3 Reasons You’re Never Too Old For A Halloween Costume
Most of our big holidays are religious, ethnic or civic in nature. Not Halloween, a celebration that grew out of pagan harvest festivals and the Celtic day of the dead. Today, Halloween has mutated into something totally new and very American. Think dressing up in a Halloween costume is just for kids? Think again. You’re never too old for Halloween! Dressing up in costumes, is a great way for adults to relax and have some fun too.
1. Wearing a Halloween Costume Forces You To Goof Off
If you think that Halloween is a silly holiday for kids, you’re missing out on a giant opportunity to let off some steam and be someone else for a night. Like Mardi Gras and other wild celebrations, Halloween functions as a steam valve for societal pressures – a crucial necessity in our modern world (especially during the Government Shutdown, thanks for nothing Washington). Use the holiday to live your fantasy and let go of the rules for one special night, and then return to your normal life with a smile on your face.
2. Wearing A Halloween Costume Is A Chance To Eat Junk Food
Since you’re reading Organic Authority, it’s safe to say that you care about the food that you put into your body and about the environment that you live in. You try to take care of yourself and those you love, but even this simple mandate is complicated in our confusing world. Our grandmothers just picked vegetables from their gardens and that was it. We have to sort through genetically modified organisms, pesticides and organic choices to make the right decisions for our families. We read nutrition labels, shop in stores with thousands of choices, and deal with an onslaught of information every day. In short, our lives are filled to the brim with rules. Eat this, don’t eat that. Shop here, don’t shop there. Use this product, don’t use that one.
Eating well and supporting good companies makes you feel proud, like you’re doing right by yourself, your family and your fellow human beings. It can also be completely exhausting, even to those for whom following the rules comes easily. As a child or teenager, you probably weren’t so well disciplined. You learned to take care of yourself as you matured, and you’re getting better at it every day. You try to follow the rules and be good. But deep within you is a child that wants to run wild in the woods.
Wearing a Halloween costume is a chance to rip the rulebook in half for a night – and if you do, you’ll find it much easier to follow the rules once you return to normal life on November 1. Halloween is an opportunity to be bad for a day. You can dress up like a zombie and scare the children that you would normally smile at. Or, you can go the other direction with your halloween costume, be a sexy pirate costume and flaunt the sensuality that you usually keep hidden out view. You can dress like a princess and indulge silly childhood fantasies, or wear an animal costume and return to your mammalian roots.
3. Wearing A Halloween Costume Let’s Your Imagination Run Wild
When wearing a halloween costume, you can literally step into someone else’s shoes and let go of your identity for a night. How refreshing! In the modern world we talk a big game about social consciousness and empathy for others, but when is the last time you actually walked in someone else’s shoes? Halloween gives you the chance to get out of the “me” bubble, and to realize that you are not defined by the roles you play in life: wife, mother, sister, writer, dog-lover, American or otherwise.
Your identity is something that you have the power to create every day. After Halloween, you get to make your healthy, eco-conscious choices all over again – and you’ll know that you choose to live by the rules and take care of yourself because it’s the right thing to do, not just a mindless habit or current trend. Just as dieters are more successful when they allow themselves a “cheat day” every week, you’ll be more successful with your goals when you allow yourself to break the rules every now and then.
So break the rules! Pretend to be bad for one evening! Eat candy and caramel apples! Scare children! Be sexy! Act crazy! Paint your face in rainbow colors and dance all night! If you did this on a random winter Wednesday, you’d get strange looks and might even feel guilty about your choices. But on Halloween, all bets are off. Get your halloween costume ready and give yourself one night free from all the rules in your life.
Related on Organic Authority:
6 Ways To Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup This Halloween
5 Easy Halloween Costume Ideas for Foodies
5 Ways To Eat Your Halloween Pumpkin Carvings
Image: anitakhart
