Monday, September 14, 2009

A Dark and Stormy Night




I believe that Halloween is the best holiday. When I tell some one this, they usually act either excited or mortified, but they always ask "why?"

The "why" isn’t really that hard. "Its fun." I usually don’t go into details, because most of the time they don’t care. I like it because it’s thrilling. If you’ve ever scared a friend, parent, or sibling, just to make them mad, you know the feeling.

I can be creative with it, no other holiday is like that. Christmas has Baby Jesus, Santa Claus, and reindeer, that’s pretty much it. Valentines day: hearts, bad chocolate, and a winged baby with a bow and arrow. Halloween comes with witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and goblins, magic, myths, legends, death, mystery, and horror. So much more variety, so many more options.

Back to the horror. Who doesn’t like a good horror movie? Horror is a large and very successful genre. I’m sure everyone over the age of ten knows what Freddy Krueger looks like, I knew who he was long before I saw a movie with him. Well, Halloween brings horror to life. Everything from the movies, without the danger that the characters experience, what’s not to like?

With Halloween, there is imagination. If you’re in a haunted house, something as simple as a dark corner, can be much more. A bush rattled by the wind make you wonder what’s there, will something pop out? There is suspense in even the simplest things. I was out late once, It was a dark and stormy night, and I heard an animal in a bush, I thought “Is it a raccoon? Is it rabid? Will the raccoon attack me?” Imagination creates the fear.

Now imagine you’re in any costume you want, chances are, you like it. Costumes can change your personality. They allow you to be something you’re not. People can create entire characters, with histories and abilities. Things that we cannot do or be. You could be an alien, or werewolf, a fireman or cowboy. The possibilities are endless.

Halloween has almost endless possibilities. There is something for almost everyone, from haunters to the common individual. These are the reasons I believe Halloween is the best holiday.