We dance with death on All Hallows Eve every year in America. October 31 rolls around and allows us Americans to throw caution to the wind and ride with ghosts and spirits alike.
Halloween can be one of those special days to get drunk wearing makeup and a tutu, but for many, we let the inner kid inside of us take over and we roam our neighborhoods searching for Kit Kats, tequila and a little slap and tickle. For those of us who avoid death at all costs, it's our chance to dance with her and romance her.
In Mexico and much of the Southwest, Halloween is the pre-game for the best night out in the world. After All Hallows (Saints) Days, on November 2, we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, a night where families visit the graves of dead family members, bringing food, song and drink to their spirits that walk with us for a night.
An altar is constructed at the gravesite, with pictures of the deceased, flowers, favorite foods, drinks, mementos and cherished personal items. The Day of the Dead is a time where we defy death, walk, talk and party with our ancestors, honoring them, but bringing us closer to our own mortality.
I remember helping my mom put together altars for ancestors and members of our community. Each time, it was an opportunity to forget it all, to be one of the adults, getting a sip of wine at a party and talking with the spirits brought out by the altar.
We still remember the costumes we wore in fifth grade to trick-or-treat (secretly, our mothers have stashed them away in the closet). Dressing up like Count Dracula and terrorizing our neighborhood to snag a Snickers, we like letting loose. Even today, hitting up a Halloween house party dressed up as Super Fly, Frankenstein or Mr. Hot Pants himself, Dick Nixon, we like to reincarnate, leave our lives behind for a night and party.
Inhibition and guilt can keep our minds busy all the time. We spend so much time worrying about the next Organic Chemistry or Philosophy midterm. We have responsibilities to campus groups, and many of us have jobs where we're earning enough to survive on ramen noodles and coffee.
In that way, I think a lot of us are happy that ancient druid tribes remembered to connect back with their deceased ancestors -- nostalgia, even if untrue, can sometimes be a good diversion from the stress of life. It is great to have Halloween and Day of the Dead. No matter what's going on, you can drop everything, dress up like a calavera (skeleton) and get together with your friends and a few ghosts.
We as younger people have often been blessed with a sense of immortality, and some of us have had a taste of death. The key thing is never to let one of them take over.
Halloween and Day of the Dead are those days when we get to say "to Hell with everything." We let our emotions and our senses take over. As kids, it's the stories, haunted houses and sweet treats we get from trick-or-treating. For adults, it's the midnight movies, the house parties and the chance not to go home sober and/or alone at night.
The adrenaline pumping that comes from watching Alien for the first time in the theater and feeling your heart pumping from watching Night of the Living Dead is a rush that reminds you that, as much as you fear death, you like it, you need it. Death is that mysterious girl at a party, the chill up your spine, that lover who you tango with for a lifetime.
I heard this sappy line once in a movie, sappier than the bullshit I just laid down on you. "The day you are born, you begin to die." Someone else said, you live your life one day at a time. I don't know which one is right, but I do think that we get a little bit of both this time of year.
So for those of you in the middle of midterms, GMATs, MCATs, GREs and all other cruel forms of inhumane torture, I toast to you with a tequila, a piece of Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead) and wish you a belated happy Halloween and Day of the Dead.
Nicolas Rodriquez is a senior Political Science major from Sanger, Calif.
