The Forgotten

As a kid, I remember the excitement that came with Fall. Not with watching football, or pining over casseroles but the one, the big one, that I spent hours thinking about, planning and designing. Halloween.


Somewhere along the way, something happened and Halloween lost its way. It became uncelebrated, filled with risqué costumes and glitter. Oh Lord, the glitter! It got masked in "Autumn Celebrations" and lost all of its charm.


It got replaced with that rush to experience Christmas. Every year, I see Halloween being forced out of its once loved retail home on store shelves. It's such an unwelcome holiday to many anymore. No one dresses up, no Halloween parties are thrown, not many decorate their houses, trick or treating has been replaced by trunk or treat. Booo....


How did this happen? Have we clung so tightly to conservatism that Halloween just doesn't align with our values anymore? Is there a preconceived notion that celebrating Halloween damns our souls because it's a "Pagan holiday"? Why are we slowly letting Halloween become the forgotten holiday?


Well, not in my house. We put up Halloween decorations on October 1st to celebrate 31 days of horror movies, orange and black, jack o lanterns, and things that go bump in the night. We make Halloween playlists that include everything from The Monster Mash to Ministry's "Every day is Halloween". We make fun recipes. We watch scary movies. We make it a point to use these 31 days to get creative.


I invoke you to think about Halloween for a second. There's still time. What can you do to help keep the spirits alive?