The Spirit that Shines Brightly
October 30th, 2024- TCS # 877
So, Happy Halloween, My Readers! I do not like Halloween. Remember to be Kind to The Kids Trick or Treating and Try Not to be too Scary. Happy Halloween Everyone! Yes, Halloween is one of those Holidays that I dread! The Scary, The Spooky, The Screaming, and Of Course, The Masks! It is said that on Halloween, You can be anyone or Thing that You want to. It is Fun! You should try it! I have heard People say! Some Times, People test the Limits of Who They want to be and Get Very Creative. Be a Figure of Modern Day
Like Beetlejuice (Because of The Sequel to The Original);
Maybe One of The Inside Out Characters!;
A Witch from The Broadway Play, Wicked;
Perhaps, Something from The Movies like The Clown from “It” or Freddy Kruger Come to Mind); In Honor of The Election, You could be a Ballot (Yes that is Reference to The TV Show “How I Met Your Mother”); The Sky is The Limit! Well, Perhaps, be a little mindful of Certain Costumes. I Digress. But, To Me, Halloween is a Scary Holiday. Again, To Me, It should not be. In Fact, I would fine if It were more about Autumn and Perhaps, People dressed as Their Favorite Part of Autumn.
Anyway, so This Week’s Newsletter is going to be a Real Treat, a Double Feature! Yes, My Readers! A Double Feature! I am going to talk about Halloween and It’s Origins and Then, How I feel about Halloween in The Second One. It is My Treat for You!
Happy Halloween, My Readers!
I’ll be ready for November 1st!
++ Let’s Talk about Halloween
This Newsletter was written on October 25th of 2017
(Refer to Newsletter 567)
So, Happy Halloween, My Readers! and, a Happy Birthday to My Brother, Michael! His Birthday is Tomorrow! I do not like Halloween. Remember to be Kind to The Kids Trick or Treating and Try Not to be too Scary. Happy Halloween Everyone! So, It is that Time of Year again, The Time of Year that unlike Christmas, I dread. Halloween. Okay, so, Two Things that come to Mind with This Newsletter. One Thing is Halloween was NOT as Scary as it is Today. Yes, I thought that Halloween deserved a History Lesson because Halloween might as well be a Holiday from Hell (Sorry Kids!) Actually, There are People who believe that and can back it up with Scary Facts. So, Halloween (otherwise known as “Hallowe’en” or What it originally was called back in Pagan Europe, Pre-Christianity, “Samhain”. (or Basically, My Least Favorite Holiday) Anyway, Halloween or Samhain is a Celtic Holiday that is basically the Eve before All Saints Day. A little darker version of Christmas Eve basically. Anyway, People in the Celtic Region went to Neighbor’s or Friends House to knock on Their Door and Recite Poems to The Door Answerer, and for that, They would get a Treat of some sort. Yes, they did dress up, but only as Angels or Mock-Spirits to prevent Real Spirits of The Bad Kind from Harming them. So, In other words, They would trick The Spirits into thinking that They were another Bad Spirit. Again, The Celtic Rumor at the Time was that Spirit of Good and Bad would come to Earth more likely on Samhain. Maybe because All Saint’s Day was a not-so-great day to do that. So, “Trick or Treating” took it’s form going from Reciting Poems to Pranks for Treats, which then turned an Americanized Holiday and Now, We “Trick or Treat” to get Candy. Some say, It is a Night for The Kids to get Candy and Get High on Sugar, that and dress in Cute Costumes (like Super Heroes). As long as There is No Mask, I am okay in that category. Others say It is a Night for Mischief. Now, to be fair, Mocking Spirits in either Good or Bad Ways, back in The Celtic Days, probably was considered Mischief. and, This is where Halloween gets Bad because Today’s Mischief means Toilet Paper and Egging. I, of course, would never do that. and, Finally, The Pranks. Now, People can get Extreme with Pranks and of Course, dressing as Scary as You can and Scare Kids. Logic says, It is Scary Holiday, Right?! Well, The Pranks, The Scary (Costumes with Masks and Scary Figures), and The Mischief are Why I Hate Halloween. Honestly, for Some People who don’t celebrate Halloween, those are The Facts that They use to say that Halloween is a Hellish Holiday. Now, Here comes the Second Thought here, but, I was reading an Article from a Site called “Scary Mommy” it basically described Halloween for a More Autistic Kid Way of “Observing Halloween”. They, I feel are The People in The Middle. The People that really don’t want Observe Halloween but, Yet They don’t want to be Counted Out of Halloween. In Other Words, They have to Conform to Halloween. Come to Think of It, They would be Okay, Reciting Poems and then, Maybe flipping on and off The Lights! Now, Back when I was Kid, I pretty much had to Conform to it. I did not want to go Trick or Treating, but Everyone else was doing it and I did not want to not be Included in it. Luckily, I lived on a Street that had a Cul’d Sac and Four Yards interconnected. So, We would have a Little Block Party on Our Cul d’ Sac. At That Time, I was more fascinated with Hanging Out with The Block Party because it seemed like Fun to do so. Of Course, When It was time to go Trick or Treating, I did not want to, I wanted