People should be allowed to hate Halloween

by ELLA CORDLE

Opinion Editor

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays celebrated in the United States, garnering millions of trick-or-treaters every year. Despite the fact that it’s only celebrated for one night, costumes are fastidiously prepared and shelves are stocked with spooky merchandise months in advance. Houses are covered in cobwebs, extravagant parties are planned and gallons of candy are purchased.

Every year, the fall season is dominated by how much everyone loves Halloween. Everyone except for me. Or at least, that’s how it feels. 

It’s not just that I’m an adult who has lost my childhood sense of wonder; I’ve never liked Halloween. It’s never appealed to me at any stage of my life. Not childhood trick-or-treating, adolescent shenanigans or college costume ragers. 

There are, from what I’ve surmised over the years, three main components to Halloween that people enjoy: costumes, candy and spooky stuff. I’m not convinced on any of these fronts.

All pre-made Halloween costumes I see are the cheapest, grossest-looking, most expensive garments imaginable. Ooh, polyester and nylon Snow White for only $40? What a steal.

Kudos to anyone who makes their own costume, but the people on social media who spend $500 assembling their own hyper-detailed and accurate costumes on Amazon embody overconsumption at its most sickening. If you have that kind of money to spend on Halloween, you could at least commission a human for your costume. 

The oversexualization of Halloween costumes is also crazy, considering it’s a holiday geared towards children. I wanted to be a tiger when I was seven, but the only costume I could find had a mini skirt and a faux-corset bodice. For a seven year old. 

It’s also not seasonally appropriate to dress skimpy. Halloween is usually pretty cold. To each their own, but I can’t imagine it’s worth it.

As for the candy, does anyone actually like candy corn? It’s so often associated with Halloween, and yet it’s disgusting and I never see anyone eating it. 

That, and it contains gelatin, along with many other popular candies. Starbursts, jelly beans and nearly every kind of gummy include gelatin as a main ingredient. Gelatin is primarily made from pork and cattle bones, making it an unfortunate addition to Halloween candy for vegans, vegetarians and many practicing Islam, Hinduism or Judaism.

And don’t even get me started on nut allergies. It’s so strange to give out free candy to children without any idea of whether they can eat it or not. Halloween must be a nightmare for anyone with severe allergies. Some don’t even need to take a bite to trigger anaphylaxis, just being in the general vicinity of a Snickers bar can be life-threatening.

The pressure put on children to universally cherish Halloween candy when so much of it is inedible to so many people is weird and sad. Kids who can’t eat their Halloween candy probably feel like they’re missing out on a quintessential childhood experience for no reason. I would know because I was one of them.

Also, no one ever gives out Whoppers and those are the best type of candy, so that sucks too.

Finally, there’s the spooky, scary, creepy-crawly Halloween vibes. Horror movies and extensive thematic decorations and scaring the life out of your loved ones. Apparently, that’s all supposed to be appealing.

I don’t personally like horror movies, but they’re not exclusive to Halloween. You can watch them any time throughout the year in all their gory and poorly-produced glory.

As for Halloween decor, overconsumption rears its ugly head yet again. Think about how much Halloween junk there is at every store for months leading up to October. Think about how many people throw away their spiders and cobwebs and plastic skeletons every year and buy more the next year. The ever-growing mounds of plastic garbage across planet earth are well-fed during Halloween. 

Not only are Halloween decorations wasteful, but they’re also gross. Fake blood and eyeballs and towering, talking zombies are certainly freaky, but it’s not in a fun way. The other day, someone’s lawn decorations spoke to me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. On my way back, I crossed to the other side of the street to avoid it.

Overall, I just don’t like being scared. I’ve never understood why people want that negative adrenaline pumping through their system. All it takes is one dad dressed as a clown jumping out at the wrong kid to create lifelong trauma, something that seems to be encouraged on Halloween.

By far the most infuriating part of Halloween, though, is the way people act like you’ve committed a crime if you don’t like it, or don’t want to participate or aren’t as excited as they feel you should be. I’m an adult, I should be allowed to not like Halloween without having my character attacked, which has happened to me multiple times this month. Every time a friend, or classmate or coworker asks me about my Halloween plans and I respond that I never really do anything for Halloween, it turns into a 30 minute conversation about what atrocities I must have experienced in my childhood to make me this way.

Halloween is overrated and not everyone has to like it. If you’re excited about it this year, that’s great. But there are a lot of good reasons not to be.

To anyone who feels alone in their hatred of Halloween, I support you. Don’t let the Halloween fiends make you feel like you’re missing something, because you’re not.