This past weekend was\nour annual family Halloween party; we had 35 or 40 people here with 12 or 14 of\nthem kids. I had the yard, but especially the woods, decorated with my ever growing\ncollection of scary Halloween props: figures, lights, animatronics, and of\ncourse the zombie cemetery! I think I am up to ten storage containers for it\nall plus some that hang in the workshop year round. Making the yard and woods\nbigger, better, and scarier than the previous year is a big deal to me and\nbeing retired for this one gave me lots of time to get ready. And as I have the\noutside, Teri has the inside and does a phenomenal job \u2013 the artist in her\ncomes out everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were shrieks of fright and joy, laughter, and general chaos both inside and outside for several hours; everyone had a great time, but especially the kids most of whom were cousins. While it was all about family, it was also about Halloween \u2013 about being a little scared, a little creeped out, and a little uncertain about what was behind the next tree. Lurking in the shadows and hanging from the trees were ghosts, phantoms, jumping spiders, jack o\u2019 lanterns, zombies, clowns, and assorted frights. Some moaned, some screamed, some talked, while others jumped or twitched, all designed to build layer upon layer of fear. Just not too much fear. It is difficult to find a delicate balance between being fun scary and being terrifying. The idea is to scare them all without truly scaring them and that can be quite challenging, especially given a wide swath of ages \u2013 from two to ten in this case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I worked on it, I\nkept mulling over why we love to be scared. Horror movies are huge sellers at\nthe box office and temporary Halloween stores spring up by the hundreds in September\nand October. Being scared generates big dollars for business. There are haunted\nhouses, hayrides, and mazes all designed to take people right to the absolute\nrazor\u2019s edge of their tolerance for fear without actually crossing it. And\nsometimes they do cross the line, it is really unrealistic to think you can create\na level of fear that will satisfy all without taking some too far. Like\nanything else, people have varying levels of tolerance for fear and there are\nalways those that will not be able to handle it, ending up crying and shaking\nand needing to be helped out of the situation. I\u2019ve seen it play out time and\ntime again for years; people walking out of a movie, being escorted out of a\nhaunted house, etc. And at the same time, others are left unfulfilled and\nunsatisfied, almost ho-humming their way through the frights, left wanting more\n\u2013 a higher level of fear. But why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a lot of\ntheories on why we like to scare ourselves; postulations abound on the science\nbehind it. There are as many ideas on the \u201cwhy\u201d as there are demons, spirits,\nand witches in a Halloween store. For example, there are numerous hormones\nreleased during moments of extreme fear, thrills and chills produce a\nphysiological affect that is unique and highly pleasurable to humans. Consider\nthe thrill-seekers who drive fast, ride motorcycles, skydive, ride insanely\nintense roller coasters, bungee jump, and so forth. They love the adrenaline\nrush that comes with pushing the limit of fear. Doing so in a \u201csafe\u201d\nenvironment is the best of both worlds; you can be as scared as your psyche can\nmanage while the cognitive side of your brain can reassure and relax you that\nyou are actually safe because what you are experiencing is not truly real. And\nthat dampens, if not actually shutting down, the fight or flight survival mechanism\nin us, allowing us to steep in the experience. And that provides a level of\ninternal satisfaction \u2013 accomplishment. We beat it, we handled it, and we conquered\nit. And with that comes more hormonal gratification. We feast on facing fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While not as widely accepted\nas is the chemical theories on fear, I am a firm believer in the self-test\naspect of facing fear. It is a challenge, a test, to see what you can face and how\nmuch you can manage. Everything is a challenge to compete to competitive\npeople, everything. And these folks find a million ways to compete and measure\nthemselves against others in almost every life activity you can think of including\nhaunted houses, ghost tours, and scary movies. Look around while in a haunted\nhouse or during a scary move sometime; I can almost guarantee you that you will\nsee at least a couple of people looking around to see how much more scared\nothers are than they are; assessing the competition. The fear competitors want,\nneed, to know how strong and how brave they really are in the face of fear; it\nis a test of fortitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is