Smell the pumpkin spiced lattes and the wet pavement from the first rain of the season? That means it’s officially October!

While many people claim that the spooky season starts as soon as September begins, we only feel like it’s officially time to bust out the Halloween decorations on October 1st. September definitely has its unique qualities, but spooky is not one of them. It could mark the end of summer and the beginning of fall, but October is truly when the fun begins.

There are plenty of ways one can start the Halloween celebration once September ends. The day can start with your first sip of a sweet, pumpkin-spiced latte, continue with a trip to Target to buy some new Halloween decorations, which you then put up inside and outside of your now-spooky home, and then you can end the day with your first cozy rewatch of Hocus Pocus of the year, which, by all accounts, is definitely the sign that Halloween is upon us.

Since it’s almost the weekend too, you can really go crazy with the Halloween activities, which is definitely our plan. Our weekend is going to be packed with decorations, costume planning, movie marathons, and pumpkin-inspired foods. We want to give this season the proper welcome it deserves and make sure every day leading up to Halloween is filled with the spooky, mysterious, and obviously fun excitement we all know and love.

It is not a proper October welcome without a collection of spooky memes to lead by example, which is why we assembled the memes below. It’s a combination of all the cream of the crop that October has to offer, from funny costumes to spooky movie references to silly cats and dogs dressed like ghosts. We know how fun this season can be, and we want to make sure we experience it all. With everything we mentioned, there is no end to all the Halloween spookiness we could have this month, so we’d better start now.