October 31st is the night of nights for children to go out in costumes and walk around for hours till their feet hurt. In all neighborhoods, you see kids running between houses, knocking on doors, and not so patiently waiting to say the phrase “Trick or Treat”. Walking down the street, houses are lit up with all kinds of Halloween decorations. Kids line up at the front door waiting for their candy. They search their baskets, debating what candy to eat now and which ones to trade with friends at school the next day.
Usually when you think of trick or treating, you picture young kids, normally 1-13 putting on silly costumes asking for candy. But why is it just for kids? I remember excitedly putting on my costume, waiting in the living room with my cousins until our parents would let us go out and reign terror on the neighborhood. It was the one night of the whole month where I got to go out late at night and spend time with my family while eating as much candy as I could bear. After our late night, we would head back home and trade the candy we hated for our favorites. The next morning we would wake up exhausted, but nonetheless, never never regretted the night before. When going into high school, I wondered why everyone stopped trick or treating? When did the night of nights turn into a childish event that teenagers didn’t want to participate in anymore? Are we too old? After being in high school for a while, I realized the reason was because we were too busy growing up. Trick or treating is a childhood core memory key word being childhood. And as much as we might hate it, we’re not children anymore. We have grown up and moved on from trick or treating with silly costumes to going to parties instead. As much as I miss the feeling of going house to house eagerly waiting to see if I would get a fun-sized candy bar, we have to move on. Time has gone by way too fast and I wished I cherished the days where I was out with my cousins walking around with candy filled baskets.