It’s that time of year again. The air outside is getting colder. The green leaves are turning gold and beginning to fall off. And of course, another spooky Halloween is nearly upon us.
Halloween is my favourite holiday, and autumn has always been a nostalgic time for me. I’m not quite sure why. But it’s a feeling that comes to me every year. As the landscape slowly cools down and changes colour, I find myself overcome with a wave of strong emotions. It’s a bittersweet feeling; magical, and yet slightly melancholic too. And it’s something I tend to experience during autumn alone. Even though I like all of the seasons for their own reasons. The fresh, renewed energy of spring. The relaxed, lazy heat of summer. Even winter, which often gets a bad rap, has a beauty all of its own I think. And yet, none of them make me feel quite the same way autumn does.
Perhaps in part it is because I associate autumn with change. The warm-to-cold transition that autumn signals, it feels more profound to me somehow than the other seasons, although it’s more than just the change in weather. I associate autumn with strong memories and emotional moments throughout my life. For a long time, autumn was concurrent with me starting a new semester at school after a relaxing and carefree summer vacation. It was those carefree summers which always made autumn seem pretty sombering by contrast, once summer vacation was coming to an end and it was time to head back into the school grind for another several months. My mother always found it quite sad too on my behalf.
But there were plenty of good autumn/October-related things too. One of the most memorable highlights of all was the Halloween parties I used to attend. One of my friends from high school would host a Halloween party at her house every year. She and her mother were huge Halloween lovers, and they gladly let it show with the numerous, elaborate, creative decorations they’d put all around the outside and inside of their house. They were big food lovers as well and they’d always prepare lots of tasty, unique, interesting snacks and other food items for our taste buds to enjoy. Once everyone arrived, we’d hang out in the basement, eat lots of food, and watch some gory horror movies. Later on into the night, we’d also sometimes go out into the back yard to have a fire. There was just something about the Halloween spirit that my friend and her family were so enthusiastic about, and it always shone through with the warmth and energy they brought to our Halloween parties.
Our parties were a tradition that endured even well beyond high school, as many of us still kept in contact. The longer our annual Halloween get-togethers lasted, the more and more I wished they would simply never end. But alas, they finally did come to an end in 2020 when Covid got in the way, like it did with so many other things. And then life itself got in the way in the following two years, with my friend and her mother selling their big beautiful house and moving to other places, and my friend subsequently becoming busy with other things and no longer hosting for us.
But still, even if the parties ended, the memories live on, and I will always treasure those. Halloween and autumn will likewise continue to be a very special time for me.
Well those are my musings for now. Wishing you all a festive Halloween, followed by lots of Christmas cheer, and a fantastic New Year’s beyond that.