Halloween is the United States’ only selfish holiday, and we should all celebrate that fact.
Almost every holiday in the United States centers around one of a few themes. During Christmas, Easter, and several other religious holidays, we are expected to be reverent. We worship and see ourselves as smaller parts of a large, religious world. Similarly, during national holidays such as Veteran’s Day and Labor Day, we are supposed to be reverent of the people being celebrated.
Thanks is another common theme for our holidays. Thanksgiving is the most obvious example, but giving thanks is a theme of our religious holidays as well. During Easter, Christians give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus, and if they’re Catholic, for an end to their Lenten fasting.
These themes proliferate nearly every holiday celebrated in the United States, largely thanks to our colonial protestant roots.
The first colonists to settle in the United States were separatists — they had completely separated themselves from the English church. Often, these colonies were radical compared to their English peers and were incredibly restrictive.
The Puritans settling the Massachusetts Bay, for example, subscribed to ideas of predestination and intense, enforced morals. Their belief in hard work and humility shaped American culture, which in part led to the development of democracy and the free market. These same beliefs are reflected in our holidays.
To give thanks is to acknowledge that what you have is only afforded to you by others or some higher power. To be reverent is to worship God. Those Puritan beliefs in worship and humility led to our ways of celebrating holidays.
Halloween, on the other hand, does not follow this trend — despite its somewhat Christian roots. We do not give thanks, nor do we revere a God or some class of people. In the United States, Halloween is simply celebrated for the fun of it.
The tradition began as a Gaelic holiday called Samhain. It was believed that on the night of October 31, the gap between the worlds of the living and dead were thinnest. This was an event to fear, and it invited reverence of life. On this day, some communities were known to dress in costumes meant to appease these spirits.
When Catholicism spread across Europe, the holiday was adapted into All Saints Day, a day to revere the dutiful worshippers of God. The night beforehand, called All Hallow’s Eve, continued to be celebrated by Celtic communities in much the same way as Samhain. Today, we call that eve Halloween.
Halloween’s meaning is largely forgotten. When children dress in scary costumes, they do not know why. They simply do. It’s much the same for the parents dressing their kids, the adults handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, and the college students dressing up and throwing parties.
Though some will think that the loss of its meaning is unfortunate, there’s beauty in celebrating for no reason at all. In a sea of holidays demanding worship, thanks, or humility, Halloween nearly stands alone as a holiday to be selfish. It’s a holiday for children to collect unnecessary amounts of candy, and for adults to dress up and become anything they want to be.
So, celebrate hard (and safe) this weekend! This day only comes once a year, and no other holiday quite compares.
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