EDITORIAL: It’s just Halloween! Let it be!
Halloween. What does it mean?
To most children, Halloween is a day and night when they get to dress up as something scary, something cute or as their favorite superhero and get candy and popcorn balls.
It’s a day of parties, bobbing for apples, pinning the nose on the jack – o – lantern, and pumpkin carving contests.
It’s also a time when people get creative, decorating their houses with jack – o – lanterns, cornstalks and scarecrows. It’s a celebration of the fall harvest.
Granted, the celebrating of the fall harvest alludes to the Roman holiday of Pomona Day (see Halloween origin story on page 5), but Halloween has outgrown its pagan roots.
The tradition of dressing up in costumes dates back to the Druids and the Celts as a way to frighten off bad spirits. Now, however, it just gives everyone a chance to act goofy and be someone else for a day.
There is a down side to the holiday today because some people take advantage of the freedom the holiday seems to offer. There are teenagers and young adults who act reckless on Halloween night by committing acts of vandalism; for example, smashing pumpkins that people have worked hard to carve.
Others are more extreme in their observances. There are people who endanger young children by booby trapping or poisoning candy. There are also people who hold seances, chant around a blazing fire, and sacrifice animals.
We don’t approve.
But we don’t disapprove of Halloween just because some people act in ways we find reckless, dangerous, criminal or immoral. The problems we see with the ways some people observe Halloween are not caused by the holiday; they are caused by the people.
We also don’t disapprove of Halloween because of its origins (which most people aren’t aware of, as a story on page 5 shows). The holiday has evolved over the years, losing its religious (pagan and Christian) meanings.
Today, to most people – and certainly for kids, Halloween is one of the few holidays just for having fun.
Let’s leave it that way.
10/29/98 the Apache