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Halloween and spooky season; what are your thoughts?

Halloween and spooky season; what are your thoughts?

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Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Hi guys. As you probably know, today is Halloween, a day where many have gone out trick or treating, had raging Halloween parties or otherwise done something spooky to celebrate. In recent times, Halloween has grown bigger and more widely commercialised and celebrated, and this seems to have sent people into one of two camps. Here in Britain at least, I’ve noticed that people either seem to love Halloween and relish the spooky season or not be a fan of Halloween, often bemoaning how “we Britons are allowing Americanisms to take over” or something along those lines. With this in mind, I’d be intrigued to know; where do you stand on Halloween and the spooky season? Are you a Halloween fan, or are you a Halloween sceptic?

Personally, I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of Halloween. When I was a child, the best bit of the season for me was always the chocolate I got from trick or treating, and I’ve never been that big on the other aspects of it; Halloween is never something I’ve been massively keen on overall. As I’ve grown older in particular, and the popular Halloween activities have grown more mature in nature, I’ve found myself really going off it. I’m not a big fan of horror, and as silly as it might sound, I must confess that I get mildly anxious around teenagers and adults in Halloween costumes.

It might help that I was brought up in a household that didn’t really celebrate Halloween. Me and my sister trick or treated as young kids, but we only visited a small, cherry picked selection of close family members who knew we were coming, and it was never a big thing. We never celebrated Halloween in any meaningful way. My mum and dad’s mentality with Halloween has always been in the ilk of “batten down the hatches, shut the curtains, turn off all the front facing lights and pretend we’re not home”, and it’s never been a big thing for us.

But I’d be keen to know; what are your thoughts on Halloween and the spooky season? Do you love it, or are you like me in not being a huge fan? I’d be really keen to know!
 
I enjoy the Halloween season, mainly because of the fact that it gives me an excuse to watch horror films (I watched 34 this month), and I love the scare mazes and scare events that open in October.
 
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I am old enough to remember when Halloween was just a date at the end of October that nobody really bothered about.

It was all about bonfire night and penny for the guy when i was growing up.

Unfortunately Halloween seems to have taken the edge off bonfire night a bit, and it doesn't help when there are bonfires on random nights. Our village has one on Monday the 4th for some reason.

I hated Halloween a few years ago, with kids forever knocking on the door but these days there seems to be a bit more etiquette about it, visiting only houses with decorations up. So i dont have a problem with that. And it is no trouble to anyone in that case.
 
I fit the bill of the the typical Halloween hater. I despise how much Americanisms are polluting our culture and language, especially tracksuited and knife wielding chavs pretending they're gangsters straight out of Compton, and the use of yankie words such as 'gotten' becoming widely acceptable. I see right through commercialisation, and I feel events such as Valentines day are all a load of bollocks that are better off being ignored, even the obsession adults seem to have these days with their own birthdays annoys me. I'm old enough to remember when Halloween was just some thing you were aware of, where a small number of local hooligans would go out with bags of flour and packs of eggs, that happened to be a few days before the main event, which was Bonfire night.

Halloween just seemed to be something that just passed me by as a kid, with little fanfare. It was quite insignificant.

But who can really say they have a major problem with it?

Very few of us are religious, yet we're happy to abuse local supermarket staff en-mass, get pissed out of our skulls before driving cars, worship a fictional fat guy created by an American beverage company that used to put cocaine in their soft drinks, and exchange packs of socks every December each year.

We do it because we're emotional animals who like to party. I was born this time of year, and it should naturally be quite depressing (I'm sure it was for my mother back in 1982, poor mare). All that summer sunshine is gone and we're confined indoors once more. The dark mornings and evenings. Plants dying. It's otherwise grim.

It's hardly "horror" anyway. It can be if you want it to be, but that's not all it's about. I enjoy a good horror movie, game or experience myself. But even if I didn't, I see this event through the eyes of my children when they were young. Pumpkins, witches, lights, colours, fresh evenings, autumn smells, and lots of sweets.

Now mine are older, we've enjoyed answering the door to see these costumed little 'uns, eyes full of magic and excitement, with Tubular Bells blaring out. All it cost to make a happy and memorable evening for the local kids was a few quid in cheap decorations, a pumpkin, and some sweets.

So if you can't carve a pumpkin, have fun with the kids, listen to the Monster Mash, and enjoy the colours and smells of the season, then what is there to do? Life's too short to sit in ignoring the doorbell with the lights off getting all bitter and twisted.
 
The only thing I "hate" about the Americanisation of Halloween, is the idea that any old costume is acceptable. No! Bad colonials! It has to be something spooky!
 
Na, as an ex turnip lantern creator for many years, including professionally, and a resident on the Devils Highway itself, at it's dead centre, overlooking the cemetery, with a complete witch of a wife, close to Pendle Hill, it is shit, for kids and idiots.
So I don't really understand why I don't really like it.

Now mischief night, as a kid (4th Nov over here, sometimes 30th Oct in others), was something else.
Settling scores under cover of darkness...
 
Many moons ago, around halloween, with "Big One Brian" himself, we chatted about doing "dead person" in the queueline for the Big One.
So I did.
The woman behind me said it was her scariest experience ever on a ride, she really thought I was a goner.

God bless Big One Brian.

He just smiled, and told her I was simply an old fool.

Oh, and Passage del Terror...worth doing...once.
 
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