Halloween is the time of year when parents spend their bonuses on extravagant spooky decorations and kids brag to their friends about their costumes, competing to look the coolest when the big night comes.
It’s also the time of year when friends and family members get together for fun activities. Whether it be by trick-or-treating, going to costume parties, making spooky treats and binge-watching scary movies, there are all types of fun activities to do on this holiday.
Celebrating Halloween is nowadays controversial as it is seen as a tradition only kids can participate in, many considering an adult celebrating Halloween as being too childish for their age. But what people forget to understand is that being childish on this day is the whole point.
Oct. 31 is the one day when adults are able to finally let loose and embrace their inner child as they cosplay as their favorite characters without judgment. If you’re asking me, I think adults need this holiday more than kids.
As soon as you hit adulthood, it feels like you’re suddenly expected to be all serious and grumpy. You have a bunch of responsibilities, priorities and baggage of grief. It’s as if you’re meant to work endlessly and forget about having fun, with the nagging thought that you might be “too old” for enjoyable activities. Fun just doesn’t feel the same as it used to. Instead, adults have to worry about finding their life’s purpose.
Where’s the fun in that?
Just like kids, adults require fun too. This is especially true at that point in their lives when there could potentially be a lot of stress, declining cognitive health and increasing dissatisfaction. Being able to experience those fun activities we all remembered doing as kids can truly help us cope with life, and help us learn a little bit more about it along the way.
If being “too old” for holidays is a thing, then a lot of our other holidays shouldn’t exist at all.
Adults participating in holidays like Halloween are harmless. All they want to do is feel that nostalgic, child-like excitement again. They want to have fun, dress up, go trick-or-treating and eat bags of candy just like they did when they were younger. Or maybe they never even had that opportunity in youth. Maybe this is the only time, as an adult, where they could experience such a holiday that most people love.
If anything, adults are encouraging children to participate in Halloween by showing them how fun it is. Kids admire seeing adults, people older than them, walk past them on the street dressed up in a costume, showing them that Halloween lives forever and no matter how old a person is, everyone is celebrating the same thing. Plus, where do you think most kids get their Halloween costume ideas from? Adults, of course.
This holiday in particular gives adults the opportunity to be as creative as possible. They go all out on their costumes and decorations, to truly have a good time. In 2005, some adults celebrated Halloween, but today, over 70% of adults are now participating in this tradition according to USA Today. Additionally, the age range from 18 to 34 has the highest rate of Halloween participation, according to statistics reported by CNBC. This demographic also represents the holiday’s biggest spenders, spending more than twice as much on their costumes compared to older adults and children.
At the end of the day, on this spooky night, Halloween was made to bring communities together and make them stronger. Excluding adults from this holiday simply goes against what it was made for.
