As a kid, I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween. For context, my parents are very religious, so Halloween was off limits.
Growing up, I was always steered away from anything that resembled Halloween. I couldn’t go near the costume section in party stores or even eat any Halloween themed candy.
This was a very weird way to grow up, for sure. I cannot completely blame my parents for taking away Halloween bliss simply because they raised me how they did.
Because of this, I have experienced some interesting Halloween stories. I like to think I celebrated a sort of Mock Halloween. Call it Mock-O-ween if you will.
Every year on Halloween night, my parents would take my siblings and I to church. We would sit in the temple and watch a video on the large projectors. The video was about how Halloween was the devil’s day and Halloween candy was full of needles and razors.
Was it traumatic? Maybe, but the bag of candy the youth leaders gave us after made up for it. Over the years, the video got repetitive and boring. So, I would sleep on the pews and wait for my goodie bag.
During elementary school, I saw my friends go to school in costumes, so I begged my mom to let me wear a costume. That did not go well, my mother proposed that I should just not go to school if it landed on Halloween.
That is what I did every year up until high school came around. I could not afford to miss academic days in high school because I was a high-achieving student, or at least that is what I told my mother.
I secretly liked seeing people wear their costumes and pass out candy. I think any kid would like that, so my friends and I devised a plan.
My friends wanted to match costumes, so we had to make do with what we could. The catch was that my costume had to look like it was part of my school uniform.
For a couple of high schoolers, we were sort of clever. I would wear my uniform pants but change my top and socks.
How did this even work? Pretty well actually. We did “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. It made me feel included for the first time. This was also very scary for me because I was always expecting to find razors in my chocolate bars.
No razors were ever found, thankfully. But this made me realize that the holiday I was taught to fear was not bad at all.
Now, as a college adult, I will 100% be partaking in Halloween bliss. I still have not picked out a costume, but I have a degree in low-budget designs.
It sucks not having cute childhood pictures of myself in Halloween costumes, but I hope to make up for it now. If you see a very large child trick or treating this year, mind your business.