Am I the only one who doesn't get the whole Halloween thing?

[johnnie]

Sure, if you have little kids it is cute. And maybe when you are a little kid it is great getting all that candy for free. But what is it with adults who get giddy about dressing up, having parties and just plain acting silly for Halloween?

I just saw another ad on television for another "Haunted House" and remember how terrible they were when I was a kid and how bad they even look now. You pay money to go thru some dark mazes, have people wearing rubber masks jump out at you and scream and everyone gets cramped together in 100 degree heat. Whooo hoooo :eyes: . The weirdest part of it all is that there are adults going thru that actually get scared.

Some people say it is a chance for an adult to go out and "be someone else" and get away with it. Poor things. Some say that it is a good excuse to party, I say every night is a good excuse for that. I just don't get it.

So can someone explain to me why there are adults who actually think that halloween is fun. Not the little kid thing, just people who actually think that Halloween is "cool".

[ZombieNixon]

1. I like to stand on the roof dressed in a cape, spiked boots and chains,

and throw things at passerby, wailing like a banshee...:hide:

[XemaSab]

35. Are you wearing anything *besides*

a cape, spiked boots and chains? :scared:

[skygazer]

2. I love Halloween

It's my favorite holiday. I don't tend to dress up and go out (though I like to dress in costume for work) but I love to decorate elaborately.

I don't know why I like it so much. I guess it makes me feel like a kid. I get a kick out of all the wacky decorations you can find and I have a blast making my own. We have a long wooded driveway and we do this whole haunted forest thing with ghouls and ghosts and a skeleton hanging from a noose and a cemetery and things crawling out of the ground and giant spiders.... We get NO trick or treaters here and you can't even see it from the road - it's purely for our amusement and the other five families who share the driveway.

You don't have to get it. Or like it. You probably get all excited about stuff I couldn't care less about. For me, it's just a fun time to get a little silly and play. Sometimes it's fun to play.

[suzbaby]

32. I couldn't agree more.

My favorite aspect of Halloween is decorating. I never buy costumes for myself, but I sure do get a kick out of decorating my house. It takes me back to all of the fun and mystery that Halloween held for me as a little girl.
:hi:

[Dulcinea]

40. Halloween is about fun.

You get to dress up, troll for free candy, and/or go to parties, depending on your age. I'll do all of the above (well, I'll pass out candy & the DH will take the kids trick-or-treating.)

I'll take Halloween or Thanksgiving over Christmas any day. No pressure to overpay for gifts, fight crowds of frenzied consumers, or associate with relatives you don't want to deal with.

[sakabatou]

3. For me, it's no longer Holloween I look foward to

It's Memorial Day weekend in San Jose.

[cwydro]

4. I love Halloween

and I don't even go out or dress up...it just brings back fun memories of traipsing around the neighborhood in the twilight/darkness and having a great time...Nostalgia for me, I guess...The smell of carving a pumpkin makes me think of fall, which we really don't have in Florida..

[av8rdave]

5. Halloween is perhaps my favorite religeous holiday

[johnnie]

7. You mean when the dead visit the mortal world?

What religious rituals do you do?

[av8rdave]

34. Mostly scare neighborhood kids and pass out candy

How's that for secret incantations? :)

[Mutley]

6. I live with two kids

and my sister's wedding annniversary is on Halloween, as well.

Plus, my birthday is about two weeks before Halloween. So, it's always been a pretty fun holiday for me.

[GCP]

8. I don't get it either

But I'm a Brit and I get all nostalgic for Nov 5th where we burn Guy Fawkes in effigy and set off fireworks!

[Jamastiene]

