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Analysis
Last weekend, October officially started—and so did the memes about people changing their outfits and decorations to match the theme of the spookiest month of the year.
Halloween isn’t just one day anymore; it’s a month’s worth of celebrations. The people who really like October are easy to identify. These are the people who carefully plan Halloween costumes each year, decorate their homes with fake spider webs and bats, and invite you to go to cemeteries and haunted houses. They probably own a lot of black clothing.
I know because I’m one of these people. I’ve always loved Halloween, but my excitement around the holiday grew as an adult. I can wear whatever costume I want, plan spooky activities with friends, and plan elaborate Halloween parties (one I planned included an escape room that I designed). I like the holiday because it lands in the middle of my favorite season, fall, and it’s inclusive. Anyone can participate in Halloween.
Every year, though, the detractors come out. A tweet on Oct. 1 by Twitter user @LUVVALPHA declared: “liking the month of october is not a fucking personality trait.” In their mult-tweet thread, they concluded that October is the “worst month.”
Judging from the more than 12,000 quote tweets and 1,300 replies, a lot of people disagreed. “10 tweets over a month is insane,” one user replied. “What did October do to you,” another person said.
The quote tweets are full of spooky memes and GIFs. Disliking October (also known as Spooktober) is one thing, but writing a thread about why you hate a month is on a whole other level. As one user said, “bro is the grinch that stole halloween.”
Why it matters
Of course, as we get into the holidays, we’ll see the people who make liking Christmas their whole personality for December. That’s fine if that makes them happy! The reason why people like celebrating the same holidays year after year is that it gives them something to look forward to. And with everything going on in the world (human rights being taken away, climate change, inflation—pick one), wearing silly costumes and buying big skeletons is a welcome distraction.
October signifies change. It’s a month when we start to see leaves change color, when we pull out our jackets and sweaters, when we reach for hot beverages and soups. At the end of October, we dress up as someone (or something) else. And after months of triple-digit temperatures, the cooler weather begins to offer us some relief.
I think that’s worth celebrating.