As my first Halloween in college is rapidly approaching, I have come to the realization that I am no longer celebrating Halloween – but in fact – the newly founded college phenomenon of Halloweekend. Why have one night of Halloween when we can have three or four? The person who thought of this brilliant concept of “Halloweekend” must have also been the person who decided that the weekend should start on Thursday night rather than Friday… more time to party. While I am far from complaining of this excuse to get dressed up and celebrate with my friends, I have to ask myself: are we really celebrating Halloween anymore? Here are a list of differences between Halloween and Halloweekend that might make you wonder if this Pseudo-Halloween is really a trick or a treat.
Trick-or-Treat:
Halloween: The concept of “trick or treating” in Halloween is for children to go door to door to houses, receiving candy and having adults look at how cute their costumes are.
Halloweekend: The most trick or treating we do in college is going door to door to frat houses, in exchange for drinks and boys to look at how “cute” each girl’s costumes are. The lyrics of the known Halloween folk-song should probably be “Trick or Treat, smell my new perfume and give me something good to drink.”
Costumes: “I am a mouse… DUH!”
Halloween: Going to the store, getting a costume from a bag and trying to one up your best friend with how much cooler your witch hat is than hers.
Halloweekend: Throwing on ears with what you probably would wear any other weekend and trying to one up your best friend with dressing a little bit more provocatively than her.
Candy:
Halloween: “YES! The more candy the better! I am totally going to fill my pillow case up higher than yours!”
Halloweekend: “GROSS! Keep that stuff away from me please! Don’t you know Halloweekend is coming up and I neeed to fit into my new costume!”
Mischief Night:
Halloween: Time to sneak out and throw toilet paper all over the neighbor’s lawn. Hopefully our parent’s don’t find out!
Halloweekend: Mischief night? Why just one when we can create plenty of mischief all weekend.
While society has made it socially acceptable to celebrate Halloween at any age, one cannot help but note the differences between celebrating this holiday as a kid and a college student. Maybe we had it right when we were kids, maybe not. Either way, enjoy Halloweekend! And try to eat a little candy too.