Halloween

Somebody asked me today if Halloween is a real holiday since it's not a Federally observed day off work. I don't quite know the answer to that, and I am in the kind of mood that does not allow for research, but my response was something along the lines of: "Well it damn well should be. There are f***ing spirits walking the earth today! We should be allowed 24 hours of pure revelry!" My friend agreed with me in that same amused tone that people tend to use when I rhapsodize about ghost-hunting, haunted houses, mythology and Maleficent. They see my point of view on these things as mildly morbid and sort of cute, and they nod and smile while I go on about them.
But this is serious stuff, people. Halloween is one day during the crazy rushing around of the rest of the year when we are asked to think about the dead, and the spirits that accompany them and ourselves every day, as entities rather than ideas. We do not celebrate memories of those lost, we do not talk about some sort of historical or religious thing that happened long ago in a land far away, and we don't even have to get together with our families or have barbeques.
Halloween asks us to open ourselves up, using masks and costumes and revelry, to the possibility that there are other things walking amongst us, disguised as people just as we are disguised as whatever we choose. Halloween is a celebration of the fact that that which is usually unseen is nonetheless a part of our lives every day, moving us in ways we don't often recognize.
I don't know if on this day there is any more spirit activity in the world than on other days - hell, I don't even know what I mean, exactly, by "spirit activity." But it's an opportunity to think about what terms like "spirit activity" mean, and how much of it we believe in. We can admit to the possibility of things we ignore or deny every day, including the demented and twisted and morbid parts of ourselves that we turn off to appear "normal" most of the time.
I think that's why the idea of costumes appeals to me so much. I love to don a costume and go to a fabulous party, where real identities can be forgotten and one can let one's sense of self become liquid, fluid, nonexistent. We can let ourselvs forget the rigid walls we spent all day inside of, the restrictions we impose upon ourselves in our everyday life. Most people can't handle letting themselves go this way every day, even if they don't realize it. And most of us can't handle the ideas that Halloween allows us to explore about the supernatural in and outside of ourselves. But on Halloween we are allowed to do that, briefly. Why not take the opportunity, open ourselves up? Eat some candy? Admit to the possibility that maybe what we see isn't all there is?
So this year, for the sake of your sanity, let yourself go. Put on a costume and go out, and don't just wear it - become it. Let yourself be lost in the wildness, put on another identity, and for goodness' sake, go throw eggs at something! Go sit in a cemetary and dare yourself to take some pictures. Dance in the street. Get lost in a strange neighborhood. And keep your eyes open.