{"id":20123,"date":"2020-10-28T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20123"},"modified":"2020-10-27T10:30:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T17:30:37","slug":"student-editors-letter-halloween-still-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/10\/28\/student-editors-letter-halloween-still-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Editor\u2019s Letter: Halloween still rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halloween has always been an interesting time to me. Like so many things in our society, the roots of it have all but been forgotten by the masses; for many, it\u2019s about dressing up, sugar highs, and decorations more so than it is about a salute to the dead or an ancient Celtic festival. But not for me. Even as a youngster, I was curious about what made the entire thing tick. There was always an air of excitement in the room that rivalled Christmas morning. At school, teachers dressed up, went easy in their classes that day, and begrudged no one for literally vibrating in their chair on account of the sugar.<\/p>\n

One year, I went as a 1930s gangster. I had the hair grease and fedora going, and a candy cigar, too. A guy in my class out-costumed me\u2014he had real cigars. The dedication of the day was proven: a bunch of seventh graders could walk freely around the school with Cuban cigars. By the end of the day, I had convinced him to give me one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Halloween still rules, argues Nexus<\/em> student editor Adam Marsh (photo by Greg Pratt\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later that night, I walked up the trail by my house, wind and rain battering my face, and smoked it. It tasted far too disgusting to worry about me forming a new habit\u2014I wasn\u2019t ever going near a cigar again. I was nauseous, vaguely happy, and my fingers smelt of burnt horse dung.<\/p>\n

But it led to a related vice: cut to 12 years later on a fiercely cold October morning, and I still haven\u2019t managed to shake my nicotine habit.<\/p>\n

Take it from someone who wasn\u2019t always always the brightest on Halloween: be smart.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting time for kids, and it\u2019s also a time they can learn how to have fun in the proper ways and focus on what actually makes a situation memorable. It wasn\u2019t the cigar\u2014it was the excitement at school, the candy, costumes, the sense that the day itself was an earned break from the pressures of growing up.<\/p>\n

Understanding the past helps us to make sense of the now; pick up a book and read about the Day of The Dead (which comes a few days later) or the many, many, so-called \u201chaunted spots\u201d in Victoria, or the strong Wiccan roots in the city. Victoria is filled with surprises. I took a Polaroid at Craigdarroch Castle once that, I swear on my grandfather\u2019s grave, has a clearly visible white smudge on it, just floating above the chandelier.<\/p>\n

So have fun this weekend. You deserve it.<\/p>\n

But one thing: remember those memes back in March that read, \u201cStay home so Halloween isn\u2019t ruined\u201d? It isn\u2019t, but there is more to pay attention to this year, so do your part.<\/p>\n

If you misbehave, I\u2019ll eat all your candy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halloween has always been an interesting time to me. Like so many things in our society, the roots of it have all but been forgotten by the masses; for many, it\u2019s about dressing up, sugar highs, and decorations more so than it is about a salute to the dead or an ancient Celtic festival. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20125,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123\/revisions\/20125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}