Halloweekend begins…hold me

Meredith Ablao, News Editor

As a child, Halloween night was the most terrifying night of my life. You know, being a little kid is super hard and everything in your mind is so pure…scary faces at night did not necessarily thrill me, to say the least. When I was 5, my mom dressed me up as a honey pot…like the one with the “ewwie- gooey” honey heaping out of the edges. Apparently, I did not even like that. I cried and cried because it seemed very depressing to me that my sister got to be a lady bug and I had to be the food. With that being said, even now, being 16 years old and a junior in highschool, everything spooky seems like a waste of my time.

Halloween is derived from the eve of “Hollows Day,” which is a day basically celebrating the saints, also known as the dead.  According to jw.org, Halloween is a modern opportunity to celebrate old false beliefs about the dead and other spiritual beings, or even demons…yikes. Some say it can be traced back to Scotland and Ireland during the time of Christ. Seems a little spooky to me.

The story of the Jack-o-Lantern is quite disturbing as well. According to carm.org/halloween, the Jack-o-Lantern is derived from an Irish Folklore about a man named Jack who tricked a devil into climbing up into a tree. Once in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the tree so the devil could not come down. Claiming that once Jack died, he had to wander the earth for several centuries. Again, seems a little freaky to me.

Furthermore, Halloween is a night where little children walk around wearing creepy costumes and interacting with people -strangers- right up on their doorsteps. I don’t know about any of you, but I do not like that one bit. My dad always had to encourage me to go up to the door. Normally kids can’t talk to strangers -and especially not take candy from them- let alone walk up to their doors, but apparently on Halloween, it’s okay. Also, asking people for their things makes me so uncomfortable, I can’t even begin to explain it. “Trick or Treat?” More like, “Tri-i-i-i-i…ok bye!”

All in all, Halloween is a holiday that consists of past demonic folklore and asking complete strangers for candy. Some people question religious families that do not celebrate the holiday, but there are clearly valid reasons why we all should take a break from the so called “holiday.”