halloween events, like the annual Rocky Horror performance at my college.

My SO and I haven't decided what we're doing tonight, but we might go to a special Halloween trivia night (we do trivia every week, but not usually on Monday), or we might go to a showing of Arsenic and Old Lace at this cool old theater near us, or we might meet up with some friends at a party.

I don't see any reason to eschew any holidays that give us pleasure. If we give up our holidays, life becomes boring.

[misanthrope]

29. All of the reasons already mentioned...

...and more.

I think it is simply because there is something so uniquely special and magical about autumn.

In the American South, autumn is when you want to venture outside again after the misery of summer. It is a time of rebirth, when we start a new school year, when a new football season begins (a big cultural touchstone down here), when the arts season picks up. Even television picked up on this trend long ago and began their new seasons at summer's conclusion.

There is just something about crisp mornings, sharp blue skies and falling, rustling, crunching, aromatic leaves that comforts us. Halloween is our high festival of autumn. It starts the long slide through Thanksgiving and into the holiday season.

[tigereye]

32. it's just fun!

it's a great pre-winter, pagan, silly holiday with some "raging against the dying of the light" and respect for the unexplained.

plus my kid dressed up as Elton John... what could be more amusing than that?

[Withywindle]

34. So many people have said it so well...

(1) It's a religious holiday for me too (Samhain)

BUT you're not asking about that, so...

(2) I have always loved horror fiction, ghost stories, creepy movies, cemeteries, etc., and so Halloween kitsch is the best kitsch!

(3) I have always loved costumes. Hell, as a kid I used to want to wear them to school for no special occasion at all. (Sometimes as a grownup I still do). It's a wonderful excuse to indulge, and to see the wonderful stuff everyone else comes up with. It's creative, it's playful, it's totally sexy.

(4) Autumn is my favorite season; best weather, best ambience, best feeling in the air. Halloween is pretty much the climax of that.

So yeah. What's not to like?

edited to elaborate on point three: The main reason for adults to love Halloween even when there aren't kids around (best when they aren't, in fact) is that costuming and role play and genderswitch and all that jazz is PURE SEX. I mean, pirate women with swords and men in fishnet stockings and half-naked vampires and hidden identities and masks and...whoa. Yum.

[PassingFair]

37. Because they love SATAN!

Check it out:


http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1053/1053_01.asp

[AlCzervik]

38. For me---no cooking and no relatives-best holiday of the year

[LaraMN]

41. Who wants to take themselves seriously ALL the time?

I love Halloween, too. I probably laughed more yesterday than any other day this week.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

43. Revisiting childhood helps us relate to young people...

I hope my children continue to enjoy Halloween when they have kids of their own.