Halloween Musings Part I: Halloween Now

It saddens me how much Halloween has changed since I was a child. I saw a commercial the other day (I forget now what it was advertising) which showed a group of costumed children merrily trick-or-treating... in broad daylight. I understand the reasons and rational behind it, but it still breaks my heart. In this day and age of child predators, roaming gangs, and food tampering, it is dangerous to allow our children to roam the streets at night, knocking on strangers’ doors and begging for consumables. The world is a much darker, uglier, more sinister place than it was in my youth and the Halloween experience is just one of the things that has been diminished by that fact.

In addition to the safety aspects, Halloween has also become commercialized and sanitized to the point that it is almost unrecognizable as the holiday I grew up with. Nowadays, vampires have been reduced to either goofy cartoon characters grinning from cereal boxes or lovesick, de-fanged, sparkling milksops. Werewolves are more like pets or guard dogs than ferocious, man-killing beasts. Ghosts have become scientific case research and poltergeist activity is accepted as the psychic overflow of pubescent energy.

Wiccan groups take offense and form protests if you even try to display a traditional Halloween witch and fanatical religious groups actively denounce Halloween as a celebration of evil and claim that its roots lie in Satanic worship. I even read a recent article about some students at Ohio University protesting ethnic costumes, claiming that said costumes are racially charged and mock their lineage. What are some of these costumes they find so offensive, you may ask? A geisha girl, a Mexican man in traditional sombrero, and a Native American. My husband is half Mexican and I am part Cherokee. We don't find these costumes offensive, but then we don't go around searching for things to be offended by.

In this raging sea of political correctness and fanaticism, is it any wonder that Halloween has suffered? What once was enjoyed as a fun-filled, spooky night of dress-up, mystery and make-believe is now a veritable mine field of anger, intolerance, and lurking danger from the real life horrors of modern society.

As I said, it makes me sad that the children of today will never know the wonder of the Halloweens that I remember from days gone by. They'll never experience the same thrills and chills I looked forward to every October 31st.

They'll never understand that it's not about the candy. It was about the experience itself. The candy was always just an added bonus.