Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I don’t use the holiday as an excuse to break out my slut-wear for a day. I don’t use it as an excuse to get attention. I don’t need one day to make me feel important or special or like the prettiest princess or prostitute on the block.

However, do I dig the hell out of the fact that normal people dress up like members of the band GWAR? Do I appreciate the irony of office workers dressed up as zombies? Do I love the fact that these same office drones decorate their cubicles and houses with rotting corpses, fake blood and viscera? Do I love all the haunted houses and horror movies and the general sense that the world is falling apart? You bet I do.

Halloween is the one holiday where people use their imaginations. It’s the one time of year where fear and horror are in vogue. We dive into it headlong rather than trying to ignore it like we do the rest of the year with the daily news. It’s the one holiday where being a total freak is acceptable and encouraged. I am all for it.

People should let their inner freaks out more often than just once a year, but one day is better than nothing. So, do I personally dress as a prostitute for Halloween? No, my own freak flag flies high every single day, but I enjoy the fact that others do. I revel in the creativity that, for most, lies fallow the rest of the year.

I don’t think I could sum it up better than the important piece of lyrical 20th century poetry, Halloween by The Dead Kennedys, so I will herewith let them speak for me:

So it’s Halloween
And you feel like dancin’
And you feel like shinin’
And you feel like letting loose

Whatcha gonna be
Babe, you better know
And you better plan
Better plan all day

Better plan all week
Better plan all month
Better plan all year

You’re dressed up like a clown
Putting on your act
It’s the only time all year
You’ll ever admit that

I can see your eyes
I can see your brain
Baby, nothing’s changed
(repeat)

You’re still hiding in a mask
You take your fun seriously
No, don’t blow this year’s chance
Tomorrow your mold goes back on

After Halloween

You go to work today
You’ll go to work tomorrow
Shitfaced tonight
You’ll brag about it for months

Remember what I did
Remember what I was
Back on Halloween?

But what’s in between?
Where are your ideas?
You sit around and dream
For next Halloween

Why not everyday?
Are you so afraid?
What will people say?
(repeat)

After Halloween

Because your role is planned for you
There’s nothing you can do
But stop and think it through
But what will the boss say to you?

And what will your girlfriend say to you?
And the people out on the street they might glare at you
And whadya know, you’re pretty self-conscious, too

So, you run back and stuff yourselves in rigid business costumes
Only at night to score is your leather uniform exhumed
Why don’t you take your social regulations
And shove ’em up your ass