Today is October 31st. For the rest of the world, that means Halloween. But for most of us in college, it just means Wednesday; Halloween was all celebrated over the weekend with Harwood Halloween and parties and all that, back when we had a couple hours to spare. It’s always funny to think how for us Halloween is “over” several days before it actually occurs. But is it? Are we too old for regular Halloween? What does Halloween mean for us now?
I went to the village today right in the middle of their trick or treat activity, so I was surrounded by many adorable kids in costume getting candy from the various shops and restaurants. For them clearly Halloween is today, and for any of us that want to go trick or treating, we can only go door-to-door on October 31st (or people will think you’re pretty weird if you just show up asking for candy). Today I did see some people running around campus in costume and I wore Halloween themed things in black and orange. My a cappella group, Kosher Chords, had a pretty good showing of costumes tonight at rehearsal.
So clearly for kids and us college students getting in costume is still a huge part of Halloween—something that hearkens back to the days of yore when people dressed up to scare off the spooks, fairies, and souls of the dead that were supposed to emerge on this day. But for the kids it’s mostly about trick or treating (something some of us do take part in) and for us it’s probably more about the parties. For us it’s also perhaps about the occasional candy giveaway in class, the random person showing up in a crazy costume, and Frank having weird food and decorations. I think it’s just a good excuse to collect candy and cookies and other treats and be happy. How could you be unhappy with the Halloween spirit in the air? (well maybe if, like me, you have hours of work to look forward to). All in good fun.
Happy Halloween!