Spooky Season is upon us!

Halloween People vs. Not Halloween People

Oct 06, 2023

Greetings from spooky season!!!! Can you not stop saying spooky? Should you see a doctor?! Or maybe just your local humorist!

Fear not!! I am here to satisfy all your spooky needs!! This time last year I wrote about witches, something I’m still unpacking as an identity…

This year I’m thinking about Halloween People. You know what I mean. There’s Halloween People and there’s Not Halloween people. Halloween people are often vegan punks and Not Halloween People are tired librarians. Halloween People get married on Halloween. They keep their decorations up as long as possible and they subscribe to pagan magazines. Not Halloween People say things like “I don’t really go to the movies anymore” and they drink a lot of tea. They probably buy their kids costumes and walk behind them in a puffy jacket at 5 PM on October 31st, quietly judging any parent who even “has the time to dress up.”

Recently I sat at a dinner between both of these archetypes. One of them had been planning her costume for months and was worried that New York wouldn’t really deliver for her on Halloween since she was a recent transplant from Miami (I reassured her, NYC would be good to her) and the other one said she didn’t care for any holiday that suggested she should be around large groups of people.

I am (very obviously) a Halloween Person, though I’m not a vegan! But what is it that made me that way? Is a person always a Halloween Person or are can they leave their identity at any point? Can they be like, “I used to be really into Halloween, but now I’m an adult.” Or can someone become a Halloween Person late in life? Do Not Halloween People secretly wish they could have the freedom of Halloween People? I wish I could see the studies on this!

Growing up my mom occupied a rare space of being into Halloween strictly from a decor standpoint, but never dressing up. Perhaps this is just what motherhood entails? Is it just too much to do it all? With the turn of the season she would get out her box of spooky trinkets: tiny ghosts, twinkle lights with pumpkins on them, and of course, a life size Charlie Brown that sat at our doorstep. Even my father was committed to decor, carving intricate pumpkin designs, better than everyone else’s on the block. The both of them went to all this effort, but never did I ever see them commit to dressing up. What’s up with that?

I used to cherish this one photo I had seen of them, seemingly the only time my parents did a couples costume, from when I was a baby and my siblings were in middle school. Though my parents maybe didn’t get the memo on what a couples costume actually meant… dad was Pinnocchio and mom was Snow White… nevertheless I thought it was so friggin’ cool that they had such decadent outfits!! They looked incredible! Why this was a thing of the past? Why didn’t they want to dress up with me now? It didn’t make sense! Now I know that this is a symptom of being the youngest child in a big family, and would be a large theme of my entire life, but either way it seemed that I was going to be more of a Halloween Person than anyone.

I do feel there is a sort of darkness to taking Halloween seriously. Sometimes I wonder if my desire to dress up is linked to my yearning to escape my head, to be anything other than myself, even if only for one night. But honestly, ff that’s true, I’m not worried about it. Escapism is healthy, to a certain degree. As long as it doesn’t become some sort of Eyes Wide Shut situation.

There’s a point in a Halloween Person’s life where you transition from being all about the candy to being all about the antics. We all remember in our early teenage years when suddenly dressing up seemed so lame, because only kids trick-or-treated, and the spirit isn’t quite revived until Halloween is resurrected as a sexual game in your early 20s. I think of those as Halloween gap years and I don’t blame anyone for loosing enthusiasm in the holiday during that time.

One thing I realized while writing this is that looking at someone’s costume history can be quite telling of their aura. For example, take me. I started out as an innocent Dorothy and Nala, but quickly worked my way into more tortured headspaces such as Flapper Girl, Sporty Spice, and Britney Spears, before ultimately landing in my current phase of complicated sexual powerhouse——Scully from X—Files, Katherine from Cruel Intentions, and last year, Miss Amity from Jaws (She’s hot, but she’s gonna die), for which I walked around the East Village in a bikini and heels. It’s true, I’m in my “I want to look good” era, and I’ll stay here as long as I please. Compare me to someone like my sister who once went as “Girl with many skirts on” and I think the result is obvious. I am more vain and love to be complimented. And you’d be right! My sister is a better person that me!!

But I do think my real favorite part of Halloween is that for me, it’s actually much more of a Mental Health Awareness month than May ever could be.

Halloween is all about facing your demons. Connecting with the past. Remembering those lost. Confronting trauma. It’s no surprise that nearly every modern horror film is in allegory for pain. Whether its grief, abuse, mental health issues or shared trauma, everything from the rebooted Halloween franchise to It Follows is a metaphor for some type of emotional issue.

I think that’s why the horror genre has always been the most innovative, the most ahead of it’s time. It’s able to talk about highly complex issues amongst blood, guts, and ghostfaces in a heightened way that drama or a comedy can’t quite reach.

This Halloween I hope we all have Final Girl Energy, but if that feels too out of your emotional range right now don’t guilt trip yourself, just go find those Pillsbury sugar cookies with the ghosts on them and remember that you’re in the best month. Unless you’re Not A Halloween Person, in which case, go drink tea.