October 31, Halloween.

Originally a holiday honoring the dead, which gets celebrated differently across the globe. Here, in the United States, the holiday is celebrated with costume wearing, kids trick-or-treating for candy, costume parties and watching spooky movies etc.

Yet, it seems that Halloween in the U.S. has become more hollow, and could be re-titled “Hollow-ween.”

As a youngster I can recall typically dressing up as a Power Ranger numerous times (although I was always very disappointed — I don’t think I ever got the chance to be the Green Ranger), Batman or a Star Wars character. Either attending a Halloween parade to watch, in my early years, or taking part in one was a norm and seemed quite popular, especially in the 1990’s. Trick-or-treating with family and friends was a “must” growing up, and basically was until those early High School years…

Houses and properties were always fully decorated with jack o’lanterns, “R.I.P.” tombstones, cobwebs and ghosts swayed from trees. As I look around today — that’s no longer the case. Front lawns are now bare compared to past October’s, and the Halloween “spirit” and festivities seem to decrease as time goes on.

Sure there are still pumpkins next to front doors and porches, but nothing more than that typically. And while there are still some haunted hay rides and houses you can explore; there certainly are not as many present, plus I don’t think they’re not advertised as much anymore either.

Trick or treaters have almost been declared extinct. We used to run out of candy to give out by the time the town’s curfew approached. Now, we’ll hand out 12 pieces of candy at most. I can remember going through entire neighborhoods with friends, and seeing floods of people walking along doing the same — no longer the case.

The traditions that have continued, or have gotten more popular, from the once “spooky” holiday are the costume parties and pumpkin picking. While both are cool, fun and can be creative — I feel like half the time people take part in the fall festivities is because of the potential Instagram or Facebook post they’ll get to flaunt…

I’m not much of a TV-watcher, but it seems like there may be less scary or spooky movies on channels, and perhaps they’re only played on the day of or night before. Am I wrong?

Then of course how could we forget , Mischief Night. There were always sights of trees completely “decorated” in toilet paper and silly string on Hallow’s Eve. In fact, usually a week leading up to the night kids were out participating in mischief activities. Presently, it’s a rare sight to wake up on Halloween to see my property or neighbor’s places covered in toilet paper or having shaving cream sprayed out somewhere.

I almost have the urge to offer teenagers on Mischeif Night to chuck some toilet paper in the trees on my front lawn, and to go out and do the same to other houses, go explore and embrace the night — but to do so in moderation obviously, and no vandalism.

Halloween will never entirely disappear, but I do have to wonder if some of its’ traditions like trick-or-treating or decorating homes will be relevant in years to come…

October 31, Hollow-ween.

Also See:

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