Jack 'o ween.

It's October and it's already time to start hanging little ghosties and hacking up pumpkins in one of the most bizarre rituals of our culture... Halloween. I saw one of the most because I still can't think of a more random holiday than worshiping chocolate egg laying bunnies. I understand it's a powerful statement against Darwinism, with the entire reproductive organs apparently only secreting chocolate, but still- it's a difficult miracle to believe.

But Halloween stands out as possibly the only holiday that is not brought together by a feeling of togetherness, it isn't songs around a campfire, or that warm, fuzzy feeling of Love. It's the only holiday that reeks of havoc and gut fear. To any other holiday, there's that emotionally bulimic motion of purging your system of all your venomous hate, or spiteful grudges, force a smile because it's Thanksgiving/Christmas/Valentine's Day and it's "special", dammit, so you'd better be on your best behavior.

I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to haunted houses, I'll be the last one who wants to be pinched and groped by strangers wearing fake blood and plastic masks. But regardless, there's something inherently powerful, a mystic power that's almost romantic, about the air of Halloween. And while it's no fun to be the trademark Hollywood B-movie cheerleader who knows she's going to get stabbed because she just had a sex scene and the laws of horror karma are bearing down upon her as she wanders meekly down the lonely dimly lit street- there is a distinct and wicked pleasure of moving silently among the shadows, in smile and step of the horrors and haunts of Halloween. There's some drunk power to playing the crazed stupid stare of the undead, the release of all this trouble of being mortal and having lives that will start with class tomorrow, or a midterm on Friday.

Sure, maybe it's just another form of escapism- the thrill of being something greater than human; or the cheap power of finally being feared- even for that split second. A second to realize that maybe we're not so predictable after all.

^_^