Trick me, treat me.

I love Halloween. It is by far my favorite holiday of the year. I think that it is the least pretentious of them all; there is no hidden agenda, no double meaning, no contradiction. Halloween is a time to pretend and be afraid. And candy. That's it.

It isn't hypocritical like Christmas (a holiday about materialism and selfishness that masquerades as one about the birth of a deity and good will toward men), it isn't over-commercialized and sickly sweet like Valentine's Day (or worse yet, Sweetest Day...ugh), and it doesn't turn Christian salvation into an egg-hunting frenzy like at Easter. Halloween is, pure and simple, a time when you can get the living daylights scared out of you, dress up however you like and not get teased, and rot your teeth out with candy given to you by strangers. That's all. Even the basic history behind Halloween--the night when the souls of the dead walk the earth again among the living--is still part of the modern celebrations. Everywhere you look are haunted houses, corn mazes, cemeteries; everyone's obsessed with horror films and Ouija boards.

Pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, clever men's costumes and sexy ladies' ones, fake spiderwebs, black and orange and purple everywhere you look. The leaves are turning and the air is crisp and cool, but not cold. Autumn--and consequently, Halloween--is the best time of the year, hands down.

Maybe the appeal, for me at least, lies in the part of Halloween that lets you pretend to be something you're not. Halloween can make you more daring, more brave, more sexy, more clever, more whatever you want to be. And there's no one to stop you or mock you for it, because everyone else is doing the same thing.

Spook me, scare me, trick me, treat me.

I'm ready for it.