9. The day after Halloween is my favorite time to shop, because

I absolutely love that gothic look when I decorate my room. Before I lost a lot of stuff when I moved, I had ten cassette tapes with spooky sounds, 3 big rubber bats that looked real, a life size Elvira stand up, lots of smaller rubber bugs, lots of orange and black candles, one or two fake spider webs, fake Elvira fingernails (I actually didn't lose those, there are here now,) fake blood, and a whole bunch of other great Halloween stuff. I'm a big horror movie fan although I find myself laughing at most horror movies any more. I love it how all women throw their hands up beside their faces and scream in the movies, but on television (especially if they are wearing a robe and the censors won't allow any nudity) they throw one hand up beside their faces and scream while holding their clothes on with the other hand. :rofl: That's a classic horror movie move there. Also, one of my favorite bands only comes out and plays on Halloween. I love the Cramps. Their music is like Rocky Horror Picture Show as far as the theme of the music and the look of the band. And yes, I liked Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I love Halloween. I just love the creepy graveyard/witch/zombie/skeleton/vampire theme of the holiday. I'm a sucker for it. It wouldn't do for me to win a shopping spree this time of year. I'm one of those people who leaves their yard decorations up year round, so when Christmas came around, I'd be likely to leave the orange and black lights (I know the concept sounds un-viewable at night, but black lights glow purple at night) and add Christmas light colors to the lighting. I'm a sucker for lights and fog and anything that is spooky or creepy. I'm a sucker for the cold weather holidays. Halloween just happens to be my favorite. If I had the money, my bedroom would be a mish mash of skulls, webs, bats, cats, and other cool creepy stuff.

[CBGLuthier]

10. ever since

I played strip poker with a deck of tarot cards on Halloween night and then things got freaky......

I love halloween.

[Bunny]

11. Oh, I hear you johnnie. I hate Halloween.

I'm so glad my kids are over it now. I'm not handing out treats or anything this year. I guess I've officially entered old-geezerdom. I'll probably stand outside and yell at them to get off my lawn! :silly:

I really never understood adults getting into it either, but I've heard that it may soon pass Christmas in terms of money spent, and that is amazing. I just don't get it.

[ContraBass Black]

12. "dressing up, having parties and just plain acting silly"

Some people enjoy it, so they do it.

[KayLaw]

13. Think it's great

Orange and black, candy, cool weather, going out after it's dark, witches . . . love it.

[dolo amber]

14. I *get* that it's fun for kids

I dug it when I was a kid. I have a blast taking my kids out. For me personally though? Meh.

[Taverner]

15. Dude, free candy

Enough said

[graywarrior]

16. Halloween.

:scared:

[driver8]

17. Halloween parties are the best...THE BEST!!

People dress up, get crazy, lose their inhibitions, and all kinds of things can happen!!

A Halloween party is like no other. People do pretend to be someone else and so they are a little more relaxed and less inhibited.

[johnnie]

21. All the parties I go to are like that

:)

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Because it's fun...it's a reason to get together.

:hi:

[johnnie]

22. It's better to get together...

...just to get together. :hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

23. I don't think so. I think it's fun to see what people come up with.

We've never been to a Halloween party but I'd like to go. I don't think it matters what one gets together for. As long as they have fun. :)

[johnnie]

24. I did go to one last year

People gave me so much crap that I decided to dress up. I wore my old Tae Kwon Do gi.

Years ago I was invited to one and they said if we didn't have a costume we wouldn't be allowed in. My buddy and I showed up w/out a costume and the girl wanted us to leave. I told her we were Starsky and Hutch. She let us stay..lol.

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. Hahahaha!

:thumbsup:

[cobalt1999]

19. when I was in my twenties

my friends and I would dress up and crash halloween parties all over town (who could tell). It was great! If we didn't like one, jump in the car and find another.

What other night could you see a party happening and just walk into someone's house like you were invited with little chance anyone will question you?

I'm sure there are people out there dressing up and crashing parties every halloween.

People get into role playing too.

[femmocrat]

20. You are not the only one.

I think like everything else it has become over-done and too commercialized. Whatever became of making your own costume and carving pumpkins? Now, the Halloween merchandise comes out right after the Fourth of July, it seems. And it is so gawdy.... hideous stuff. I still like to see the little kids in cute costumes, but can do without the gory monsters and ghouls.

[xchrom]

25. i'm gay -- i HAVE to love halloween.

drag queens and go-go boys out the yin yang.

balls that last til 8:00 am the next day.

trying to put together an outfit every year that out does last years and praying to the halloween spirits that no one else has your outfit.

dancing next to thousands of cute sweaty boys.

halloween rules!

[johnnie]

27. You're so gay

Oh wait, you said that already..lol.

Hell, there are some bars around here that do what you are describing every night.

[xchrom]

28. well, of course --

but it's SPECIAL on halloween.

silly.

on edit: lol -- i am so gay -- aren't i?

[youthere]

29. I don't think you heard Taverner....

FREE. CANDY.

