Every year when Halloween comes around, I hear too much about costume controversy and far too little about the magic of the holiday that captivated me as a child.
It’s foolish to believe that you can assess a woman’s sexual morals by her choice to dress as a sexy rodent, naughty nurse or any other sort of sexy, naughty character on Halloween.
Believe it or not, attire isn’t an indicator of libido. I highly doubt that men say, “That girl must have no sexual impulses at all because she’s wearing a T-shirt,” as if only girls who wear sparkly corsets are sexually inclined. For those whining about the message these skimpier costumes might project, remember that the woman in said “slutty” costume is quite capable of verbally communicating whether she wants to sleep with her pursuers.
But enough about costume: Even without them, Halloween can be both fun and scary. If you allow yourself to goof off and embrace it with the enthusiasm that you once had as a kid, you can completely terrify yourself. Get your heart racing like you’re trapped in a cabin in the woods with nothing but the willies and a widowed witch who’s out to get you.
When Halloween’s not about candy corn, it’s about ghost stories, crackling fires, cemeteries, screaming cats, horse skulls and hypothetical creatures with sagging jaws crawling out from behind trees to grab your ankles. Halloween is a festival of fears and fun. It’s adrenaline, and, at this age, it’s nostalgia. Remember how fun it was to carve jack-o’-lanterns and get pumpkin goop under your nails?
The tradition of lighting up pumpkins began because supposedly a man named Jack was unable to enter heaven due to his miserliness and unable to enter hell because he’d been playing pranks on the devil. He then found himself condemned to wander Earth with a lantern until Judgment Day. Because of this legend, we get to carve pumpkins, stick lighted candles in them and play pranks, which beats the story behind the Easter bunny.
Nostalgia is a mood-booster, and so is confidence. Worrying about unnecessary things inhibits the magic from welling up inside of you and giving you an incredible, high-spirited night. So do what you want, wear what you want, bob for apples, go to a haunted house, and above all, be safe, be scary and be bright.
Hunter Wright is a sophomore majoring in creative writing.