I know it's a little late for a Halloween post, but for pete's sake, I was awfully busy getting ready for Halloween before Halloween, so there was no time for blogging about it! I mean, I had hair dye to find, a costume to throw away after I tried to sew it and failed miserably, t-shirt drawers to dig through and stupid tie to unearth. That's a lot of effort people! There were also many trips to Goodwill and The Salvation Army and a few actual costume shops. Luckily I have Charlotte to mail me just what I need in my moment of desperation.
The other problem is that Halloween has gotten to be a long drawn out affair- kind of like Christmas. My kids had to get dressed up four- yes you read that right- FOUR different times! They went trick-or-treating THREE times! It seems like there can be as much as two solid weekends of Halloween festivities. It's not just that Halloween was on a Sunday this year and so all the Dutch people wanted to trick-or-treat on Saturday. I've felt this way for several years now. I disagree with the line of thought that goes, "Well it's so much more fun to wear your costume more than once, after all you put so much effort into it! Or if not effort, money!"
I might sound a bit like a Halloween Scrooge here, but that would be far from the truth. Since childhood, Halloween has actually been my favorite holiday. My reasons for choosing Halloween for this honor are actually not very flattering. Halloween is my favorite holiday because it is the one holiday where your parents do not say, "Remember the true meaning!" In fact, your parents may not want you to think about the true meaning at all, depending on what their understanding of the origins of Halloween are.
Halloween is really all about the candy, the costumes and the decorations. No need for deep reflection and inward searching. No opening yourself to the lessons of the season in order to let it change and mold you. If you seem to only be pretending, well you're in good company because it's all about pretending!
At Halloween it's appropriate to scare yourself silly and then laugh yourself silly because you were so scared. It's cathartic; I believe that's the word. We put a lot of effort into being serious and deep for most of the year, or at least we're asked to do that. It's good to have a holiday that doesn't make any sense and take time to enjoy the ridiculous.
At Halloween we get to be silly, foolish, crazy, awful or whoever we never get to be, and then get lots of compliments- and candy- for it. Nice.
3 comments:
Okay, how did you get away from that true meaning thing - isn't Halloween actually Reformation Day? You know, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door!! Gonfacho! That is my password to post this and my utter surprise that you got out of that! :-)
That Halloween and Reformation Day are the same thing is a coincidence- I believe. Halloween isn't intended as a celebration of Reformation Day. And since my family comes from an Anabaptist tradition Reformation Day doesn't make the list of Religious Holidays to Celebrate. I never learned about ML in church, only history. I think there was some bad blood there :-)
This comment is from R (paraphrased) (we are reading your blog tonight:) )
"This is great. She needs to send this somewhere. She is a phenomenal writer. Very clear, very engaging (and something else was said here ).
I suggest a book. Please put me at the top of your waiting list. Let's talk self-publishing over a good bottle of red. It will be just one more cork to add to your collection...
:)L
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