The Great Debate: Is Halloween a good or bad holiday?

[mde2001]

So, with Halloween being today there has been a lot of discussion in status updates over Halloween and excitement/ lack of excitement for it.

So, this is a topic to see what Reborn thinks once and for all. Do you enjoy and celebrate Halloween. Is it super important to you or is it a day that you forget about until it is on you and even then not care about.

Be sure to cast your votes and say your opinion below.

I am personally on Team Halloween doesn't matter (pretty much no-one in Australia celebrates it). It just seems relatively stupid to me how much people care about it. I have never gone Trick-or-Treating in my life and only given stuff to kids one year (my street decided they'd have a Halloween zone where kids could go Trick-or-Treating. I gave them all poisoned chocolate and hoped they'd go away.

So anyway. I'm interested to see which side wins. I'm thinking the Halloween is great team will come out on top but we'll see.

[TRHStatement]

My family doesn't do the typical Halloween customs. My mom believes Halloween is the night of the devil so if we open the door for strangers, ghouls and demons will enter the house (wut.). So we go to the church and trick-or-treat there, going to other people's cars and getting candy there. Many people go there because 1: Everyone essentially knows each other there in the parking lots of the neighboring churches and 2: It's safer than going out in the neighborhood late at night. It's really fun and we all still dress up in costumes and everyone has a good time. And 3: You candy yield for the night will be relatively higher anyways. That's how Halloween on this side of the P.C.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

I find it interesting that the poll results have one more person not celebrating Halloween than celebrating it, but one more person liking it than not liking it.

Anyway, I like Halloween because spooky and candy and costumes.

[Sparky]

I've never liked or celebrated Halloween in general. It's not my kind of holiday. To me it's just another day of the year that comes and goes.

[BlueMoonIceCream]

Honestly I do like halloween, it's a way to enjoy dressing up as something spoopy with your friends and enjoying all the pretty lights and decoration. Even though I like the thought of halloween it's not something I typically care about all that much it hardly affects like it used to in fact my avatar is the most I've dressed up in years. But halloween has a cycle, when you're young you're into it and you go trick or treating but when you're a teenager you stop because it's "stupid" or you're "too old" but from what I've seen when you get older again yous start to get into it again and have fun with it until once again you get old and stop caring. Point is I like it but I wouldn't do much about it.

[Avatar of Grima]

Halloween has kind of lost the thrill. It's kind of boring and half the time I'm not home for it anyway

[Guest]

trick or treat

smell my feet

give me something good to eat

if you dont

i dont care

ill pull down your underwear

[Chase]

Halloween and Valentine's Day are easily tied for my least favorite holiday.

Both of them are ridiculously commercialized and don't really hold any value whatsoever. School doesn't take off either occasion, and truth be told, there comes a time where both feel like they are more obligatorily ritualistic in order to make your kids/partner happy.

One should always try to make their children and their companions feel loved - We hardly need stupid money-sink holidays for it.

Also, screw fear - it's mostly unneeded after we learn a couple of lessons about the way life works.

[Sparky]

Halloween and Valentine's Day are easily tied for my least favorite holiday.

Both of them are ridiculously commercialized and don't really hold any value whatsoever. School doesn't take off either occasion, and truth be told, there comes a time where both feel like they are more obligatorily ritualistic in order to make your kids/partner happy.

One should always try to make their children and their companions feel loved - We hardly need stupid money-sink holidays for it.

Also, screw fear - it's mostly unneeded after we learn a couple of lessons about the way life works.

But Valentine's day is also my bday ;~; :c

[FraRPetO]

Waste of time. I would rather waste my time doing other useless stuff.

[Grizzlybrand]

I'm old so me and my friends hunker down in our friend's basement, candy and snacks abound as we watch movies of varying Horrors. All n' all i say it's pretty dope

[Shing]

I don't celebrate.

And i like halloween. But have problems with it.

Like kids just want to prank and throw eggs and stuff on the house.

That just ruin the halloween thing. Not that happened to me, but it's hell of annoying when people do that.

[star-kin]

truth be told, i don't really take part in the holiday. just like mde said, we rarely celebrate it here in australia.

also i'm really lazy so costumes are a big problem for me lmao

but who the fuck doesn't like free candy? and sounds children screaming outside?? hello???

[dead account]

I don't really care too much about Halloween myself. It is pretty much just an excuse to go out and buy a boatload of sweets, most of which you won't even get to eat yourself. I mostly just embrace the "spoopy" things associated with the holiday, and that's it.

I'll abstain from voting since there isn't a "meh" option. I mean, there are some things to enjoy about Halloween, but for the most part it's really nothing special, in my opinion.

[Simon]

Used to like it til people still kept knocking on the door even though our lights were out, which should be an indication we're not giving out candy this year.

[star-kin]

why are the votes always tied lmao

[mde2001]

Halloween and Valentine's Day are easily tied for my least favorite holiday.

