Maia Hembruff
News Editor
A fun filled night of tricks, treats and silly little costumes — what more could you ask for?
Halloween is a classic holiday, and the childhood nostalgia it holds for me is unrivaled. It is made extra special by the fact that it is only one day, instead of Nathan’s long-winded holiday that overstays its welcome.
My opponent argues that Christmas, which as he so eloquently states has, “good food as well,” is a reason why Halloween ranks below. I would beg to differ, however, as a self-proclaimed sweet treat enjoyer – what about the candy?
Think about the times spent trading sweets to max out your favorite candy for the night. Think about the exhilaration of knocking on one of those big houses with the trimmed gardens that handed out the jumbo candy bars. Think about showing up to school, dressed in the costume you worked so hard on, to show off to all your classmates how much better you were than them as you dropped candy in the little buckets on school desks.
I distinctly recall the feeling of heading out to trick-or-treat around my old neighborhood as a kid, wrapped up in a big ol’ jacket that I would complain ruined my costume, holding the hand of my big brother as I skipped excitedly around the neighborhood.
The emotions that encompass this feeling are so uniquely innocent, so full of hope and joy, that they simply cannot be compared to Christmas, a holiday which continues well into adulthood. Halloween, while it can be celebrated as you get older, will never be the same as when we celebrated it as kids.
That’s what makes Halloween so special: the nostalgia. Yes, the candy is a big plus. But Nathan’s take that consumerism and commercialization defines a holiday is a moot point – these things fade with time.
It is the joy, the memories, the Halloween spirit that remains alive in all of us as we grow.
Nathan Robillard
Managing Editor
“A fun filled night of tricks, treats and silly little costumes — what more could you ask for?”
I can ask for a whole month of festivity. A WHOLE MONTH of themed music and movies. And a week without school. Good food as well (REAL food, Maia). Does Halloween give you that? Thought not. The list goes on.
Halloween and Thanksgiving exist for the sole purpose of warming up to the holiday season.
They mark the beginning of a two-month countdown that defines the soul of American consumerism. I mean, the fact that Christmas is the only holiday of the three that has an “Eve” should say enough in itself. With Christmas comes a festive, cheery build-up with advent calendars that date back an entire month. You simply cannot say that about Halloween. You HAVE SCHOOL on Halloween. Come on.
The measly three-day break given to the celebration of Thanksgiving (and the NO break for Halloween, I should add), mark the beginning of a long, windy tail that leads to the ultimate climax. And while Christmas began as a religious celebration, mass commercialization has turned it into the powerhouse of a celebration that it is: concluding the year with a generational BANG that only adds to the depression that the new year brings. A WHOLE YEAR without Christmas. There is literally a holiday to mourn the loss of Christmas. That is half the battle of the New Year.
Any joy Maia describes in the marginal Halloween window is simply multiplied by the pure magnitude of the jolly fat man.
I rest my case. Halloween was a week ago and it’s already well in the rearview mirror. Christmas is more than a month away: ‘Tis the season!