Therapy Tuesday
Photo by: dcjohn
It's that time of year again. When kids celebrate the unofficial kids holiday, and adults are allowed (and even encouraged) to regress to childhood. Yup, Halloween. What is so fascinating to me about this day is that it is a day of complete imagination and fantasy.
In actual childhood, we strive to come up with either off-the-wall costumes or we use the opportunity to try out a new identity. Want to see what life is like being a hero? Try on Superman's cape for the evening. Try being furry like Elmo for a little bit. Or get dolled up like a princess.
As we reach adolescence, the holiday takes on more urgency in terms of identity and its formation. Typically, adolescence is one long stretch of trying on different identities. Halloween makes it the rule to try on a more extreme version of yourself. It's common to see lots of monsters, things created from fear, or seductresses. Each of these plays out an aspect of the teenage self.
Adults try to play down the holiday. However, this weekend will be a big one for clubs and bars, all encouraging patrons to come dressed up and luring people with big prizes for creativity. If that isn't an open invitation to be someone else, I'm not sure what is.
This is the fun of Halloween: being someone who you aren't. Even if it's just for a few hours. Finding the old miniskirt in your closet and being able to wear it one last time. Playing dress up is fun. It encourages a playfulness that as adults, we tend to forget. Or watch wistfully in our children. For a small sliver of time, we can cast away our responsibilities, stuff ourselves with candy, and slink back into the night.
Well, we can, at least until bedtime.
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