also the\nassociation, the reconnection, to the past \u2013 the fables, legends, tales, and\nmyths of our ancestors, many of which we grew up believing and then rapidly\nwaning as our cognitive abilities and life experiences cast the shadow of\nreality and doubt upon them. We cling to a shred of hope that some of them may\npossibly be real and leap at any chance to bolster that hope, to prove it true\nand real. We essentially walk in the shoes of our forefathers, battling the werewolves\non the moor and the ghosts in the woods as they did. It is a continuity of the\npast and of our history. It hearkens back to wizards and dragons, to witches\nand warlocks, to werewolves and vampires, and to ghosts and goblins \u2013 to a time\nwe believed in and we want to know how e would have fared alongside our ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we indulge and the\nfear comes fast and furious and forcefully, the fright envelops us and buoys us\nto a surreal level we never otherwise see in our daily lives; it is a respite.\nBut for children? For them it is about learning who they are, about\nunderstanding their options in a terrifying moment, and about investigating\ntheir still undeveloped psyche. It is easy to overload them \u2013 they do not yet have\nthe skills to discern between a safe scare and truly bad situation and will\ninvariably be damaged, at least to some extent, if the fear becomes too deep or\nintense. But done right, it opens them to a new world of excitement and\ndiscovery. Think otherwise? Please go back and read the old classic fairy\ntales; but read the originals, not the rewrites \u2013 some of them, many of them,\nare extremely dark and frightening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halloween is of course, seated in the religious camp being the night before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Eve. The current date goes back to the Celts \u2013 the Gaelic festival of Samhaim was held on October 31 because it not only marked the change of the seasons, but the Celts believed that the boundary between our world and the after world was weakened during this time allowing them the best chance to communicate with the dead. As all societies do, each generation morphed the holiday into their own, weaving in current beliefs and ideas. Components of the celebration changed, were added, or were removed over the generations, but with the root concepts of a connection with other-world and the dead remaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have always loved Halloween\nwith a passion. My favorite movie genre is horror; I think the 1978 Halloween\nmight be the best movie ever made. (Side note, do a search on the production of\nthis movie, there are some amazing facts on how they saved costs such as the iconic\nMichael Myers mask which was actually a Captain Kirk (Star Trek) mask that they\nbought in a Five and Dime store and painted, and that they had one bag of brown\nleaves that they carefully spread out for each scene and then collected to use again\nthe next day since it wasn\u2019t fall during the filming.) I of course loved the\nclassics: Frankenstein and Dracula and especially Romero\u2019s Night of the Living\nDead. And Halloween brought all that and more into the real world for one day a\nyear. I can remember walking through the woods during Halloween night as a shortcut\nto trick or treat when really it was just an opportunity to scare myself and to\ntest the cut of my cloth\u2026.and perhaps just a little bit to see if maybe, just\nmaybe, there was something more to Halloween night than costumes and candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to look\nforward to October coming because you could find horror movies on all night, every\nnight. Remember that for much of my life, there was no streaming video, no on\ndemand movies, and even after VHS came along, you needed to rent or buy the\ntape to watch it. But Halloween month meant horror movies all month long. The\nbad part was that I worked all day and needed to be in bed no later than 11pm so\nI was limited to maybe four hours viewing time on any given night. Now retired,\nin the last I\u2019ve been up watching horror movies past 1am several times \u2013 it\u2019s\nbeen great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So please enjoy this\nscary holiday dear reader. Watch some horror movies with the lights out; go out\nand scare yourself; visit a graveyard at night. Savor the fear and the\nadrenaline and once it is over, enjoy a piece of candy! Happy Halloween!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend was our annual family Halloween party; we had 35 or 40 people here with 12 or 14 of them kids. I had the yard, but especially the woods, decorated with my ever growing collection of scary Halloween props: figures, lights, animatronics, and of course the zombie cemetery! I think I am up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n