Both of them are ridiculously commercialized and don't really hold any value whatsoever. School doesn't take off either occasion, and truth be told, there comes a time where both feel like they are more obligatorily ritualistic in order to make your kids/partner happy.

One should always try to make their children and their companions feel loved - We hardly need stupid money-sink holidays for it.

Also, screw fear - it's mostly unneeded after we learn a couple of lessons about the way life works.

I 100% agree with you.

Part of the reason why I can't understand Halloween- especially when it has never been a part of my growing up- is how it is such a clear marketing device. I can't see anything in it other than costume shops and supermarkets/ lolly shops getting a lot of money. I was in America one Halloween and it confused me how much people cared about it. People acted like it was a huge occasion and really important to them. To me, the most I can ever imagine it being is a little bit of fun. People who slave for hours over costumes and decorations bemuse me.

I also completely agree about how everyone should try to extend the things that make these days "special" to their lives. Valentine's day is my least favourite day of the year just because of the comercialisation and tackiness that surrounds it. We do not need a day for love when it should be prominent all the time in a relationship. I feel like this about fathers/ mother day to a lesser extent but don't mind them as much.

In general the non-Halloween celebrators are winning at the moment so YAY for us!

[Zumi]

I feel like halloween is overhyped as well as extremely commercialized. Besides, people don't even really celebrate it in the Netherlands aside from maybe a few people in Amsterdam, but around here? Nah.

I don't really need it to become a thing here either :V

Edited October 31, 2015 by Zumi

[Quickslip]

I can see the obvious commercialism behind Halloween, but that doesn't make me like it less. I mean, that's just how the industry works. Its going to be hyping something at any given point in time. I'll not begrudge the holiday just because alot of markets pander to something that a large portion of people in an area are already excited about.

I've rarely celebrated the holiday itself. I think I've been trick-or-treating all of twice. Usually, my family doesn't buy much in the way of treats, and if people knock even though the lights are off, we just don't answer the door. However, those knocks have never bothered me, and the general feeling the holiday tends to nurture in people is far and away worth anything I've lost giving away maybe $10 of candy a year. YMMV, but people are just more fun around October-ish. We can be happy and ready to do things as much as we like, but its always better when the people around us are too. Excitement abounds around Halloween, and do we really need a reason to get excited? Being excited and having a good time over nothing is fine with me and I see nothing wrong with people having an established day to throw away alot of money to have fun together.

Valentine's Day does seem to kinda devalue how we should care for each other on a normal basis, but Halloween? Its always confused me that people would have a problem with it. I think its a great holiday; not for what happens on the day, but for what people do when its near.

[Darvan Korematsu]

I just deal with Halloween anymore. It's the one day people can shamelessly cosplay in public without getting a stink-eye. It's the one day kids get free muh fuggin candy by the armloads in a year. Let them have their fun I say.

[Hexagoen]

you could see it from my family's perspective: *sarcastic voice* 'hurr durr its celebrating the devil! bad holiday, but yet, for some reason, i still give out candy at the door so that the 5 year olds can shut up.'

or my perspective: 'eh, meh. still a stupid ass fearing the fear holiday. illogical and stupid. also the candy is mine, you stinking 5 year olds!stop trying to freeload off of me >:['

either way, both me and my parents hate this holiday. just from different perspectives.

[Juniper]

Personally, I really like it as an event/Holiday

But I seem to have bad luck on halloween...

x.x

So I voted that I didn't like it..

[Flux]

I personally LOVE Halloween. Seeing all the decorations, all the excited and happy people, all the parties... Something about it just makes me really happy. I'm also a fan of the "spooky" atmosphere sort of things, like dead trees surrounding a Gothic castle and whatnot. I haven't trick-or-treated for a couple years now, as I got hit by the "I'm too old" wave, but I love handing out candy to kids and seeing how happy they get. Unfortunately, I've only been able to do that once, when I was hanging out with some friends at a friends house and I volunteered to hand out candy to any kids who came. I live in the country, so I can't do it at my own house... Anyway, I still voted that I celebrate it, even though I don't trick-or-treat anymore. I think there's more to celebrating Halloween than that.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Some people say "It's a commercialized holiday" (I've also heard that for Christmas and Valentine's Day) but I don't really have a problem with that. I don't think a holiday needs to be meaningful with a bunch of lessons about togetherness and appreciation and hard work to be enjoyable (something like that sounds boring to me, unless it's presented in a fun way). To me, holidays are just about having fun with the atmosphere and festivities and the food. Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with not liking a holiday, this is just my perspective on the "commercialized holiday" point.

[BIGJRA]

Regardless of what it originated as, I just think it's a fun time of the year just to spice up the otherwise uninteresting month of October! Even though I might not trick or treat anymore, I don't see anything particularly wrong about it (except maybe the over-commercialization of costumes). Overall its just a fun time to hang out with friends in costumes!