BY PAUL CROCE
Opposite Day! Borrowing from kid talk, that describes Halloween. It’s the one day of the year when we focus on creepy things, scary scenes, and even evil and death. That’s stuff on the opposite side of all we strive for most days. In our non-Halloween lives, we live with cultural disagreements and polarized divides. This holiday is a chance to look across some divides still deeper … the comfortable and the creepy, the good and the bad, life and death.
Wait now…. For all those gloomy and heady thoughts, most kids don’t seem troubled at all or even scared — well except for those few moments when a friend jumps from behind a bush.
Somehow, those dreadful thoughts don’t weigh children down. How do they do that?
Time to turn the tables with the older set learning something from the kids. Halloween is for make-believe scares.
Every other day of the adult world is filled with real horrors, from environmental disasters and bloody conflicts to culture wars and political gridlock. And a lot of adults are hurting and looking for ways to deal. They could use some tips from the ways children deal with the darker sides of life. How about a closer look at the thinking of children and the experiences of Halloween at MegaHalloween, on DeLand’s Minnesota Avenue?
After a few years dampened by COVID-19, the Trick-or-Treaters of MegaHalloween surged again with over 2,000 creatures of all kinds. How do kids get their ideas for outfits? Their sources range across folk and popular culture. Folk inspirations for Halloween outfits include slices of everyday life such as the 2 Tacos and 1 Omelet, 6 Cheerleaders with 4 Baseball Players but only 1 Football Player, 2 Hippies and 2 happily married Florida Rednecks.
Many outfits represented nature, ranging from 8 Butterflies and 3 Foxes, 1 Magic Fox to Ice and Poison Ivy, and a Lion, Panda, and Elephant but only 1 Zookeeper. And there were plenty of traditional folk characters, including a Victorian Doll, 3 Fairies, 4 Princesses, 9 Angels (but 1 was Fallen), a Halloween Team of 1 Dracula, 1 Ghoul, 1 Wizard, and another with a different holiday calling, Santa.
Despite the strong showing of folk culture at MegaHalloween, the majority of kids chose outfits from popular culture, with children’s choices outsourced to the figures in movies, TV shows, and video games.
Thanks, younger set, with your fingers on the pulse of mass media, for coolifying this gray-haired of the species about the many flights of pop culture, including comic books (Ant-Man, Captain America, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Batman, Harley Quinn), Disney characters (Peter Pan, Nightmare Before Christmas, Snow White), video games (Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, Pokémon) and various television shows (Paw Patrol, the Muppets, Stranger Things).
Some of the plays of imagination took dark turns. As with the Killer Farmer, Killer Chef, Killer Bunny, a Serial Killer, two Killer Clowns (OK, one from outer space), a Death Angel, a Dead Gymnast, and a Dead Bride.
These kids chose to dress up as figures from everyday life, even on its gentle and joyful sides, then they flipped the story to make murderous versions of them.
At Halloween, there’s no hiding from the dark parts of our culture, including gun violence, but the holiday setting allows us to experience a version of those dark places in safe ways.
These costumed killers did not preach.
For the community, they were like billboards encouraging some wordless thought about epidemics of violence to gain more imaginative uses of the polarization between gun rights and gun control. If you say it’s not guns, but it’s people who kill, then work on mental health or moral education for those people; if you say you are worried about the proliferation of guns, then work on laws and on addressing people’s security fears so there can be fewer of these violent tools and fewer uses of them. While the words of political fighting often go right past each other, the display of Halloween fears might spur adult sentiments to draw on the best impulses on each side to prevent more tragedies.
If William James, the founder of American psychology, were here, he would say that listening across the debates can enable recognition of the “good things on both sides of the line.” In the same way, an evening of playful scares won’t bring an immediate cure, but taking lessons from the kids can plant some seeds for improved possibilities.
While playful fun might provide some clues for grown-ups, Halloween is also important since today’s children will grow up to become tomorrow’s adults. Listening to children puts our fingers on the leafy-green edge of the future. What is marinating in their playful worlds will shape tomorrow’s earnest ideologies.
Dear Children of All Ages, consider learning across differences, the Halloween way… lots of scares, yes, but not so dark. The playfulness of this holiday can seed our imaginations, young and old, providing clues for coping with our differences.
Our political differences and polarized commitments can make some fellow citizens seem so alien. That can lead to distraction from actually addressing problems and even to overt hostilities.
But think back to Halloween when you ran into many alien creatures. You might even have encountered a kid dressed as an Alien (on Minnesota Avenue, there were 5, including one Alien Rockstar, and they must have been busy since there were also some people Abducted by Aliens).
Your fellow citizen may have views that seem to you like ideas from a galaxy far, far away. Back to the Alien outfit inhabiting that child in front of you at Halloween.
This alien ain’t so scary. You find yourself saying, “So you’re from a planet far away?… Oh, what’s it like there?”
Playful stuff? Sure. But then imagine your fellow citizen with experiences that are a world away from yours. Close encounters of the Halloween kind can linger all year long.
***Over the past few years, the most popular outfits have been Cats, Witches, and Pirates. What was the most popular this year? Any ideas? Cast your vote at https://youtu.be/nPNHRDFWOsQ, and scroll to Comments. At the end of the month, all will be revealed … well, the actual most popular outfit, along with the name of the reader with the best guess. And yes, the treats won’t be over with Oct. 31 behind us! You’ll get actual Halloween swag, and if you live in DeLand, you can even get it hand-delivered.
— Croce is professor of history and American studies at Stetson University, and the author of Young William James Thinking. He writes for the Public Classroom and his recent essays have appeared in Civil American, History News Network, Huffington Post, Origins, Public Seminar, Stetson Reporter, US Intellectual History Blog, The Washington Post and The West Volusia Beacon. Mega thanks to Caitlyn Alvarado, Serena Dowling, Devin Hernandez, Carlye Mahler and Kaise.
