Halloween is in
trouble. Each year
editorials in magazines and newspapers and on television warn of
dangers to
children. And each year more communities "ban" Halloween.
So what? Who needs it? What is Halloween anyway? It's
just an excuse for big kids to make trouble, little kids to eat
too much candy,
and candy companies to peddle their wares. Bah, goblin-bug!
Or so I thought until, despite all the warnings, I took
my three children out last Halloween. Nine-year-old Bobby was
the boldest.
Seven-year-old Heather held back and was reluctant to approach
houses of near
neighbors she didn't know well; but curiosity and pride in
showing off her
home-made witch's costume won out in the end, and she'd go
racing after Bobby
up the walk, and be just as delighted as Bobby was at the smiles
and words of
praise and handfuls of candy that greeted them. Three-year-old
Mikey held me
tight and wouldn't let me put him down, but he wouldn't let me
take him home
either, watching all the doings intently.
The same as previous years, many of the people we visited
were folks we only see at Halloween even though they live just a
few doors
away. Most of them, the elderly especially, had bought supplies
of candy and
were waiting. Most gave out two or three times as much per kid
as they had
originally intended, because there were so few kids
trick-or-treaing. And they
were as delighted to see the kids as the kids were to see them.
When I got home, I couldn't help but wonder what had gone
wrong with Halloween. And it occurred to me that it wasn't just
a handful of
crazy people who were endangering this tradition and the joy it
can bring to
little children and adults as well. It's apathy on the part of
everyone else,
the failure to recognize that Halloween plays an important
function in our
society, the unwillingness to speak out in defense of Halloween
when the media
were so unanimously against it.
So what's so important about Halloween?
Maybe at one time Halloween helped exorcise fears of
death and ghosts and goblins by making fun of them. Maybe, too,
in a time of
rigidly prescribed social behavior, Halloween was the occasion
for socially
condoned mischief -- a time for misrule and letting loose.
Although such
elements still remain, the emphasis has shifted, and the
importance of the day
and its rituals has actually grown.
Nowadays people often don't know their near neighbors,
much less the neighbors a few blocks away. For little children,
these strange
houses and strange people are a source of fear and anxiety.
Children have been
taught not to trust or talk to strangers, to beware of them. But
on Halloween
that prohibition is lifted; and, with fear, but impelled by
curiosity and greed
for candy and other loot, little ones ring doorbells at houses
of strangers to
find time and again that these strangers are really friendly
people like the
people they know well. In the course of the evening they gain
confidence in
themselves and in their neighborhood and come away not only with
bags full of
candy to be enjoyed for weeks after, but also a warm feeling
about their
neighborhood and people in general.
As for adults, especially the elderly and those who never
had children or who haven't had young children at home for some
time, children
in the neighborhood are normally a source of anxiety and
distrust. What
mischief and vandalism might this strange new generation growing
up with
television and videogame violence be capable of? On Halloween
night their fears,
too, are exorcised, as wildly and imaginatively costumed kids
parade to the
door, a reminder of what they themselves did as children -- a
common link of
experience.
Looked at another way, Halloween is a time that
reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood, particularly the
bond between
strangers of different generations, by a ritual act of trade.
Children go to
lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of strangers in
exchange for candy.
And adults buy the candy and overcome their distrust of strange
children in
exchange for the pleasure of seeing their wild outfits and
vicariously reliving
their own adventures as children.
In other words, the true value and importance of
Halloween comes not from parading in costumes in front of close
friends and
family, but from this interchange with strangers, exorcising our
fears of
strangers, reaffirming our social bond with the people of the
neighborhood who
we rarely, if ever, see the rest of the year.