Azzara: Halloween–it’s more than dressing slutty

I’m not sure what it is about college students and fall, but there seems to be a special… I’m not sure what it is about college students and fall, but there seems to be a special connection between the two. As the weather gets colder and our workloads get more strenuous, it seems counterintuitive that students would get excited about the fall. But it’s apparent that they do.

Perhaps it’s the sense of academia that pervades the season that makes it so attractive to students. Or maybe it’s the fact that there is a certain point at which one simply cannot take any more 95-plus degree days. But as we rapidly approach one of the most anticipated party weekends of the year, I can’t help but suspect that perhaps Halloween might have something to do with all the excitement.

Halloween is one of the most thrilling holidays for children and adults alike, and especially for adults in college. Although many of the traditions are the same, such as dressing up in costumes and overindulging, the holiday takes on different meanings in childhood and adulthood.

For most children, Halloween is all about trick-or-treating and consuming as much candy as possible. For many college students, it is about partying and consuming as much alcohol as possible.

And though some might say that college students simply take advantage of any opportunity to party a little harder, in my opinion, Halloween is about more than just partying.

First of all, Halloween provides a way for us to reconnect with our childhood. In many ways, our current Halloween celebrations are still quite similar to those that we practiced as youngsters. Though the trick-or-treating is replaced by parties and the candy replaced with alcohol, some constants remain. Dressing up in costumes is, of course, still the most important part of any Halloween celebration.

And though the nature of the costumes might change from childhood to adulthood, there will still be that one girl in the group of celebrants who ends up wearing a complicated and uncomfortable costume and has to be carried home crying at the end of the night. Some things never change.

But why is it, exactly, that Halloween is such an important holiday to both children and adults? Unlike religious holidays such as Christmas, it certainly does not arise from any sort of deep connection with the original meaning behind the festivities. In fact, I doubt a single person wandering around the streets decked out in full costume on Halloween night would be able to tell you how the holiday originated.

According to the History Channel website, Halloween began as an ancient Celtic New Year’s celebration. Eventually, the holiday came to the United States and morphed into something very different from its original form. With the extreme consumption of candy and in the case of college students, the extreme consumption of alcohol, Halloween has definitely become a distinctly American holiday.

That’s not to say that other countries don’t continue to celebrate versions of our Halloween. According to another article from history.com, Spain and Latin American countries hold celebrations in honor of the dead which begin on Oct. 31, and festivities in Ireland include many of the same traditions that we have in the United States.

But it really is no wonder that the United States has taken the idea of Halloween and run with it. We Americans love holidays that revolve around excess in any form. Thanksgiving is just one other example of this idea.

But aside from the all-American need for excess, there many reasons that Halloween is such a popular holiday for people of all ages.

Primarily, the costume aspect of Halloween gives us the opportunity to be someone else for the night. Whereas “Mean Girls” might teach us that Halloween is just an excuse for girls to dress in revealing outfits, I think this tradition is less about wanting to look promiscuous and more about challenging societal norms by wearing something that wouldn’t necessarily be acceptable in other contexts.

So, although it could be argued that the tradition of Halloween has deviated so far from its origins that it no longer has any meaning whatsoever or that it’s just an excuse for Americans to overindulge, I have to believe that the holiday can be redeemed.

The most important thing about Halloween is that it provides opportunities for fantasy and possibility that aren’t always found in everyday life, and that is something that will continue to thrill people as long as they celebrate the holiday.

E-mail Kate at kna6@pitt.edu.