Who doesn’t love Halloween? It’s the perfect excuse to watch horror films and scare ourselves silly, carve creepy faces into pumpkins, scavenge for sweets and of course, dress up. Guaranteed to be that one time of year when everyone will make some sort of effort with a costume, even that one stubborn person who always refuses to take part. On Halloween, you don’t want to be the only person who hasn’t joined in, that’ll just make you stand out more than the psychopathic blood-stained clown who’s wandering about.
As kids we tended to stick to conventional costumes with hundreds of little wicked witches flying around and that one child who puts a white bed sheet over them and says they’re a ghost. Always a classic. We may look back now and think it’s a silly tradition but it was fun, especially trick or treating and getting sweets from the neighbours. However, as more and more disturbing cases appear in the news regarding children going missing and sinister things going on behind closed doors, it seems as though less and less children are going trick or treating. Some people may accuse others of being too paranoid these days, yet considering these horrible incidents it just doesn’t seem sensible to go and knock on a stranger’s door.
On a less serious note, when exactly is it ‘too old’ to still go trick or treating? Our view of Halloween changes as we get older and suddenly we’re too cool to dress up now. Some teenagers try their luck dressed in half-hearted costumes (a mask with their hood up usually) to try and get some free sweets, but then there comes a time when we get a little bit older and actually want to do it properly. We’re past the age of thinking doing it is committing social suicide and are absolutely fine wandering the streets dressed as overgrown ghouls. Not forgetting the free sweets of course. We’re poor students and any opportunity to get our hands on free stuff is a good opportunity.
Halloween however is not just about trick or treating traditions, in fact it’s the perfect opportunity for teenagers and students to have a great night out. We’re going on nights out anyway, so we might as well go out for an actual reason. Costumes are a must for a Halloween night out, even if it’s just a witches hat or devil horns to go with an ordinary outfit. More ambitious people go all out and cover themselves and their costumes in fake blood to fit the spooky theme. Back combed hair is a must to achieve that all important zombie/witch/mummy Halloween look people tend to go for, even though it’s always a nightmare to comb through the next day!
Group themes are popular now that we’re older because if everyone’s dressing up then you’ve got nothing to feel stupid about. Themes range from evil Disney characters to the Scooby Doo gang, including the Mystery Machine costume because it just comes to the point where you don’t want to dress as a person anymore. Then there are those who take their costumes to the extremes, if costume is the right word to use. Everyone knows someone who does this, the typical Regina George tottering around in her 6 inch heels and little clothing. They do this with the ‘If you’re dressing up, why not look good as well?’ attitude. Which is totally fine, town’s guaranteed to be packed with literally every person you know so it’s not hard to see why people want to look good in front of everyone. But to be honest on a night like Halloween I would say it’s the one night of the year when you definitely do not have to look pretty, they’re kind of missing the point. Replace the short shorts with a black bin bag, shove your flat shoes on and look as gruesome as possible! It’s probably going to be a better night if you’re not stressing about getting fake blood on you, so join in with everyone else.
As we grow up we go through so many phases of Halloween traditions and there are certainly more to come. Including the inevitable time when the thought of going on a night out in a packed club isn’t appealing anymore and you just want to sit in and watch Hocus Pocus. Or Halloweentown High, which ever. So enjoy whatever phase you’re at right now before you feel like you’re ‘too old’ for Halloween and get into the spirit of it. Trick or treating anyone?
