Halloween… Wake me up when it’s over.

Months turn to weeks, weeks turn to days, and days will soon turn to hours. Before we know it, witches, wizards, zombies, vampires, and ghosts will be walking among us mere mortals.

This is probably Marilyn Manson’s favourite time of year: Halloween. A holiday I wish did not stretch far beyond the borders of its birthplace. Technically it’s only one day. But preparations for this one day seem to last months. Party planning, costume planning, candy planning... I can see my friends’ goosebumps as they organize their year around it.

Halloween is fast developing into the trendiest holiday. It has become acceptable for both children and adults alike to dress up (or down) to wreck havoc and pester home-stayers for candy or tricks. I still remember how people looked down upon those celebrating this somewhat in-between holiday, when I was young. And this wasn’t long ago, I’ve only recently entered my 20’s. Dressing up for Halloween used to be considered embarrassing. But now parents compete with kids on who can out-dress or out-candy the other. Times sure have changed.

With the emergence of such books like Harry Potter and Twilight, we can be sure to expect hundreds of Harrys and Bellas. It might shock the many fans of these franchises, but not too long ago, these types of… creatures… were considered bad, evil. And not “cool-evil”, either. I’m talking about evil-evil. Gaddafi-evil. Jiang Zemin-evil. People were genuinely fearful of them and owned special ornaments and symbols for protection. And I’m not even going to mention the garlic breath.

These days, in various forms of fiction, vampires, wizards and witches are depicted as refined, elegant, and smart protagonists, while humans appear to be the savage, deformed, no-brainers. Now, here is the part where I’m confused. Aren’t these creatures and supernatural beings shown in a good light? So if humans are now the “bad guys”, shouldn’t they be represented on the night of horror? Someone help me out here, please.

Though there are many debates about the origins of Halloween, like whether it was initially a holiday connected with the dead, its initial, more mellow setting has long since been replaced with a horrific and evil-type direction.

Whether you like, or even celebrate this “tradition” is up to you, it just doesn’t make sense to me. I think I get enough horror from a Lady Gaga performance.

Perhaps that could be a costume idea…