With Halloween around the corner, it’s time we discuss why Oct. 31 is a college student’s dream holiday.
Halloween is the greatest holiday because you can celebrate it in so many different ways: watching scary movies, giving out candy, partying and trick-or-treating.
“I enjoy the environment and everyone hanging out,” said Ivan Guerra, a student at Delta College.
Halloween’s celebration rate has gone up 4 percent since 2022, up from 69 percent to 73 percent according to “Halloween popularity in the United States 2023” by statistica.com.
That’s not all trick-or-treating as according to the National Retail Federation, last year 87 percent of people between 18-24 celebrated Halloween, which is back to pre-pandemic numbers.
While other big holidays are coming soon, Halloween is truly the one college students love the most.
If you are a more introverted person or someone that enjoys media, you can just get comfortable at home with a nice scary movie like “Child’s Play” or “Friday the 13th.” If you’re a person that enjoys the company of others, Halloween parties are a fun way to enjoy the holiday. If you’re a person who enjoys spending time with your children or siblings or just like candy, trick-or-treating is the way to go.
But if you like getting scared, it’s always a treat to go to a good haunted house. Or you can enjoy a college tradition that doesn’t die — cracking a cold one with friends.
Halloween is also a-political and not a religion-specific holiday.
Yes, Halloween was originally a Pagan holiday and then adopted by the Catholic church, Halloween now holds a much less religion-specific purpose than before.
An article titled “A third of Americans avoid Halloween or its pagan elements” from lifeway.com, a Christian media website, states that 21 percent of Christian Americans interviewed avoid Halloween for its pagan past.
Still Halloween is popular amongst Christians with 59 percent interviewed saying it’s all in good fun.
Halloween comes with a share of problems such as crime going up with CPI security’s website reporting in a 2023 article “Pulling Back the mask on Halloween Crime Spikes” that vandalism reports for its security system goes up 68 percent compared to the rest of the year.
Another issue is an increase in alcohol consumption (so don’t have too many). Like many holidays, alcohol purchase and consumption goes up at Halloween,
A Yahoo! Finance article titled “Holidays Where People Spend the Most on Alcohol and How Much We’re Spending” notes from a California survey of 15,000 people, 44 percent said they would spend over $100 on beer and alcohol during Halloween.
Even though the holiday has its problems that shouldn’t deter you from having a great Halloween, just remember to stay safe and have fun and if you’re going to drink, drink responsibly.