For as long as I can remember, I have touted October as my favorite month and Halloween as my favorite holiday. There wasn’t a defining moment where I decided this was the case, yet this fact has remained a minor facet of my identity I often analyze around this time of year. Perhaps it came about as a result of my adoration for vampires, horror films and sinister folklore, because Halloween allowed my otherwise-bizarre fascination to be cool for just one day. Or maybe it was because of my incessant desire to subvert the social norms of my suburban South Florida environment, as Halloween gave me a parent-approved outlet to do so.
Regardless, I quickly learned that, despite my initial belief, loving Halloween did not make me a special spooky snowflake. Sitting around my small discussion class last week, my classmates and I somehow managed to divert the conversation from our weekly assigned novel to that of — you guessed it — Halloween. We quickly established that Halloween was the preferred holiday for the majority of the class, which is not meant to be a representative sample, considering there are only 12 of us. This then lead us to ask “Why?” in typical English-major fashion.
How did a holiday originating in the Celtic festival of Samhain turn into a holiday beloved by children and adults alike? Our professor pointed out the possibility of Halloween acting as an outlet to subvert social conventions in a designated space and time frame. She also pointed out the links between the beloved holiday and a form of writing called carnivalesque. Again, this was in an English class, so bear with me.
According to Oxford Reference, carnivalesque was a term coined by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin to describe “writing that depicts the de-stabilization or reversal of power structures, albeit temporarily, as happens in traditional forms of carnival.” However, many critics later claimed that because carnivals are approved methods of transgression, they ultimately offer nothing more than the appearance of change.
While we can all agree that Halloween does little to undermine the existing power structures in our lives for the other 364 days of the year, it doesn’t make the experience any less exciting. To connect this all back to pop culture, in the immortal words of Cady Heron from the seminal production “Mean Girls,” “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” To live and frolic for a night without traditional restrictions is undeniably enticing to the majority of us, and while we do subvert those restrictions, this subversion ultimately strengthens them. So, feel free to don the bunny ears and corset for a night, but know that, unfortunately, the judgment that accompanies them will be culturally acceptable come morning.
Halloween is not the only carnivalesque experience available to the public (cosplay, for example), but it is the only one that’s been absorbed by mainstream culture. The appeal of losing one’s identity to embody a new character is undeniable, and this is one of the many fascinating elements that endear the holiday to countless people. We are fascinated by the boundless mutability of identity, and having a licensed arena to experiment with it is an entirely unique experience. All of the free candy, cheesy horror movies and haunted houses are pretty fun, too.
Hopefully you’ve reveled in my favorite day of the year and defied those social conventions with appropriate enthusiasm. Unfortunately, today marks our return to the real world…but there will always be next year.
Marisa Papenfuss is a UF English senior. Her column appears on Tuesdays.
