We are fast approaching the most wonderful time of the year. I bet you think I’m talking about Christmas. No silly! Although Christmas makes my Top 2, I’m talking about HALLOWEEN! That time when the air starts to chill (unless you live in NC) and leaves start to fall. Pumpkins and hay bales with cute little scarecrows start to fill the neighborhood yards. The time of year when, unfortunately, everything becomes pumpkin spice flavored including body wash, tooth paste (horrifically true) and scents for any home diffuser you happen to own. Now as scary as all that sounds to any person who seriously celebrates this most auspicious holiday, that is not what Halloween means to me and other true fans of the holiday. But before I get into that, let’s explore a bit of the history of Halloween.
Halloween is a holiday celebrated every year on October 31st. It was a pagan religious holiday that originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would wear costumes and light bonfires to ward off ghosts and usher in the dark half of the year. Sometime in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a day to honor all saints, thus calling it All Saints Day. Eventually, he incorporated some Samhain traditions and the day before became known as All Hallows Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween has evolved into a celebration including costume wearing, games, parades, parties, trick or treating and, my personal favorites, horror movies and haunted houses.
I cannot say enough about Halloween. It’s so amazing for so many reasons that I simply can’t list them all. For one day, you can choose to be anyone you want to be with a little clever costuming. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, whether you are human or animal, it’s a level playing field. Anything goes! You can watch all the scary movies you have been waiting to be released since last year and get that scare you have been jonesing for. You can turn your house into a spectacle to creep out and, perhaps, nauseate your neighbors. You can play devilish pranks on your unsuspecting friends and make them YouTube famous when your post the video to your channel. And, my personal favorite, you can create a haunted house where people will pay you to scare them so badly they poop and/or pee themselves.
How can it get any better than this? I tell you how. People give you free goodies! Everybody has a blast and you don’t have to worry about finding some random gift that fits into your budget that they probably don’t want anyway. I’m telling you, it’s the best holiday EVER!
Now, in all fairness, me and my peeps celebrate Halloween all year long. Our house is filled with horror memorabilia that we have collected over the years. Horror movies are our favorite genre. We literally scare our friends on a regular basis just for kicks. Heck, we have even been known to do an actual ghost hunt or two. But, our thing, the activity we love the most, is creating haunted houses…and we’re pretty good at it! We love it so much that we would operate a haunted house all year long for every season if we had the means and the audience!
Now the scary monster, Covid-19, stopped us from chasing our bliss last year. It was a true bummer. So, we did what any good ghouls and goblins should do; we decided the show must go on. We put on our scary costumes, hid amongst the props that we had placed on our porch and in the front yard and scared the passersby who dared to pass the house that people had dubbed “that scary house downtown.”
Our haunted house generally raises about $7000 a year for local charities. It is so nice to help a worthy cause while doing what we love. We had hoped that we would be able to operate again this year. However, we have faced some obstacles not limited to losing our location due to environmental factors, having to find a new location and how to entertain guests while keeping them and our actors safe during a pandemic. But we are keeping the faith. Halloween gods shine down us!
While we wait, we decided it was a good time to start our shenanigans and celebrations of this most amazing holiday. Yesterday, we made our first trip to Spirit Halloween. We were like kids in the toy section of a department store. The masks and costumes ranged from funny to scary. (I’m sure you know me and my crew were more drawn to the scary ones.) We tapped every sensor to every animatronic in the store. It was like the whole store came to life at once! We left about a half an hour later feeling much more in the spirit of the Gay High Holy Day (that is a Will & Grace reference for those of you who just wondered what in the heck I was just talking about.)
Afterwards, we went to see the long-awaited remake of Candyman. Any respectable horror geek has to see it since Tony Todd reprised his role as The Candyman. It gave a decent amount of gore, including a makeup effect that made me turn my head due to one of my only phobias (trypophobia.) Almost as impressive as a special effect makeup that could actually make me look away was the fact that a horror movie managed to include a pretty powerful message about social injustice. It’s got me all pumped up for the other sequel I’ve been waiting for the better part of a year to see…Halloween Kills!
So, needless to say, today I am all up in my Halloween feels and have started putting out my creepy swag because one month is not enough! If you have lost the joy and wonder of this most special time of year, I hope my words will help you recapture that spooky spirit. Wear that costume; pop some popcorn, turn out the lights and watch your favorite scary movie; go to a haunted house; go all out decorating your house. Let your heart remember Halloweens of days gone by with childlike glee. Buy the plastic vampire fangs! Dust off those brooms, witches! And, by all means, have a little fun in this crazy world we live in.
May the days that follow be filled with ghouls, goblins, witches, vampires, clowns and whatever else makes your heart skip a beat and may your life be filled with more treats than tricks! Scare you later😊
Health, happiness and good vibes to all!
