Halloween has been around for centuries, although it has truly transformed. The holiday has gone from a pagan religious celebration to mark the end of summer and welcome at the start of the harvest, to a day full of costumes, candy, scary movies, and pumpkin carving. Halloween has always been a very popular holiday amongst younger kids. Dressing up in costumes, hanging out with friends, and free candy. What more could you want in a holiday? But this holiday takes on a different spirit for older kids and teens. Costumes become less silly and more fashionable, trick or treating turns into horror movie marathons, and free candy comes from the bowl upstairs when the adults aren’t looking. Halloween is still very popular, but in a different way. Costumes have grown up with us. High schoolers see less princesses and superheroes and more pop-culture references and TV/movie characters. As kids we can all recall going to school in our costumes, eager to see what everyone else came as. Hoping no one else had the same idea as you, or maybe jealous because theirs is custom and home-made. But regardless of the quality, Halloween costumes were a source of joy for every young child. Now, admittedly, we see less costumes in school as we get older because many schools don’t allow kids to wear masks, carry props, or dress up at all. So, the experience is already different. Most every teen can remember running down the side-walk, trying to remember which house had the king-size bars and which one had toothbrushes. A grown-up trailing behind, yelling to slow-down, but pure excitement (and maybe a little sugar) keeping you at a brisk pace. Freezing your butt off but still wanting to show off your cool costume. Coming home with an overflowing bag, heaping with all kinds of candy. Dumping it all out in the middle of the living room, hoping for more of your favorite. Offering to trade, trying to scam your friends into giving more than they are getting. Parents trying to sneak a piece or two and pretending to be clueless when the pile of candy seems smaller in the morning. Bargaining with your parents to eat a few more pieces before you go to bed, or to pack you a piece or two for lunch and a snack at school. But now, on Halloween night we’re at home having a scary movie marathon, or at a Halloween party. Trying to sneak an R-rated movie past our parents. Still eating way too much candy. Still celebrating with friends, just in a more relatable way to us. I guess Halloween is something that grows with us.
