I know, but what about Christmas? Christmas is good too. It is the birth of our Savior — clearly if we were tier-ranking the importance of holidays that would be at the top alongside Easter.
But speaking to the secular celebration of Halloween and Christmas, Halloween is the best holiday and there’s more to it than what meets the eye, if you are willing to take it there.
Growing up, Halloween was a time to spend with my mom. (Don’t worry she’s still alive, that’s not where this is going). We would get the fake cobwebs and stretch them over the bushes and doorway. We would bring down the tombstones, raven statues and pumpkin figurines from the attic.
There were costumes, passing out candy and my school would have a big Halloween Carnival every year. While I did spend a lot of time with my friends too during Halloween, my mom was the one who made Halloween feel just as magical as Christmas.
I miss home the most during October and I think that’s part of the reason. While I get to spend Christmas with my mom, I really miss getting to spend Halloween with her too.
And Halloween is deeper than most people give it credit for. I’m Catholic and the two times (during the liturgical year) that it feels like a time of reflection are the days from Halloween to All Souls Day and the other is Advent. It probably should be Lent too, but I don’t know; the vibes are different.
I like to use that period of Halloween-All Souls Day to reflect on death. Which sounds really jarring, but death is part of life, and I think taking time to reflect on it occasionally is healthy. I should specify that I don't celebrate Dia de los Muertos; I just partake in All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day and secular Halloween.
But back to death. In Bell Hooks’ All About Love, she has a chapter completely dedicated to death and grieving. She argues we use death as a means to justify the need for increased security and protection. We wall ourselves up over the inevitable.
Obviously, we shouldn’t actively seek death, but death isn’t solely bad and it isn’t solely good either. We get trapped in a lot of black and white thinking when it comes to life and death. But there’s pain in both just as there is love in both.
“When I was a little girl, our mother talked with ease about the possibility of death,” Hooks writes. “... I am continually surprised when friends, and strangers, act as though any talk of death is a sign of pessimism or morbidity. Death is among us. To see it always and only as a negative subject is to lose sight of its power to enhance every moment.”
Due to all our anxieties around death, I like to use Halloween as a time to see death in a neutral light and use it as a guide as to how I want to live. Religiously, it lines up well because after Halloween comes All Saints’ Day, where we honor and acknowledge all the people who have done wondrous things in God’s name, and after that is All Souls’ Day, where we honor all those who have passed before us.
And I’m not saying I’m on saintly status by any means, but the saints in Catholicism are built-in role models. Generally, people can find a saint that parallels their own life experience and use them as a source of strength to bring them closer to God.
I get that not all Christian denominations are for the saints, and that’s fair. But regardless of your religion, take this time to reflect. Remember we are all connected even when we don’t see it — that’s part of the magic.
And maybe there is more to this holiday than just candy, costumes and ghouls but that’s pretty fun too. So, let’s light those jack-o'-lanterns and make this a spook-filled Halloween with many memories to cherish.
Abigail Murphy is the Dadeville beat reporter for Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.
