Next Saturday is All Hallows Eve. On a Christian calendar, it's the eve of All Saints Day on November 1. On a Wiccan calendar it's Samhain. On anyone else's calendar, it's Halloween, a word that in the past 30 years has lost much of its former appeal. I suspect someone somewhere will find a way to purge it from the calendar altogether in the next century, though I sincerely hope they don't. It evolved as a festival for dressing up as ghouls & ghosties with the sole purpose of scaring away the evil ones in advance of the next day's celebration of those who have been beatified by the church. Therefore, in my mind it's a somewhat offbeat Christian fete.
Halloween was a big deal when I was a kid. My grandmother helped us plot "theme" costumes so we could dress up as a complementary group. One year my siblings & I dressed as an angel, a devil, & St. Peter, then visited the rectory while out trick or treating. Our priest wasn't in, so we left a note signed by "Gabriel, Beelzebub, & St. Peter." Obviously, in my southern New England hometown, everyone participated. There was no such thing as "don't knock, the porch light isn't on." We ended our trolling for candy with hot chocolate at my grandmother's house. When Halloween was on a weekend, my parents, grandmother, & aunt even got into the fun by dressing up as a Chinese dragon & running around a friend's yard, causing everyone to howl with laughter.
But the creepy started crawling in. Rumors of razor blades in candy led to us tossing all unwrapped goodies upon arrival at home. (So much for apples from the local dentist!) The accidental poisoning of people who took cyanide-laced Tylenol in the '80s led to more rumors that this was applicable to Halloween handouts. People stopped putting jack o'lanterns out & turned off porch lights to avoid the children, rudely dismissing any who ignored these vital clues. Churches & schools began offering "trunk or treats," as well as "autumn," "fall," or "harvest" festivals in an effort to dodge being tarnished by the label of "the Satanic holiday." (Remind me: what ever happened to "When The Saints Come Marching In" the next morning?)
Sadly, last year an event occurred that has forever dimmed my vigor for Halloween...NOT a rumor. A schoolmate of my older daughter paused on his way home from a church party last 10/31 with his family to knock on doors in a neighborhood they were familiar with. Tragically, a paranoid individual suffering from a bad trip (allegedly a drug dealer in fear for his life) greeted their knock with gunshots rather than opening his door. The 12 year old was killed almost instantly; the father was hospitalized for treatment of his injuries. One younger brother was unharmed physically, but witnessed this senseless act of violence. My daughters no longer have much heart for trick or treating; in light of that incident, who could blame them?
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