2,000 years ago, Celtic people believed that the dead could walk among the living. They celebrated the new year on November 1, which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter. According to history.com, this time of year was associated with human death, which caused them to believe that the line between life and death was blurred.
Thus, they dressed up in costumes, so the spirits would mistake them for ghouls and the spirits were offered candy to leave people and their families alone. Halloween was once a day that people feared and it has morphed into something completely different.
Sure, it’s 2,000 years later, but the holiday has made a drastic change. There is less emphasis on the actual meaning behind the holiday, and more on seductive costumes, free candy, and having another reason to party with friends. Today, we are desperately lacking that dark vibe we once had.
If you walk into a Halloween shop, it’s easy to find sexual costumes than a costume that would leave someone mortified. There have been more girls dressed in bras being passed off as a costume than I can count, and some of those girls couldn’t even give a name to what they were dressed up as. They decorated a bra just to wear it with the excuse that it’s Halloween so no one can pass judgement.
When you think of Halloween now, you don’t think about the eeriness, you think about the candy. The thing I’ve loved most about Halloween is how it really begins when it gets dark, and how the darkness digs an unsettling feeling from your gut. The only feeling people are getting deep down are stomach aches from all the free candy that they scoop up traveling from door to door.
Rather than promoting the Halloween spirit, the holiday has become a money making machine. Just like Easter, Christmas, and many other holidays, Halloween has become one of the many things we celebrate that has evolved from its traditional values, and turned into a commercial holiday with no true significance. According to theatlantic.com, total Halloween spending -including candy, costumes, and decorations- add up to $7.4 billion each year.
Standing back and watching my favorite time of the year become a catwalk, candy handout, money making night has really stolen a lot of the tradition I’ve grown to love. It’s not hard to tell that the Halloween spirit is dead.
Kenzie Ross, Staff ReporterÂ