[johnnie]

30. I heard him.. I heard him

But as an adult you only get it when you steal it from the kids in your family. Eventually they figure it out and you are busted. Although, I haven't passed out candy in 7 years, but I have bought some twice with the intentions of passing it out. I ended up turning off the lights and eventually eating the candy myself. :)

[crim son]

31. I just love Halloween.

I love costumes, I love to decorate my whole house. We have literally a couple hundred kids every year and we do a haunted house for the bigger kids, and lots of scary surprises on the way up to the doorway for younger ones. Why do I like it? It's not the kids... it's seeing how far people will take it, and how they choose to represent themselves and the little mystery of being incognito. And the chocolate of course.

[Evoman]

33. I really want to not like halloween

being that I'm an adult and all. But its just so entertaining. Last halloween I went to the gas station to pick up some pop, and the guy pumping gas next to me had a hatchet stuck in his head, and was dressed in bloody rags. He looks over at me and grins with these dirty teeth. What a hoot! Then all the ladies who like to dress in the sexy, barely there costumes...Nurses, and Vampires, and Witches..OH MY.

What a fun night. Going to the bar on halloween is awesome.

Last year I was going to go dressed with a bow around myself and a little sign saying, "To: Women From: God" but my plans fell through.

[BrightBlueDot]

36. I love Hallowe'en.

It has to do with being raised by fundamentalist Christians who never allowed me to enjoy it when I was a kid. I'm making up for lost time. :)

[StellaBlue]

37. Yes

Halloween is the best holiday EVER.

It's evil; and you get to wear a costume.

[astral]

38. I'm not that crazy about Halloween

But I enjoy watching kids and ***OTHER PEOPLE*** dress up! Some of the costumes are hilarious. And, I like buying various kinds of chocolate candy and putting bowls of it out at work.

And when I was a little kid I liked going trick-or-treating and coming home with a PILLOWCASE full of candy!! No kidding! But that was in the 60's in a mellow middle-class neighborhood where you didn't have to know everybody's house you knocked the door of for treats!

And, since ***THOSE*** days are gone, well, I got bored. Old and fudddy-duddy, I guess.

I do think it is funny that Halloween is such a big deal for adults, I think some adults forget their KIDS' having fun on that day is MORE IMPORTANT.

Anyway, that's what I think -- it's for KIDS, and if grown-ups are still kids inside and love to play, no problem!

For a while there I thought it was evil to observe it. Like some of the rituals have an earlier meaning that is forgotten today, and that happy-faced pumpkins ATTRACT and INVITE the evil spirits in, while the horrific mad mean looking pumpkins are doing their job by keeping evil spirits away.

Do I believe in all that stuff? I think so! But my own intentions, and not becoming involved in the wrong stuff is what's important. Staying away from ouiji boards, kinda stuff like that.

[GOPisEvil]

39. I'm more of a DIa de los Muertos fan myself.

:shrug:

As for Halloween, I'm ambivalent. I'm not into costumes myself, but Austin is a fucking freak show, which is great nearly free entertainment.

[CBHagman]

41. Hey, it's a Celtic thing.

You knew this was coming, didn't you?

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html

Halloween had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle.

The festival observed at this time was called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living. On that day all manner of beings were abroad: ghosts, fairies, and demons--all part of the dark and dread.

Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. In the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., before missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columcille converted them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests, poets, scientists and scholars all at once. As religious leaders, ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, the Druids were not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize their people and brand them evil devil worshippers.

(SNIP)

Today Halloween is becoming once again and adult holiday or masquerade, like mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading past grinningly carved, candlelit jack o'lanterns, re- enacting customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge, mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the soul, and of the otherworld that becomes our world on this night of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency. In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening.

A friend of mine views Halloween as a great, big safety valve for American society, a chance to explore other identities and live a few fantasies.

I'm a Catholic baby boomer, so I have fond memories of having the day after Halloween off from school (It was All Saints Day, November 1st, a holy day of obligation, which meant it was time to go to mass). As I grow older, I want to observe the 31st through the 2nd (All Souls' Day, or the Day of the Dead) in some fashion. On the 31st I usually read Robert Burns's poem "Halloween" (which is all about fortune-telling games to identify your future partner).

So you make anything you want of Halloween -- a harvest festival, one last party before winter begins, a festival of ethnic pride, etc.

[terrya]

42. I'm gay and I don't get Halloween.

I mention my sexual orientation because Halloween is supposed to be "our" big holiday.

Personally, I think it's silly.

I agree with you.