Halloween is one of the times of year that I’m not sure if I can get into it the way some people obviously do.
I don’t know if there are many others who feel ambivalent about it like me, but the presence of Halloween is rather pervasive throughout the community.
I can see the fun side of it, of course. Kids get to dress up and pretend to be whatever they’d like to be, whether it’s a dinsoaur costume, or a princess or figure skater, a superhero or a ghost — whatever sparks their imagination, really.
This aspect of the day (I won’t call it a holiday, because it really isn’t) is the fun part, not to mention all the candy and stuff that the retailers love to push.
Children love dressing up, and it’s good to see them use their imagination and have fun (although the cavities are not fun …).
A part of Halloween is kind of dark, and for some adults, this is their fun.
This can take the form of watching horror movies, going to haunted house displays (like Mayhem Manor, or the Heward Haunted Rink), dressing up in a scary costume and/or setting up a scary display on their front lawn.
Some of the displays are actually impressive, like one I saw on McGillivray Drive in Weyburn, with a hearse in the front yard surrounde by zombie-like creatures and graves.
But a display like that also brings out the dark side of Halloween also and makes light of it (no pun intended, honest).
If a person took a serious look at some of the symbols and imagery used at Halloween, it has to do with death and decay. The horror movies make a killing at it (pun intended), but those are shown in theatres all year round, not just at Halloween.
Obviously the movies exaggerate the aspect of horror, and some people really enjoy getting scared, and are only happy when a movie gets really gross and scary, and the scarier the better.
That’s really not my thing, but everyone has their own tastes and preferences in that regard, and there are enough horror fans out there to keep those movies coming and upping the ante on the scale of horror.
Death and scary monsters and dark demonic images are not really not that much fun, although some people might point out they aren’t really taking this very seriously. To me, it’s kind of a thin edge, because there is a reality underlying these images that is truly horrifying, and it’s like playing with fire. You have to be careful or you might just get burned.
If people can stay on the fun side and be imaginative in dressing up, and mix in some healthy alternatives to all the sugar, then you can have a good time in a sort of healthy way.
