Let’s Return to a Good, Old-fashioned Halloween

by Evie McDonald in Holidays, October 29, 2009

Halloween is one of those kid-centered holidays that causes a lot of worry among serious-minded adults: Evangelical Christians insist that it emphasizes the Occult and New Age Religion, progressive editorials cite it as an example of rampant commercialism; dentists warn that all that candy rots the teeth, and school teachers dread the next day’s hyper activity.

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.