What is Halloween? A holiday to celebrate children dressing up as something they aren’t? A holiday based upon scaring people and eating excessive amounts of candy?

For decades people have been celebrating Halloween. People of all ages to dress up in unrealistic costumes and garnish their houses with spooky decorations. All for no reason at all.

I have never enjoyed Halloween. In elementary school, the holiday is defined by mindless parades, ridiculous costumes, gorging yourself on candy–which are always followed by painful stomach aches. Halloween only encourages bad behavior for children and the massive consumption of candy filled with preservatives. Halloween is nothing more than an overly commercialized pointless holiday, and shouldn’t be a holiday at all.

Children dressing up will always be cute, but there are only so many different costumes for kids wear. Lack of creativity leads to repetitive costumes year after year– the typical being favorite TV show characters, witches, fairies, ghosts, or. By around fourth grade, parents throw together a last minute costume using a baseball jersey and eye black.

When kids grow older, they are caught between the risque teenage costumes or ones they barely fit into. By the end of middle school to early high school years, the girls become exclusive with their group costume ideas, juxtaposing the lazy boys become who don’t care what they dress up as – as long as they get candy when they ring a doorbell.

Halloween forces us to waste money on costumes worn once and bags of “treats,” which range from candy too chips. Which are all meant to please and plumpen the youth of American. Not only does this promote unhealthy eating habits, but it encourages children to take candy (and tremendous amounts of it) from strangers.

One of the strangest parts of Halloween is that taking candy from strangers is enforced. This idea that behavior we usually frown upon is at the core of it.  In most communities, children ringing strangers’ doorbells is frowned upon.  By late October, the sun is down by as earlier as 5:30, making trick-or-treating unsafe for children walking around without adults, some in costumes that cover their faces, preventing them from seeing the sidewalk.  Mischief Night, is a the night before Halloween, that glorifies mischievous acts. Throwing eggs and toilet papering houses are part of the Mischief Night ritual, causing nothing but trouble– yet we have a night devoted to them.

For the past two years, snowstorms and hurricanes have gotten in the way of Halloween, causing the east coast to cancel and reschedule this fake holiday.  Maybe we should take Mother Nature’s attempts to ruin this holiday into consideration.