Is this why Halloween is so popular?

For someone who has not grown up in western countries and especially USA, exposure to Halloween was mainly through movies and comics. As kids and teenagers in India we were scared of the ghouls, witches, ghosts along with the spiders, roaches, centipede et al.

Until recently Halloween was not as popular even in metro cities of India. During travels, on few occasions when I saw the party-goers lining up at popular venues, dressed up in amazingly gory costumes and make-up, I used to think why will I want to do all this fancy dress... but that was then. After moving out of India nothing much changed in my thinking except that we started having little gremlins, ghosts, superheroes and vampires knocking our door for treats.

A few years ago our younger one came and life changed (if you're thinking why life didn't change for elder one, well Pluto isn't demanding). As he turned two, suddenly Halloween became a big thing and his planning starts at least a month in advance on the playground with all his friends. Once we started doing up the house and having Halloween parties we started enjoying it too. Nowadays, we start thinking and planning about how we will do up the place, what things to get, what to make etc. at least two months in advance.

It got me thinking what makes Halloween so exciting, fun and contagious especially to kids who otherwise are not so much interested in festivals. Below I have tried enumerate various aspects that are perhaps at work here, please share what you think as it will help me better understand

Thinking vs Executing: It is proved experimentally that if we have to think about something then it makes the job more engaging and pleasurable. Halloween requires us think about decor, costume, games etc. and you will always try to do something different from last year or the year before. Usually kids discuss with friends, collaborate and co-create stuff for the party which makes it more engaging. Most other festivals have a checklist that needs to be ticked and outlandish stuff is not necessarily encouraged. In such circumstances the entire exercise is just about executing as per a handed over plan.

Creative vs Standardised: In Halloween there are broad guardrails; you can improvise and do various things with dress, decor, food and drinks. Nothing is off the table and many times this surprise is what half the excitement is all about... It is the unbridled creativity that encourages engagement. Most other festivals are relatively standardised and give less room to innovate. For example, it will be totally out of place if I were to wear a three-piece suit on Diwali however one can wear a traditional Indian festive attire or a three-piece suit and put on some blood, stitches and tattoos to be part of a Halloween party.

Involvement vs Participation: the distinction I make here between these two is something that is done with heart vis-à-vis stuff that we do as an obligation. Recollect any task or project in the past you would have done. If we would have thought and part of its creation then there is involvement to ensure it is a success. Now think about other times when a plan was handed over in a standardised format, there will be participation but no involvement. Halloween gets us involved and therefore I believe is more fun.

Also note that the barrier to entry for Halloween is very low, what I imply is you can get going with repurposing stuff already at home. Rag-dolls out of old clothes, finished lipstick to make blood stains etc. the list is endless and imagination is the limit

We had a fearfully funny night where we met some spooky characters and lots of small goblins, vampires and witches knocking on our door! Hope you too had your share of screams and scares.