Halloween approaches on black-kitten feet. While Halloween has a mixed reception in our society, I enjoy celebrating it in my own way. In fact, I see Halloween as an important part of my mental health.

For starters, I enjoy the simple joys of Halloween. The fun and delight, the costumes and candy. Many of us that experienced a traumatic up-brining missed out on many positive aspects of being a child. Halloween provides us a chance to unabashedly resume our kidhood again, but this time in a healthier space.

I know adults tend to turn Halloween into a decadent display of sex and alcohol. And if that’s your thing, more power to you. But there is much to be said for wide-eyed thrills (when you know you are safe), clumsy pumpkin-carving artistry, and playing dress-up. It’s like society is granting us permission, with all judgment reserved, to be a kid again for just one night.

Halloween as a Mental Health Marker

Simple joys aside, I also see Halloween as an important marker in my annual mental health cycle. It is the last hurrah, so to speak, before the darkness, cold, and commercialized holiday season. Halloween is a perfectly placed reminder to have gratitude for the year, store up for the winter, and prepare for the difficult days ahead.

Traditionally, back before Halloween was hijacked by Christianity and Capitalism, this is what it was all about. It is believed that Halloween originated from the Celtic festival of Samhain. For the ancient Celts, Samhain marked the end of the year, the culmination of harvest, and the beginning of the darkness. They also believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was exceptionally thin on this night, allowing the ghosts of the past to walk among us.

While these beliefs and ideas are rather old, I believe they still hold credible worth, especially today. While we have come quite a way from farming and freezing to death, winter is still a difficult time for many. Taking a day to acknowledge the plenty and prepare for the leanness is as good an idea now as it was back then.

The Difficulties of Winter

Winter Blues

While there is mixed evidence about the reality of “winter blues”, I would contend that it is a very real thing for many of us. Scientific evidence, after all, has shown the importance of daylight in mental health. Limit exposure to sun and anxiety and depression can creep in.

Many of us are so busy indoors year-round that we get minimal sun anyways. But in winter, even the passing chance of a little daylight gets severely reduced. This is especially true in northern latitudes. For example, the shortest day of the year where I live is about 8 ½ hours. That means nearly 16 hours of darkness. Add in factors such as cloud cover and rain that many areas get, and those 8 hours may actually be as short as 1 or 2.

Holiday Stress

Short days aren’t the only mental health issue to contend with. As merchants are so quick to point out, the “holiday” season quickly follows Halloween. Even if you enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the social and familial trappings that come with ithem, the holidays can still be a very stressful time.

Social calendars and expectations increase greatly for many of us around this time of year. This makes already full and hectic schedules even harder to balance. Society also pressures us to buy, buy, buy. This commercialization and purchasing pressure undermine the joy many of us experience from the holidays.

Emotional Pressure

Whether it’s social commercialization or family expectations, many of us also feel pressured to be continually positive and grateful during the holiday season. Happiness and gratitude seem to be expected from every action. Being happy for that many months just isn’t sustainable.

The pressure of trying to be happy and the reality of so many others trying to act that way leaves many of us feeling worse than usual. One of my favorite Christmas movies of all time is Mixed Nuts because it points out this very fact. As Steve Martin’s character says, “ You’re upset because it’s Christmas. Christmas is a time when you look at your life through a magnifying glass, and whatever you don’t have feels overwhelming. Being alone is so much lonelier at Christmas. Everything sad is so much sadder at Christmas.”

Drama & Trauma

The winter holidays also provide ample opportunity to be triggered by past trauma or, at the very least, to be caught up in family drama. Increased stress may lead to increased domestic violence and abuse. Cultural traditions and symbols are frequent triggers for many who suffered through a childhood of trauma. Even minor family disputes and old wounds seem to be opened up and exposed during the holidays. Perhaps because we are trying so hard to cover them and pretend, they don’t exist.

