Gina Barreca Ph.D. Gina Barreca Ph.D.
Halloween Anxiety? I don't think so. We should ask "Who are YOU pretending to be?" on Valentine's Day.
When other special dates on the calendar have greater historical, cultural, social, and national resonance, why does Halloween remain the occasion upon which we Americans actually have most fun as a group?
It's not like Halloween has inspired great art. Most of your other major holidays, for example, can claim Handel, or Mozart, or Cole Porter as their balladeers . But there's no magnificent piece of canonical music that can be seen as the theme song for Halloween, not unless you consider "Monster Mash" a magnificent piece of canonical music.
Okay, here's why Halloween is the best holiday: we don't worry about it. Nobody frets about being lonely, abandoned, heartbroken, alienated, or bereft on Halloween. There is about one-one-hundreth as much emotional tension surrounding Halloween as surrounds Valentine's Day, for example, or New Year's Eve. Few wring their hands, wondering "What if I'm not asked out on the 31st of October? Does that make me a total loser?"
On Halloween you get to wear a REAL mask, a comic one, an obvious one, and not just the emotional one most of us put on for other holidays.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/snow-white-doesnt-live-here-anymore/201010/why-halloween-is-the-best-holiday
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