Halloween Nostalgia Vs. Today’s Reality [OPINION]

As September comes to a close, it slowly beckons the leaves to begin changing color and gracefully drift to the ground. October makes its way in with pumpkin spice lattes, sweaters, apple cider, and everyone's favorite holiday ... Halloween.

(Insert record scratch sound effect here)

"Halloween? Everyone's favorite holiday? You got to be joking..."

Yes, I am aware of all of the over dramatic, yet legitimate hazards of Halloween. Sadly, most of today's Halloween parties have turned into an excuse for people to do stupid stuff, and barely wear any clothes. If that doesn't bother you, there's always the ol' "it's a demonic holiday" concern, which once again is a pretty legitimate argument.

I don't blame all the parents who have concerns. I would be concerned too (If I had kids of my own,) and yes, what we know as Halloween today DID evolve from the Celtic holiday known as Samhain, which DID celebrate the transition between the harvest and winter seasons as a bridge to the world of the dead and focused on actual ghosts.

But that's my point, it did ... The beautiful thing that's bittersweet about culture is that things change-if given enough time. What something originally started out as may not be the reason it's celebrated or known today.

Allow me to explain.

Words are the easiest and most clear example of this. Take the word awful for example. It used to mean “worthy of awe”, but now it's quite the opposite.

We see something similar to this in the word roast. To roast something used to refer to another way of cooking something, but now it refers to sportingly making fun of one another.

"Salty," "Bachelor," "Nice," I can go on and on. Things change and come to mean something completely different. The same goes for Halloween. Even though its origin is not something you would talk about over Sunday dinner, it's hardly what it's celebrated for today.

I celebrate Halloween as a celebration of the small things of life that are worth enjoying. I remember growing up and looking forward to dressing in costumes and going trick-or-treating. For me, Halloween is a time to reminisce on the innocence of childhood. It's gathering friends together and watching scary movies for fun. It's jumping in a pile of leaves and making candy apples. It's going door-to-door to get candy from people who have watched you grow and see them smile when their eye catches your costume.

That is Halloween.

Halloween is not a celebration of wickedness. Though, sadly it seems that we continue to take steps in that direction with every year leading to more and more "risque'" behavior and clothing ... or lack thereof.

The problem is that we've forgotten the spirit of Halloween, which I believe, again, should be the spirit of childhood innocence. A spirit that allowed children to walk safely down the street without the fear of being harmed. I motion that we get back to that.

I move that we get back to celebrating the good memories of friends and family on Halloween; to once again celebrate Halloween as a celebration of life.

What's your favorite Halloween memory?

Comment below with your views and opinions? Did the holiday change for the better or worse, and will you be trick-or-treating with your kids or family this year?

Let's spark up the conversation that is way past due. I for one, want my old Halloween back.