In exponential decay functions, a halving period is when for a given period added the output is halved. This applies to Bitcoin but maybe a more well-known way to understand it is radioactivity. Carbon-14 decays exponentially and the halving time, also called half-life in the case of radioactivity, is 5730 years. In the case of Bitcoin, things are programmatically determined, the halving period is 4 years and the number of bitcoins newly created decays exponentially, similarly to carbon-14.
I think people who are overly enthusiastic are so because of what it should mean for price actions. People overly pessimistic are so because of, I think, what it means in terms of how much they will progressively pay in terms of fees. Neutral people like me see it as it is, an exponential decay function. This was on the white-paper, this is a value proposition of Bitcoin so nothing to get emotional. Bitcoin worked as it was supposed to work so one way to see is good, it works.
For people partying during the halving period, I think they just want to party anyway.
For the higher fees, I think it is fair to say that some people are using the Blockchain in a sub-optimal way to share "art" with a relatively bad taste and so for people who were not using the lightning network or other means of exchange they have to wait to transact with Bitcoin. So now we see Bitcoin holders fight each other on social networks to say Lightning works or not, Liquid is good or bad, etc. Bottom line: Bitcoin works as expected, lightning works as a scaling solution, and Liquid works as well to store L-BTC in a hardware wallet before swapping it to Lightning.