What Happened to Halloween?

What happened to Halloween?

What happened to Halloween? You know, the costume holiday that little kids look forward to, that a majority of parents participate in with their children?

First, as a kid, you have to decide what you want to be for Halloween. Kids plan with their friends what they will all dress up as, look through catalogs, check out their favorite video and cartoon characters and then announce what they will be for Halloween to the parent just waiting with held breath to know.

Second, said parent checks out every halloween store because chances are, the costume your child picked isn't going to be at Wal-Mart. You search and search, compare prices, and then find the size you wanted is sold out. If you're lucky, you will find a store that sells the size you want (and even pay the extra shipping to get it here on time if its from an online store). If you're not lucky, or if your child is not lucky, lol, you have to buy the costume one size too small and squeeze them into it.

Then, the child starts looking forward to big day. Not only is there trick or treating as soon as it gets dark for hours, but the school has a costume party too. Get to wear them twice? Yeah!! Kids love to dress up with their friends and parade through all the classes, around the school, showing everybody their costume. Then there are the classroom parties with lots of goodies and even a goody bag to take home.

Finally, you go home and wait until it is time to get back into your costume for the real fun. You're so excited. It is getting dark and you can't wait for your parents to take you door to door to yell "trick or treat" with the rest of the kids. Most of the time, you get a treat but sometimes you get the goof who gives you a trick. You can go out for a few hours, fill up one pillowcase, maybe even two of them.

What happened to those days? If you call it "Halloween" at some public schools (and note I did say PUBLIC), you get reminded clearly that it is NOT a Halloween party...it is a Harvest party. (Halloween is an evil pagan holiday don't ya know?) Harvest party? Why is the school, and some parents behind it I suspect, turning this children's funtime into something different in order to differentiate it from "Halloween"? I could understand if this was at the parochial private schools, but not the public school system.

If the overenthusiastic religious members actually researched, they would realize that the pagan sabbat (known as Halloween for mainstream) is widely known as Samhain. They would also find out that Samhain is celebrated as the last harvest. They would also find out its other meanings, which aren't evil by any means, but to educate themselves and show some religious tolerance - BAH! By trying to change "Halloween" so it isn't so "pagan-like" they have called it what it is to pagans. Harvest! Can we all say "DUH"?

It's not just the change in terminology. Most of the teachers won't have any type of classroom Halloween party (oh, excuse me, harvest party). I thought church and state were supposed to be separate and changing traditions decades old because of the religious controversy over Halloween isn't keeping it separate! Why can't the adults just back off and let the kids celebrate this the way it has been celebrated in the previous generation? Let them have their fun and keep the tradition going. These little kids aren't dressing up to worship a pagan god or goddess. They're doing it for loads of candy and fun.

Let's talk about the other changes now. Where we live, they don't even have "trick or treat" on Halloween. It is ALWAYS on one particular day of the week on the week BEFORE Halloween. God (and/or goddess if you happen to be pagan) forbid kids go out on the evil night of Halloween and trick or treat! OK, we can deal with that (and maybe hit the next town over where they aren't so uptight on the REAL Halloween for two nights of fun).

"But mom and dad, it isn't even dark yet."

You're only allowed to be out for a short time from 'this time to this time' and that is it. Lights start flipping off everywhere at 7:30 p.m. You can watch them all go off down the block. Huh?

"But mom and dad, we only got to go a few blocks."

What is disappointing is that on those few blocks, a majority of the houses have their lights off - no trick or treaters welcome. Nice. I am sure some of those houses have kids and they are out trick or treating as well. That's understandable. You know what? They can't ALL have kids and there are just too many dark houses anymore.

Our town, and the town we lived in before this (that wasn't as bad but not much better either), is lucky that "Devil's Night" isn't anything like what we knew of Michigan's "Devil's Night." Otherwise, houses everywhere would be getting tp'd and egged city-wide by little ghosts, princesses, and super heroes everywhere.

Why are the adults changing Halloween like this? Just let the kids have a few hours to dress up, beg for candy, get tummy aches from eating too much, and have a few good memories of going trick or treating with mom and dad. Don't turn it into a religious controversy for the kids.
All that being said, this close-mindedness does give some parents, like me, the opportunity to answer their children's questions about these changes in traditions decades old, the religious intolerance of others, and the fears of some people based on uneducated views of different faith-based beliefs because only one (theirs) can be right, right?

Amen and Blessed Be!