Halloween is known almost all across the globe from Ireland, to Canda, and etc. It goes from Different names like AllHalloween, All Hallows eve, and All Saints Day. But no matter the differentiating names of the holidays around the globe, everyone knows what it’s about. It’s about the celebration of what scares us most. What our primal senses tell us to turn away from, what we fear might be watching around the corner of our eye… it’s all what we celebrate on this holiday season.
Fear might be the sole purpose of Halloween to this day, and why we celebrate it. Sure, you could argue for the candy or festivities, but really, it’s just the feeling of wanting to be scared that drives us. Some of us might go outside of our comfort zones or stay inside of it while still actively disturbing their self with their own thoughts… No matter what there is always a true sense of fear. Firstly, the atmosphere Halloween puts itself in is the dark… the most primal fear of almost all of humanity that has haunted us since the time we started discovering fire and hunting creatures with spears. We fear of what might lie in the dark, for we cannot see it… therefore making us feel the most vulnerable in this state.
The second thing that we could consider, is the fear of death itself. Another fear of the unknown as we do not know what lies beyond our mortality. Is there a Heaven? Is there a hell, or even a purgatory? Or are we permanently closing our eyes for good… Halloween explores these concepts of death with the general atmosphere it promotes. Usually when you possibly go out trick or treating, you will see people putting up fake gravestones or dressing up as zombies, fictional killers (but hopefully not real killers, please stop dressing up as Jeffery Dahmer people), surface level stuff… but the true thing people fear, is whether it will actually happen, if you happen to come across someone who actually wants you dead is what someone might truly fear. What if someone wanted to utilize the way this holiday runs… as a way to hunt you down? To mask their activities? No one truly knows, but it’s always a primordial fear that will lurk in our minds, especially when out at Halloween.
Halloween’s emphasis on fear helps rise it up in popularity in the list of holidays as it is truly an interesting concept for a time of celebration, to celebrate what truly makes us shiver, now I know I only scratched Primordial, surface level fears but I think that’s all I really needed to go over. Of course, the concept of death in holidays can also be extended to a form of celebration and not just simply the fear of it, like Dia de los Muerte’s, a Hispanic Holiday about the celebration of dead family Members, or the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Chinese Holiday about the celebration of ancestors, both holidays celebration of who came before us.
In conclusion, our fears will always stay with us till the end of times, and Halloween celebrates that, a truly strange tradition it is but I love it. And even if it is strange, it is also loved by many around the world, as I feel like it is one of the most or at least second most celebrated holidays, besides Jolly Ol’ Christmas. In General, I hope Halloween will stick with us till the end of times and continue to bring us fear.