to stay at the Block Party but, I went Anyway. The Most Exciting Part to me of Trick or Treating was not The Candy or Shouting “Trick or Treat!” I was more Excited about Ringing The Doorbell and Seeing The Inside of My Neighbor’s House. The Scary Mommy article mentions that Her Child likes to go inside and Look at The Lights or some off thing in Their Neighbor’s Houses. After all, Special Needs Logic and Regular Logic would say that if You rang the doorbell of Someone’s House and They answer it, that means You can Come In and Talk. Now, I did not do that as a Kid, but I did look inside from The Front Door to what I could see Inside. Because I was Curious about The Lights inside. After that, I did that at Every House. It is a Chance to see what was Inside Your Neighbor’s House even just for a Second. I was a Kid, who really like the Style of Lights. I really liked The Flashing Lights or Lights that did different things inside their House. After going Trick or Treating, I was excited to get back to The Block Party, It is a Fun Time! These Days, I am glad that I don’t have to conform to Halloween. I can Hide in My House, Watch TV, or Maybe go to The Book Store and Read while All the Kids go Trick or Treating. I know that I am not Alone because I have talked to others that feel the same way. All We ask for is Some Understanding and Respect! All in all, Just Because You like Halloween does not mean that Your Child does. Anxiety goes way up and it does not feel good!
++ My Discontent with Halloween
This Newsletter was written on November 5th of 2014
(Refer to Newsletter 424)
Hello, My Readers! Happy November! It is only a Month and a Few Days until My Brother’s Graduation! So Excited! So, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, I hope that You had a Good Halloween and I hope You were kind to The Kids Trick or Treating. As for Me, I don’t like Halloween and I believe that I should tell you why I do not like Halloween not just seeing that I write, “I don’t like Halloween” and You just wondering why. Well, My Friends, The Truth is that it is for Many Reasons but, as I realized This Year, it all ties Together. The First Reason I tell People (and, Myself) is that it is because of The Costumes. To Me, In My Head, that sounds a bit Crazy because after all, I “Dress Up like a Northerner” when It Snows. But, We will start with The Root Cause that I found out, Reason #1 that leads to them all. You See, Because of PTLS, I have lack of Depth Perception, In other words, I can’t see very well in 3D. Because of that, when I see Someone with a Scary-looking Mask coming at Me, My Anxiety Level rises, Add The Lack of 3D, and We have some Trouble! Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I like Happy Costumes, without Masks like Disney Characters (This Year, I counted 2 Elsas). Costumes like Santa Claus I can deal with because He represents Happiness and Holiday Cheer. Plus, Adding to Lack of 3D and Costumes, It probably was not a Good Idea that My Dad took My Brother and I into Haunted Houses when We were Kids, (The Sort-of-Less-than-Scary-Kind) namely Fright Fest at Six Flags, One at Sea World, and Van Helsing at Universal Studios. In My Experience, Six Flags was The Most Scary and Van Helsing was not as Bad. So, With This Anxiety about Scary-Looking Figures moving up and down the Streets, comes an Avoidance Factor that I have been doing since I was 5 Years Old. Now, I didn’t mind Halloween when I was younger, according to My Mom, I would find fun Ringing The Doorbell and Walking Around. It did help calm the Nerves when We had a little Street Party on Our Cul-de-Sac during “The Jeff Era.” But, Now a Days, I find that It is Easier to either Stay at Home and Watch TV with The Lights Off in The Front or Go to Barnes & Noble and Read some Geography Books. Honestly, It does feel a Little Lonely because In My Head, It seems like I am the Only One out of My Friends as well as My Brother, who does not like Halloween. It seems like My Friends like Horror Movies and I am the Only One who Loves Romantic Comedies. I am one of those people who would rather skip Halloween and Get Excited about My Favorite Holiday, Christmas. I think It feels Lonely because I wish that I had Someone who also did not like Halloween and Would Support “Avoiding Halloween” with Me. Now, It did help though, that I ran into Someone We Knew who’s Child was “Avoiding Halloween” also. At The End of The Night, I posted on Facebook about it and Surprisingly, There were People who Understood and It made me feel very happy to hear that. A Bonus is that Not only does it help Me in a Self-Expressing Outlet, but It also helps PTLS Members understand their Child or Prepare for It. Now, Who Knows though, I may be writing this all lonely about Halloween and Later on in Life, I may or may not feel this way about it, Maybe My Soulmate may Talk Me Out of It and We may go somewhere in a Couples Costume (but, still Avoiding The Scary Ones). Wishful Thinking, I guess we can call it. All in All, Do Consider those People who do not like Holidays like Halloween and Treat Them Kindly.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Spread Love to Everyone. You never Know Who needs it.