It is almost here, that special time of the year

No, I am not talking about the 7th game of the World Series (Go Marlins by the way) and I am not talking about getting that extra hour on Sunday (although I am quite happy for that too!), I am talking about Halloween. Yes, I will admit it, I am a HUGE fan of Halloween. I have already watched two of my three favorite Halloween movies: The Halloween Tree and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Hopefully I will have some time between writing a paper and studying for a midterm to watch the third, Sleepy Hollow (the Tim Burton version). Most of my fascination does not come from the candy, the trick or treating, the supernatural or anything like that. I am mostly fascinated by Halloween because the culture of the holiday. By that I mean the reason why it is celebrated. When you get right down to it Halloween is about our (the human race) obsession with death. We fear death, and one way that we feel we can overcome this fear is by celebrating a holiday where we dress up as ghosts, monsters, witches, former U.S. Presidents, etc… Now if you ask most people who still celebrate Halloween I’d doubt that they would give the answer that I just mentioned, but I think that the roots of Halloween lie in that obsession. In regards to this, one of my life travel goals is to go to Mexico for a Day of the Dead Celebration (yes, I know its not technically Halloween, but the concept is quite similar).

I know I may be stepping out on a limb, but I don’t really think that Halloween has much to do with the occult nowadays. I know that Halloween can be traced back to Pagan times, but I think that the whole occult connection is more about people worrying about a connection with the occult than anything else. I don’t think that celebrating Halloween is an un-Christian thing to do. I don’t think celebrating Halloween leads children into the occult. I am not a religious scholar, nor am I Christian theologian, but I really have a tough time with understanding why one would be some militantly against the holiday. As long as you are well informed and you discuss the roots and traditions of the holiday with your children, I think it can be a fun time.

Anyway, before I ramble on too much, I will end with one thing: the new Barenaked Ladies album is out and I for one am going to enjoy it as soon as the new music graces my ears (and the money leaves my wallet) tomorrow. :-)