Issue 158

Halloween Debate: Happy Haunting

22nd October 2007

When I was first asked about my thoughts on Halloween, I gave a kind of lukewarm reaction: 'generally I quite like Halloween'. When you give the subject a little more thought, and I came to realise I love Halloween! I even used italics for the word 'love'.

Students as a species have a lot in common like drinking, shagging, sleeping and shitting bricks when it comes to exams. But they also love to dress up! (more italics, hell yeah) More often than not on a student night out in Swansea you'll get porn stars, kinky nurses, hippies, bunnies, fairies and on one particular occasion a freaky bunny / fat bondage lady / Caerphilly dude mutant.

So what makes Halloween so great in terms of dressing up? Well for starters, EVERYBODY knows that Halloween is all about the costumes. Not just students: everybody. You're not going to look out of place with plastic horns on your head when you're staggering down the Kingsway at half eleven on the 31st. It's rooted in a fun tradition which lets everyone cut loose and wear something a little more 'out there', and you won't get judged for it because it's all in the Halloween spirit of fun and naughtiness.

Which leads me to another plus point for All Hallows': it's a brilliant excuse to dress up as something extra-kinky, or something really weird (see above). Still got that top you bought that you thought looked too much bondage to wear out? Strap it on for Halloween freakiness. Enjoy wearing make-up even though you're on the uni rugby team? Halloween's the perfect excuse! The weirder it is the better, because on Halloween you get to be someone or something else, and everybody's up for that! It's a nice break from the norm to see Wind Street devoid of stripy Topman tops, and denim shorts as well.

Another great thing about All Hallows Eve is the atmosphere surrounding it. Everywhere gets their Tim Burton style freak on and the orange and black colour schemes start popping up in shops, bars and clubs. Fake cobwebs and cheap plastic bats look kind of tacky in shop windows, but when it gets dark, they make an awesome scenic compliment to sexy witches or bloody zombies. It's just another awesome break from normality, to party in somewhere bizarre and unfamiliar for a change! I mean, the same clubs get boring after a while, and while it's not always a radical transformation, it's nice to see them getting into the spirit of things with random bits of cheap, plastic Poundland Halloween decorations.

This time of year is also a great reminder that fruit doesn't always have to be part of your government-prescribed '5-a-day!', you can gut it and turn it into a lantern! Wow! Spooky! I'm referring to pumpkins only, so don't try it with grapes because they'll just look ridiculous.

Okay, trick or treating, it's more of a traditional game that kids can play. It's as traditional as bobbing apples and just as fun.

So yeah, Halloween is a sacred institution that's all about sweet hoarding for kids, and celebrating your darker side by dressing up as an absolute beast to either scare or seduce. Halloween is the years' best excuse to misbehave, no matter how old you are!

Owen Jones