Since it's mid-October, North America as a whole has begun to get ready for Hallowe'en, with crates of candy arriving at stores and decorations popping up all over the place. It's a time where people get ready to get spooky, breaking out costumes and remembering where they put all those scary movies from last year. At the same time, I start trying to figure out how to get out of it, and hide out until November starts.
Everyone in my house hates Hallowe'en, though that only counts me and the cat, who finds it greatly upsetting that kids keep showing up at the door demanding candy. I haven't successfully been able to get out of it so far, and kids have received candy at my door for a couple years already. While I participate, it is only begrudgingly, because that's what you do.
I've always hated the holiday, as far back as I remember. I never liked getting dressed up, the only costume that I can remember actually liking was being a television, because it was basically a big hat and easily removed. Otherwise, I was one of those annoying kids who really didn't want to wear a costume, and only did so because that is what you do, which sort of defines my Hallowe'en participation to this day.
So why didn't I like it? Well, I have lived in Saskatchewan all my life, which provides a clue. Basically, on Hallowe'en, it was cold, generally snowing. I already didn't like dressing up in costume, and then you had to bundle up and cover it anyway, rendering it completely pointless. Travelling around the town with friends demanding candy wasn't bad, but I still would rather have been home, where we had heat.
Of course, there were reasons to hate Hallowe'en that had nothing to do with reality, but the over-active imagination of a little kid which got into the spirit of the holiday. For a couple years, at least, somewhere before I turned ten and got slightly more sensible, I was petrified of vampires, creatures who I was convinced only showed up on Hallowe'en and yet would make a trip to a farm to snack on small children. I also decided that so long as I was completely covered by blankets, said creatures would be convinced I wasn't there, because apparently vampires have terrible vision. I suppose that's because optometrists generally are not open in the evenings, thus ignoring the entire vampire market.
So, if one doesn't like being scared, being cold, or getting dressed up, what does Hallowe'en have to offer? Not much, to be honest. At least in the younger days there was candy, sometimes candy I wouldn't get otherwise. Sometimes there was a good reason for that, since there was that weird white toffee stuff that is only sold at Hallowe'en and nobody likes. Still, candy was great as a little kid, the holiday's only redeeming feature.
But now I'm an adult, and I can get candy whenever I want. Instead, I'm the one who has to give it away, which means that the only thing I ever liked about Hallowe'en has gone away completely. I mean, sure, I've grown out of that irrational fear of vampires, but at least when I woke up on November 1 I had a bounty of riches to consume, while now all of my candy is gone. So Hallowe'en is just a bust.
