The Therapeutic Benefits of Halloween: A Mini-Essay

     For decades, various community members have lambasted Halloween and lamented on the holiday’s pernicious effects, including the encouragement of violence and the promotion of Satanism. While such concerns are well intended, numerous scholars have countered these sensational claims by emphasizing the celebration’s therapeutic benefits to both adults and children alike. Historian Nicholas Rogers attests that Halloween, beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century, has become an instrument for adults to explore and challenge gender politics.[1] The only major celebration in the United States where individuals are openly permitted to dress as the opposite gender or mock the overly sexualized qualities saluted by consumerism and the media, Halloween, Rogers argues, allows society, namely the feminist and homosexual communities, the freedom to ridicule patriarchal constructs in a manner that brings both humor and light to a suppressive system.[2] Likewise, child psychologists Dr. Lee Salk maintains that Halloween, especially for children, serves as a venue for the safe confrontation of anxieties and fears. As the psychologist explains, the holiday regularly showcases themes which encompass many of our deepest misgivings, including darkness, death, monsters, and the supernatural. While a majority of these uncertainties remain unspoken trepidations throughout the year, Halloween offers a rare opportunity to publicly endorse these apprehensions and do so without the dread of ridicule.[3] Hence, the holiday, particularly for younger individuals, becomes a means for people to face their fears of the unknown and do so in a facetious manner encouraged by others (e.g. visiting the darkened confines of a haunted house where fictitious displays of mysticism and violence are safely encountered by patrons). Furthermore, akin to Rogers’ stance, Salk stresses that the festivities not only allow children to challenge their fears, but gain comfort in them through the process of role playing, where they can mockingly dress as the ghosts and monsters which frighten them the most.[4]

Works Referenced

Brokaw, Meridith and Annie Gilbar. The Pennywhistle Halloween Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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[1] Rogers, 9-10. 

[2] Rogers, 9-10. 

[3] Brokaw and Gilbar, 9. 

[4] Brokaw and Gilbar, 9.

2017's Haunt (Night)

2017: La Llorona

2017 was a landmark year for Haunted Hill: I was asked to participate in my first haunted house. The theme explored the legend of La Llorona and drew heavily on the prevalence of Catholicism in Mexican culture. The opening room featured a child’s funeral coupled with an altar riddled with crosses and postmortem photographs of children. From there, the haunt transitioned into a child’s room filled with creepy dolls and a bassinet housing the corpse of a dead infant. After a maze of tattered tarps, where scare-actors dressed as scary dolls stalked patrons, the haunt concluded with a barren room inhabited by two demonic monks and La Llorona herself, who was positioned to resemble Our Lady of Guadalupe with a halo of bones and a mound of skulls. Presented here are images of the haunt in all its nocturnal glory.

"Hallowe'en" (A Poem)

Published in his 1912 collection of poems, Echoes of Cheer, John Kendrick Bang’s “Hallowe’en” paints a fanciful description of a Victorian Halloween celebration complete with references to apple bobbing and parlor games. It also touches on the Celtic notions of spiritual return, with the fourth stanza envisioning the ghosts of the departed revisiting the earthly realm to partake in the festivities.

Bring forth the raisins and the nuts —

To-night All Hallows’ Spectre struts

Along the moonlit way.

No time is this for tear or sob,

Or other woes our joys to rob,

But time for pippin and for bob,

And Jack-o’-lantern gay.

Come forth, ye lass and trousered kid,

From prisoned Mischief raise the lid,

And lift it good and high.

Leave grave old Wisdom in the lurch,

Set Folly on a lofty perch,

Nor fear the awesome rod of birch

When dawn illumes the sky.

‘Tis night for revel, set apart

To reillume the darkened heart,

And rout the hosts of dole.

‘Tis night when Goblin, Elf, and Fay,

Come dancing in their best array,

To prank and royster on their way,

And ease the troubled soul.

The ghosts of all things past parade,

Emerging from the mist and shade

That hid them from our gaze;

And full of song, and ringing mirth,

In one glad moment of rebirth,

Again they walk the ways of earth,

As in the ancient days.

The beacon light shines on the hill,

The will-o’-wisps the forests fill

With flashes filched from noon;

And witches on their broomsticks spry

Speed here and yonder in the sky,

And life their strident voices high

Unto the Hunter’s Moon.

The air resounds with tuneful notes

From myriads of straining throats,

All hailing Folly Queen;

So join the swelling choral throng,

Forget your sorrow, and your wrong,

In one glad hour of joyous song

To honor Hallowe’en![1]

Works Referenced

Bangs, John Kendrick. “Hallowe’en.” Echoes of Cheer. Boston: Sherman French and Company, 1912. 56-57.

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[1] Bangs, 56-57.