My younger cousins seem to look forward to Halloween even more than Christmas. While Christmas has, understandably, become synonymous with what they can ask for and what they might receive, Halloween offers something altogether different: the anticipation of an experience. From the decorations and scary makeup to the parties and prospect of a ‘Instagram-worthy’ group costume, it genuinely seems to be the highlight of their social calendar. It dominates playground conversations, fuels excitement and somehow provides the motivation to get through double Chemistry on a Friday afternoon.
Yet for many of us university students, dressing up is no longer an occasion but merely a routine. What once required weeks of anticipation, now feels like just another excuse to throw on a costume and take on West Street for another ‘unforgettable’ night.
The 31st October is solely an extension of the average Wednesday night. The music is familiar, the venues are more or less the same and the ritual of pres and a Buzzball has been repeated countless times. The only real difference is the occasional drop of fake blood, if any at all. With the increasingly popular, somewhat Americanised approach of dressing as a pop culture reference, rather than embracing the traditional spooky aesthetic, even the costumes do little to distinguish Halloween from any other uni night out.
Adding to our already packed calendars, the time and preparation that Halloween demands becomes yet another thing added to an endless to-do list. Planning Halloween feels like an assignment in itself, with one unforgiving deadline at the end of October. From endlessly scrolling Pinterest for costume inspiration to deciding whose house will host pres and ensuring the entire group secures tickets to the same event, the excitement can quickly become overshadowed by the logistics. Call me cynical, but Halloween has become more hassle than it’s worth.
Even for those who are not members of sports societies, university social culture tends to offer a seemingly endless supply of opportunities, leaving little room for any single event to feel overly special.
Quite frankly when everything is special, nothing is special. This paradox of abundance perfectly captures how individual events like Halloween naturally lose their novelty. Add a few VKs to the mix and suddenly it becomes a very cloudy “remember that one night where…”. Perhaps the issue is not that we have too little to look forward to, but that our overcrowded calendars leave little time to appreciate individual occasions.
