Halloween Darkness

Tomorrow is going to be October 1st.  I am excited!  October 1st is the day that I pull out all of my Halloween decorations.  Starting tomorrow, every nook and cranny will be covered with Halloween figures of one sort or another.  Thankfully, my husband is a good sport about it, because the stuff is everywhere.

When my husband and I were younger, we used to dress up for Halloween night and spend the evening handing our candy.  Sadly, Halloween has changed.  Where we lived then, Halloween was a big deal.  Dozens of kids were out trick or treating.  It was a non-stop parade of costumed children all evening.  We enjoyed it as much as the children.


The neighborhood we live in now does not have many trick or treaters.  Many of the homes are occupied by the original homeowners, who are now senior citizens.  Families are smaller and do not necessarily live close by.  Our neighborhood has fairly large lots, and is not very well lit with street lights.  Children would rather trick or treat in a newer neighborhood where the houses are closer together so they can get more candy quicker.  Parents are happier with the newer neighborhoods because they are better lit, which makes it safer. 

I still light a pumpkin and put it on the porch light every year.  As long as even one child comes by, it is worth it.  I feel that the child that has actually braved the dark of the neighborhood to come to the door has had a better learning experience.  It teaches them not to fear the dark. 

I find that as a society, we have becomes too dependent on artificial light to feel safe.  Being in the dark does not necessarily mean that something bad is going to happen, but that is how people perceive it.  I have been in people with power outages in public places and seen how many people experienced anxiety symptoms.  They do not trust themselves to be able to function in the dark at all. 

The point of Halloween is to be out in the dark and confront your fears.  Being out in the dark gives you an understanding of which of your fears are real, and which fears are figments of your imagination.  Some fears are true such as the fear of tripping in the dark.  Other fears are only true sometimes; such as the occasional mugger.  But for the most part, our fear of the dark is irrational.  The majority of the time we are in the dark and perfectly safe. 

Being out in the dark teaches us to engage our other senses.   In the light we use our sight more than anything else.  In the dark, we have to depend on our senses of hearing, touch, and smell.  It is a very different experience.  Suppose you were to be trick or treating on a dark street on Halloween.  Instead of a brightly lit space, you just see a pumpkin glowing in the distance.  It will stand out much more in the dark.  As you come up to it with all your senses engaged, you might get a more intense pumpkin smell from the candle heating the pumpkin.  Or, you might be more sensitive to the heat from the candle as you pass by it.  Although it is dark you might be more sensitive to motion.  If someone jumps out and yells BOO! you will get a bigger scare than if you see your friend standing there waiting to jump out at you.  Try Halloween in the dark sometime.  You might find the experience stimulating.

How we perceive something affects how we react to it.  It seems that right now, many people are reacting out of fear.  It affects how we react to situations, to strangers, or to trying something new.  Fear is paralyzing us as a society.  We have to learn to accept our fears, understand them, and be able to act in a positive, life-affirming way.  Halloween is a perfect place to start when teaching how to embrace our fears.  After all, our fears start when we are young.  What better time to learn to deal with them.