Even once happy families can end up being triggered by the many holiday mile markers when they have lost a loved one. Because the holidays are all about family and connection, it can make this time of year especially hard for those struggling with grief. Every glittering tree, first snow, or happy carol becomes a reminder of the absence.

Samhain as a Mental Health Holiday

For all these reasons and more, I choose to celebrate Halloween in the spirit of its origins. To use this day as a celebration of joy and preparation for the battles to come. While I definitely don’t suggest adhering to all the rituals (such as animal sacrifice), celebrating the spirit of the celebration can be a great way to check in on and plan for your mental health.

Hoarding Resources for Darker Days

A large part of Samhain was about the harvest. It was about bringing in the crops and storing the plenty for the lean months. An idea well suited to self-care during the winter and holiday season.

The harvest is an excellent analogy for the work you have invested in your mental health. Consider taking the day to step back and acknowledge how far you have come since you first started this journey. Take time to reflect on the lessons you’ve learned along the way, and to express quiet gratitude for where you are now.

If you struggle with the winter blues, seasonal depression, or PTSD aggravated by holiday triggers, now might also be a good time to start planning for self-care. If you are in a good space now, you may have the ability to plan for a time when your resources will be lower. This can be a general idea or even a written plan that can help you nurture and support yourself when you hit the inevitable struggles of the season.

Listening to the Cycles of Nature

The ancient Celts did not have much choice about living with the cycles of nature. Our current technology and lifestyle have all but abandoned the cycles of work and rest the earth provides us. This means that most of us simply go, go, go all the time.

Call me a hippie, a tree hugger, or a nature lover, but I am a big believer in listening to Mother Nature. Periods of rest, relaxation, and recuperation are a necessary part of our health. Why not allow the seasons to help guide you?

Samhain can also be about making a conscious choice to slow down over the next few months. To not be caught up in the fast-paced tide that often is the holiday season. You do not have to shop for everyone, host meals, attend every celebration you are invited to or assure everyone’s satisfaction and happiness. Like winter encourages us to do, you are allowed to rest.

Seeking Counsel with Ancestors

Ghosts, spirits, and things that go bump in the night were a huge part of Samhain that has carried over into our current day celebration of Halloween. While I am not a big one for fear or being spooked, I do like the concept of being closer to my ancestors.

Regardless of your spiritual views, Samhain is a great time to acknowledge the effort, struggle, and joys of those that came before you. All of us, whether we know them or not, came from a long line of people to whom we quite literally owe our lives. Take some time to reflect on the grander scheme of this lineage and offer thanks for the work they did that led to you being here now.

Reflection on the past can be good even if your family heritage is full of trauma and your ancestors provided you with more pain than blessings. You can take time to acknowledge and validate the pain of those that were traumatized before you. You can also focus on how you are breaking the cycle, refusing to pass the burden of trauma any further. If you are lucky enough to have found supports outside of your family, now is a great time to acknowledge the joy and belonging of this support network and what they have given you.

Revelry in the Face of Darkness

While some may argue with my interpretation, Samhain at its core was about revelry in the face of darkness. It was a choice to celebrate to the utmost in spite of, or maybe because of, the uncertainty and struggle that lay ahead. To build a fire so bright it would bring light for months into the future.

One of the many rituals of Samhain was allowing your home hearth fire to burn out during celebrations. Then, at the end of the party, to light your torch from the communal fire to relight the hearth at home. This is the aspect I love most about the holiday. The idea of a communal light, a fire bigger and bolder because of all who invested in it, keeping you warm and safe well into the darkness.

Even if your lineage is full of trauma, your family a source of pain, your support system limited, you are not alone. You are part of a community of survivors, a community of neurodivergent, a community that understands the mental health struggles you experience. As part of this community, this Halloween/Samhain I will be pouring my light into the communal fire in hopes that my small bit of energy, love, positive vibes, or whatever you may call it will add to the bonfire. A bonfire that can help light the darkness during all of our darkest months.

Revelry in the Face of Darkness: Halloween as a Mental Health Holiday