It seems like at this time of year I'm always thinking the same thing as I read about all the Halloween celebrations that will occur over the next few days...
Halloween is for kids.
When I was growing up, I don't ever recall adults dressing up and partying or taking part in Halloween. Maybe it was done, but their role, at least in my world, was to give out candy or to walk the neighborhood with their kids. Actually, I distinctly remember going trick or treating in Western Pennsylvania accompanied only by a few other excited friends. No adults. Oh, there was also the soaped windows, the shaving cream, the toilet paper, and the corn, but that's a whole other post.
Yeah, I know, those were some different times, but I can't help but think that when the adults started dressing up and turned the evening into yet another reason to party, it was the beginning of the end for what will always be for me a day reserved for the kids.
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4 comments:
Lighten up Francis!
Those of us adults without kids have no reason not to enjoy ourselves.
I guess you'd expect me to jump in on this.
In the Midwest in the '60s there were plenty of adult parties. Trick-or-treating was largely left to the kids, except for the fathers tagging along and holding out their glasses for a boozy refill at each house. But costume parties were still in vogue. I remember one in particular where my mother dressed as a black cat and my father wore a straw boater and red and white vest as a barbershop quartet singer. But while it was ubiquitous among the kids -- only weirdo religious families didn't let their kids go out -- it wasn't uncommon for adults to have their own fun.
Adults dressing up for Hallowe'en goes back tot he earliest days of the celebration in America, too. I have photos from the 1900s of adult gatherings with everyone in costume. not a kid in sight. As I said in my own post on the subject, the traditions have moved around, but most of them have been there since the beginning.
Today, though, it's more for the adults than the kids, and like everything else, the sexuality is more explicit than implied; these are not subtle times. It's also reflective of our times in that the costumes are rarely based on traditional stories or books, but on movies and television. Hallowe'en is less about a connection with tradition, and more about expressing a connection to popular culture. That's a shame but again, these are not subtle times.
I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania and my parents went to Halloween parties before my sister and I were born. When we were too old for trick or treating, they began to go to parties again. I don't think the day has been hijacked at all. Parents celebrate it one way and adults without young children celebrate it another.
Bah humbug!
Im not a big fan of Halloween but I also have no kids and though I'm nearly 33 would hesitate to qualify myself as an "adult". The kid in all of us wants to play. And play we shall!
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