For kids and adults alike, Halloween is one of the most enjoyable and celebratory holidays in the calendar year. Unlike other holidays, Halloween is not associated with somber rhetoric or political agenda. First and foremost, Halloween is about fun. It is about dressing-up in elaborate and fancy dress costumes, putting on ghoulish makeup, trick-or-treating and attending colorful and exuberant parades. Halloween is also about celebrating the beginning of fall. It is a holiday that is inherently attune to the season and complimentary to the changing leaves. Shorter days, crisp nights, and the autumn harvest is closely associated with Halloween. With Halloween comes fall festivals, giant pumpkin weigh-offs, agricultural fairs and preparations for the winter. However, let’s call a spade a spade: Halloween is about fun, the right Halloween costume and an endless bag of candy corns.

Planning and preparing a kids costume begins long before the foliage starts to turn in October. What are you going to be this year is a common question amongst school children. There is boastfulness and a friendly competition with kids about who will have the best costume. This comes as both a blessing and a curse to parents, as many mothers find themselves struggling to tailor make intricate and elaborate garments and fancy Halloween costumes. Forget ghosts and pirates, the kids these days want theatricality and Halloween fancy dress.

It is the same with the adult costume. Adults never seem to outgrow Halloween. Every year those quiet suburban neighbors throw an all-night weekend bash to celebrate the witching holiday. It is the one night of year where everyone gets to dress up and be someone else. Adults take as much pride in their costumes as kids do. There is no doubt that kids and adults love Halloween equally, and this is illustrated in the attention to detail and authenticity that they bestow on their costumes. What are you going to be this year is heard as much in the office as it is in the classroom.

In fact, Halloween is all about costumes. Our front yards are dressed up with ghouls, ghosts and goblins. Orange and black lights are festooned everywhere. People labor over Halloween decorations, making spooky panoramas of their neighborhood. Die-hard enthusiasts even provide a haunted soundtrack to the night, as there is no shortage of Cds that feature screams, creaking doors and spine-tingling effects. Too bad Halloween happens only once a year.