Happy Halloween! It feels like we wait all year for this very day, but when it's over, we refocus on the other holidays ahead. But, in our hearts, it's always Halloween. Let's look at why Halloween is so freaking awesome that we wait all year!

FARM/HARVEST

It begins with harvest. Maybe that's why from late August onward, we are preoccupied with cooking, nesting, enjoying shorter days. That farm-based origin of Halloween and its various religious celebration means haystacks, scarecrows, cornstalks, corn and wheat dollies, pumpkins, squash, and other harvest cues. 

AUTUMN/FORESTS

After extreme heat and unrelenting sunshine, autumn brings longer shadows, shorter days, woodsmoke, bonfires, smores, sweaters, and other cozy aspects. What it really brings is the forest showing off its colors.

Earth tones soothe and comfort after the blues and greens of summer. Orange, brown, moss green, golden yellow....

And, the elements of the forest come forth - owls, moss, lichens, acorns, pine cones, and fallen leaves.

Really, of all the holidays, this one reminds us of our ancient origins tied to earth and seasons, the dying off and renewal necessary to keep the cycle of life going. We tuck inside. We nest. We nurture. We prepare like the squirrel. 

SEASONAL SHIFT

I spent my entire adult life in the desert and it was a torture in every way and especially in my circadian rhythms. Having growin up in Virginia, the seasons were my body's and spirit's internal clock for change. Out west, nada. It was varying degrees of the same season, but still inside, even after decades there, every September I felt the all of autumn. 

Without the evidence to divide seasons into individual phases, a body, a mind, a spirit are left unsatisfied. 

After all, fall is a reward for going through summer and spring is a reward for going through winter. 

DARKNESS/NIGHT

Shorter nights, longer shadows, and the high contrast from summer's unrelenting sunshine becomes apparent. 

Instead of venturing into the light, we tuck in with the darkness. 

This is the time when a candle in a jack o'lantern, a fire pit in the yard become beacons against the night. The glow, the warmth. We seek this out after summer, but only in brief doses. Otherwise, the darkness brings mystery. It represents rest. It soothes the eyes. It ignites the imagination.

REMEMBERING THE DEAD

It makes logical sense that autumn, with the die off of the plant life and harvests makes people think about death. 

The ancient Celts were brilliant. Harvest. Leave food at the doorstep for the dead. No matter what religious practice you profess to devote your spiritual life, that makes sense in many ways. Remembering the dead. Knocking door to door dressed in otherworldly dark themes and getting treated with candy in a most Christian method is a fantastic practice. I know some Christians freak out over Halloween but they are studying the vengeful God. The true concept of Christianity is based on helping those who ask. 

HORROR

Darkness. It makes the mind wander. What's under the bed? Is that a robe hanging on a hanger or a person in the darkened bedroom? What is outside in the inky black forest? Chillbumps aren't just for colder weather; they are for all things that are possible, threatening, watching, stalking....

Every Halloween, we hear, "the veil between the worlds thins." Traditions were born on this premise!

COSTUMES/PARTIES

It started in our youth, the anticipation of being able to legitimize dress-ups play. School parades of superheroes, princesses, and ghosts were the standard. Even the adults took part in it by having a reason to dress up like their alter ego and party all night. 

My book about Halloween (above) is about adults and the season, taking the childhood loves into adult expression.

Overall, the season and the holiday make it possible for us to slow down, get introspective, look at the cycles of life and the universe, death, transition all into a perspective. We purge. We prepare for the great renewal of springtime. We escort all the things we want to purge into the winter months, burying them for the start of a new cycle. The march begins in October and ploughs through winter's dark and cold. We can consider ourselves the pallbearers of the year's growth and putting it to rest. 

A much-deserved rest for all.