It’s October, and guess what’s coming? Didn’t even have to guess. Halloween! I loved that day as a young child. The costumes, the candy, the crisp air, the frightful movies, what could be better? Then, well, life happened. As I transitioned from elementary school into middle then high school, Halloween morphed from a celebration into an exercise in evasion. It became all about trying not to get beaned by an egg that was being thrown by other kids. Seriously. I understand the urge for mischief, but let's be real, it quickly became a shitty excuse for the genuinely rotten kids to be, well, rotten. I eventually reached a point where I just dreaded the day. Thankfully, everything changed when I got to college and started my art program. Finding like-minded, creative people and making new friends allowed me to fully reclaim the holiday. It became the fun, spooky, and imaginative event it was always meant to be.
This experience made me wonder: how did throwing eggs even become a Halloween thing? It has surprisingly old roots. “Egg tossing” was once central to a pagan ritual symbolizing the Earth's rebirth, a significance later adopted by Christians to represent the rebirth of Christ at Easter. As a Halloween activity, it mainly took off in the early 20th century. Often called “Cabbage Night” or “Hell Night,” it began as relatively light-hearted, seasonal mischief brought to this country by immigrants from England, Ireland, and Scotland. This usually meant minor vandalism, like egging a house or "toilet papering" a yard. However, starting around the 1950s, the practice slowly but surely evolved into a more aggressive form of vandalism and even minor assault, which many teens started viewing as a twisted "rite of passage." This evolved to other darker forms of pranks and Halloween rituals that celebrate vandalism. Such a shame. That energy could be used so much better.
The takeaway? For starters, avoid getting hit with an egg or anything else, for that matter! But more importantly, if you find yourself dreading a holiday you once loved, remember that you have the power to reinvent it and make it yours again.
“We are the things that others fear.” - Lestat