As October begins, the countdown to Halloween gets smaller and smaller. People are hanging up decorations from jack-o-lanterns to skeletons or even climbing spiders. But as time goes on, Halloween tends to lose its scare-factor. Kids tend to dress up as their favorite cartoon characters, cute animals, or something inflatable, which leaves a lower percentage of kids dressing up as something scary. The holiday tends to be centered around cute costumes and candy instead of “tricks.” So when did Halloween become more of a treat than a trick?
Traditionally, Halloween was about scaring others and facing fears. We had haunted houses and hayrides and the typical spooky characters like clowns, witches, vampires, and ghosts. But in recent years, the trend has shifted. Instead of going out and scaring others, kids spend weeks trying to find the cutest outfits to wear by themselves or with a group of friends to post to social media—think glitter and blasts of color instead of bloody and dark. So, why is it that Halloween is more of a fashion show than a scare-off?
Well, part of the shift came from the development of entertainment. As kids start to develop into teens, Halloween is viewed more as a night out instead of a fear-inducing event. A lot of what they do is captured and posted to social media. Social media made it seem like Halloween costumes are meant to be the most photogenic instead of the scariest. However, these costumes can be a good outlet for teens, as it’s a way for creativity to flow and show off their outfit. Many people make their outfits from scratch: gluing, sewing, or taping whatever they can to get to their final product. So despite today’s costumes not having too much of a scare factor to them, it’s still an opportunity for people to get together with friends and show off their creations while having fun.
Halloween has also started to become very family-focused. Many towns host trunk-or-treats, school festivals, or pumpkin painting to try and make it inclusive for the kids and the adults. But, the most important event: trick-or-treating. While that’s exciting for many younger kids, many teens are labeled as “too old” to go trick-or-treating nowadays. Halloween is a holiday that teens looked forward to when they were younger, but now the holiday has changed so much that they don’t even fit into the criteria of being allowed to participate in the most exciting Halloween event. This is why for the majority of teens today, Halloween is just a holiday where you can dress as your favorite TV character, take pictures, and buy candy. The more that Halloween becomes a family-focused holiday, the more the adrenaline rush and spooky factors that make Halloween what it is will diminish.
However, this does not mean that the scare of Halloween is gone completely. It’s always exciting to re-watch all the Halloween movies classics to feel the adrenaline rush. There is a growing popularity of escape rooms, haunted houses, and new horror movies in theaters that are just as fun to participate in. So, Halloween might not be necessarily “less” scary, but just evolving with new generations. What people enjoy may be different: some people may just enjoy finding a cute costume to take pictures in, but others might enjoy doing a horror-themed escape room to keep the thrill of Halloween alive. Therefore, whether you love tricks more than treats or spooky costumes more than cute ones, Halloween is still a versatile holiday that anybody can enjoy in their own way.
