Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Halloween, of course, is a relatively new celebration for most cultures with very ancient roots:  The commercialization of Halloween began with its widespread trick-or-treating immediately after World War II in the United States.  My mother as a 21-year-old bride in 1946 remembers having to scrounge for pennies, pencils, and other trinkets to give out to children who made their way to her door that year since growing up in North Texas, she only knew Halloween as an occasion for pranks pulled by teenage boys, tipping over out houses and doing all kinds of mischief. 

Halloween, however, got its start as the Celtic festival of Samhain, the Lord of the Dead in Celtic lands, a night where disembodied souls returned to earth as part of a harvest festival that started a new year.  Thus, the custom of trick-or-treating began when groups began going door-to-door collecting for a village harvest feast.  Both the Irish and the Scots also carved turnips with scary faces, and conquering Romans brought the custom of bobbing for apples and drinking hot cider to the British Isles.  In 835, Pope Gregory tried to do for Halloween what moving Christ’s birth to the time of the winter solstice and Saturnalia did–turn a pagan festival into a Christian celebration, honoring the hallowed dead.

If October 31st was All Hallow’s Eve, and the first day of November was a day to honor Christian martyrs, the Pope having moved it from May 13th to November 1st, then November 2nd was All Saint’s Day, a day to honor all dead Christians as departed saints.  In Mexico, this day is still celebrated as El Dia de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead”–a time when families tend the graves of their loved ones, picnicking at the grave site.  Except for Mexico, however, most cultures conveniently forget about the rest of this series of feast days that honor the dead.  Contemporary citizens of the United Kingdom, for example, bemoan Halloween as a crass American import.

When a Diaspora of Irish immigrants flooded the New World around 1850, these new Americans substituted pumpkins for turnips; and by the 1920s, their children in the Northern United States begin to spread the custom of disguising themselves in home-made costumes when asking for treats on All Hallow’s Eve.   However, only in present-day Scotland and Ireland do children go “guising”–singing a song, telling a joke, or reciting a poem in return for a treat.

All of this points out a need to laugh at death–to come to terms with it from a child’s point of view.  Dressing up as a ghost, using an old white sheet for a costume, or a witch, wearing Mom’s black dress and sporting a pointed black hat made of construction paper while carrying a broom, didn’t glorify the Occult–at least in the 1950s and 1960s. Witches, ghosts, and skeletons were scary, but fun, and walking around the block begging for candy was a way to get to know the neighbors.

Of course, fear of those real-life ogres who prey upon children has sent trick-or-treaters into shopping malls, church basements and activity centers, and school harvest carnivals, although some over-zealous teens troll all over town asking for goodies.  Meanwhile, the elderly turn off their lights and hope that no one rings the doorbell.

Since Halloween can be therapeutic, it needs to be celebrated:

• In adult-supervised groups, facing the future unharmed together, bobbing the apples, participating in best costume contests and talent shows, and attending kid-constructed haunted houses.
• As a festival that remembers its origins: Reading aloud Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow”, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and Robert Burns’ “Tam O’Shanter”, or perhaps even watching a video of “The Wizard of Oz” during the week leading up to Halloween lends an air of controlled horror.
• Ever mindful that with getting, children should also be giving in return:  The practice of “guising”, or performing for a treat, takes some of the self-centeredness out of Halloween as does trick-or-treating for UNICEF.  How about organizing a Halloween talent show next year and donating the proceeds to a worthy cause?
• As a more homespun festival that substitutes homemade goodies, such as candied apples and popcorn balls, for candy.  Of course, this limits the celebration to a limited number of children who know their host.

By the way, I’m a practicing, born-again Christian who believes that contemporary children should come to terms with death; and yes, I’m a school teacher who has to deal with the results of an evening of gorging on sweets the previous night.  Thankfully, Halloween this year is on a Saturday!