Hallowe'en is an NT holiday

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Three reasons:

1.) I don't believe most Aspies enjoy being startled (which is the point of a haunted house, more than genuine fear).
2.) It is hard enough to socialize with others without them wearing a costume then trying to role play what the costume represents.
3.) It is an extreme example of the whole NT concept of having "fun".

I don't mind Halloween. I do hate answering the door and pretending to like the shite jokes that are pretty much the same as the previous lot of trick or treaters jokes. I'm shockingly bad at pretending they're funny which is half the reason I hate it.

I am an NT and don't like Halloween one bit.

I'm in UK here...much prefer bonfire night.

i enjoy the costume aspect of halloween, like the temporary shift away from self. you get to choose/make your own costume too, its not like you have to dress up as a celebrity or a sexy kittten or something. i tend to dress up as objectish/animalish things, like this year i was a lamp made from (fake) human skin.

i don't enjoy halloween parties/drinking culture though. I was in a collaborative art show last night and afterwards i was dragged out to a bar to celebrate, but i snuck off and went home within an hour, overwhelmed and exhausted. last year i went to a friend's halloween party and had a terrible time interacting with terrible people and drinking terrible liquor. its just another excuse for people to get wasted and dry hump each other to sh***y music, not like thats a bad thing, i'm just not into it.

The only part that bothers me is the constant door bell ringing.

I'm glad where I live 99% of people respect the no pumpkin no ring the door bell rule. I didn't put one out this year and only had one person ring the doorbell once and I didn't answer it and they didn't ring it again, last year I put a pumpkin out and had 20 or so groups.

Here it is the no lights no ring rule. But my mother answers the door, so I still have to listen to the doorbell ring how many dozen times.

I love Halloween! I love being able to "hide" behind a costume and bring out another side to myself. I like that trick-or-treating is at night (I take my kids), with less lights and so on, unless you want them. If you don't, you don't go up to the lighted-up house. I like sneaking around in the darkness and feeling spooky.

I love weird stuff and I think maybe it's because I feel like I'm weird, and I feel that Halloween is the one day a year when being weird is not just accepted, it's actually encouraged and appreciated and sometimes, applauded. That to me is totally amazing.

And I do like being spooked...IF I'm expecting it. So IOW, creeping up to a decorated house, I at least half-expect someone to jump out of the bushes (DON'T like it when people actually come near me that way, though). Or, watching a scary movie, I expect a scream or two. But one time my husband wore a scary mask and leaned over me, I looked up and SCREAMED and that I didn't like at all! I mean it wasn't what I would consider a "good" scare. It was too "real" a scare because I totally wasn't expecting it to happen.

Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I can remember. Even since the time that people still spelled it Hallowe'en as in the OP above.

...whatever...

/time to party

I like halloween and scary movies. I like that halloween is so informal. You can go to a party or you can stay home and watch t.v. I used to like drinking but there's an issue there, where a little intoxicated helps and too much intoxicate means you've committed some social travesty. Also, people judge you for it no matter what, that's always been annoying. I basically agree with nowhere woman. I grew up in a party house though so I suppose I was accustomed to it. I don't feel like anything with more than a little bit of a buzz is really a good way to be. And I have to restrain myself from hitting people that surprise me, for like five minutes afterwards. I think halloween is a bit like being a little buzzed, you get to be different, take the edge off, but if you go too far, you're a weirdo again.

am i the only one that realizes...that for one night we're expected to talk to strangers...when the rest of the year...we're expected to avoid/not talk to strangers?

and...this year...I noticed on facebook...a link to a website where you can check for pedophiles in your neighborhood...to know what house to "avoid". when you have to worry about that...then what kind of fun are you REALLY having? also, isn't that kind of discriminatory to the guy/gals house you are avoiding?

the whole holiday just really makes you wonder...don't it?

I'm autistic and I love Halloween. I had fun at a Halloween dance last night and I put on my Om Nom costume, walked around my neighbourhood before it got dark and went to a nearby grocery store to get a snack before it got dark this evening.

Halloween was pretty fun when I was trick-or-treating. But now that I'm older, it's apparently all about these parties. I've never gone to any of them; those don't sound like my types of things at all. And like most Aspies, I get scared very easily, which isn't fun during Halloween. But it's not a bad holiday overall. I don't plan to hand out candy when I live own, though; I'm simply unable to fake an interest in little kids.

Now Independence Day...there's a holiday that's the stuff of nightmares.

It doesn't make me wonder because I kind of know the origins...it's about cementing community ties, not approaching total strangers...pre-Christian times and in some cases into Christian times, adults and teens went from house to house, not little children, and it was a matter of a person being a "good neighbor" and giving you something, or being a "bad neighbor" and refusing you. There's more to it than that but that was the gist.

And I guess I've always seen it in that way: trick-or-treating is a community thing (I realize this isn't how everyone feels, it's how I feel). It's not a day for trusting strangers, it's a day for speaking to your neighbors - maybe the one day all year that any given person might do so. Certainly it is for me, and even then just from the street, waving as my kids go ring the bell...I am not social (no surprise there, I know). So it's kind of nice just that one day a year, to actually SEE who the heck your neighbors even are. All my neighbors recognize and remember my kids and my kids always say, "See you next year." I think it's so sweet.

I'm not comfortable in the slightest just going up to and speaking to a neighbor so it to me is a great check-in. Hey, here's my face. Here's yours. If you see somebody besides us on the street, it might be a stranger, so watch out. If the face is mine, you know I'm okay or at least that I'm traceable to this general vicinity.

Now...here's my make up I wore trick-or-treating:

I absolutely love Halloween and had a lot of fun trick or treating tonight. But I get what the OP is saying.

This is a house I walked past on Halloween. Pretty good idea.

Last edited by EzraS on 01 Nov 2015, 1:41 am, edited 1 time in total.