The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Megan Brownell photojournalist
Halloween, such an exciting holiday, people look forward to every year. From planning out costumes, to shopping for candy, and overall celebrating a fun holiday. But for me, I feel like it has really lost its spark.
Now, things of course change as we grow up. Eventually I only went trick-or-treating just to go with my sisters so my parents didn’t have to go, then to not going at all. And eventually to going to parties or just hanging out with friends in costumes taking pictures and watching scary movies.
But I feel like growing up isn’t what took the spark out of the holiday. Overall there was just a total vibe change about it. My house doesn’t even get trick-or-treaters anymore. And before my family moved we thought it was because everyone on our street grew up and was too old for trick-or-treating. But now, we live in a neighborhood with an elementary school attached and we still don’t have almost any. Last year, my mom got tons of full sized candy bars preparing for the overload of young kids that were going to be super excited about full size candy bars. But instead we were disappointed with tons of candy leftover after only getting three trick-or-treaters.
So what really happened? I wish I knew. Maybe it was social media, or the pandemic, or just this generation of parents with young kids.
Even for kids our age, it has changed for sure. I remember once I got old enough and started hanging with friends on Halloween. And it was fun, going to someone’s house getting all dressed up in costumes, taking pictures, having snacks, and watching Halloween movies all while laughing and having a good time. Now, it honestly feels like a chore. Picking out just one costume can be hard, because people set certain standards of how people are supposed to dress for Halloween, and the same costumes get redone every year, or you think you’re being original one year just to see everyone else out in the same costume.
In college, the weekend before Halloween is known as a big party weekend, ‘Halloweekend’. It is basically like a whole weekend of costumes and celebrating at parties. Some schools go even longer, as I have heard the University of Arkansas goes Tuesday-Saturday. It is honestly exhausting, planning out multiple costumes and doing something every single night being up late and then being expected to do it all again the next day. It isn’t even fun anymore, it may look fun on social media but it just pulls all of the energy out of you.
Though Halloween may still seem fun when it comes to social media, in real life it just doesn’t seem the same. I have even seen others on social media talk about how they feel the same way, how it just isn’t the same and it isn’t because we grew up. Different costumes standards and overall standards of celebrating Halloween have gotten insane, changing the vibes of the holiday for the worse.