Stop saying it’s shit, Halloween is the best holiday of the year

Leaves are leaving the trees, the weather is cooling down, and you can feel the anticipation of the best day of the year coming your way. Yet, you also face the conundrum of “What should I wear this year and where can I buy it?” as well as deciding which party or event you should go to. Heat up the cauldron and carve your pumpkins cause Halloween is finally upon us, and underestimating its royalty is pure sin.

The costumes

Dressing up at Halloween has to be one of the best things about it. Whether it’s a creepy costume, a character, or a mess, who doesn’t love an excuse to be a bit theatrical. There tends to be a few recurring types of halloween-goer every year, summed up here in an easy guide.

At the top of the food chain is the ‘Guru’. If you started off with your parents dressing you in a bin bag for some quality trick o treating as a kid, then your Halloween costumes are probably creative masterpieces that could scare even the likes of Chuck Norris. If they aren’t, at least you try.

In the awkward middle bracket you have the ‘Halloween padawans’. If you’re a bit middle class or lacked the classic bin-bag costume childhood, you’re probably the “slutty cat” or “sexy” version of a generic, basic costume. Then back to the stone age we go for the lowest of the Halloween hierarchy, the ‘BTEC’ level. These are the few who don’t care about Halloween and go to parties with no festive spirit, going not for Halloween, but for the sesh – the worst kind of Halloween-goers.

Bloody good fun

The activities

If it’s Halloween time you can make your ‘non-spooky’ friends watch gory horror films with you, as well as resurrecting the classics like Hocus Pocus, or any Tim Burton film, ever. If the movies don’t thrill you enough you could always terrify your remaining friends with a hearty “boo I’m a serial killer” type of prank.

Also, who can forget the victory of sweets and loose change as young trick-o-treaters (or the rejection of the killjoy houses that didn’t answer and turned the lights off).

We pretended our friend was a kid that we were babysitting and went trick or treating, no shame

The parties

The themed parties are the best. Even if it isn’t for you, Halloween events always provide an excellent excuse to get drunk. Cob webs around the ceiling, pumpkins everywhere, spooky lighting and endless fake blood make a welcoming environment for the All-Hallows-Eve special sesh. Otherwise, there are always things like farmageddon if you fancy a fright. But Halloween isn’t just a day – ohh no. Events are always spaced out in case you can’t make the actual day, so there’s no excuse for missing such a legendary night – whatever date it falls on for you!

3 sp00ky 5 me

Pumpkins tbh

Grab your pumpkins and get your knives ready to welcome the familiar, nostalgic smell of this odd vegetable. Scraping out all the guts, carving your pumpkin face and making a bloody mess is worth the Instagram likes. Clean-up aisle everywhere. And there’s no reason not to carve a pumpkin considering the Student Guild is offering free carving this Halloween. You know you want to.

If you’re feeling whimsical this year why not try carving a phallic design instead? 

Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

Halloween is just a great way to validate your weirdness. You know you secretly want to wear crazy face paint, a costume, and go wild with the fake blood. Horror themes and acting eccentric is fun every now and then. Halloween lets you be the freak you are once every year before you have to return to the normal life in the land of the living. Let’s face it, ‘fancy dress’ parties just don’t cut it.

October is great. You can now wear the other 80% of your winter-suited wardrobe since summer is dead, you can wrap up warm and drink soup. But Halloween is without a doubt the jewel in October’s crown.

But if you’re not that into Halloween, at least Christmas is a bit closer.