Sanitized Halloween

[Chickerdoodle13]

You are sooo right - it's not a childrens holiday at all. I love it because it encompasses so much of the human experience, the harvest, birth, death and the honoring of the dead. I think thats whats so great about it, you can have children enjoying the trick or treat aspects of the holiday (as it has come to be celebrated here), and adults can have fun too. Halloween has it's roots in the rituals and celebrations of my ancestors who sadly were forced to give up a lot of their rich heritage and religious beliefs, but at least Halloween and Easter still bring with them some of the old ways. In fact, Halloween is really an example of the melting pot of different cultures and traditions here in america.

Nice post and so true. I am an adult who absolutely loves Halloween. I love everything about it, especially the history and the time of year. I do miss trick or treating like it used to be in the town I grew up in. When I moved to this new town thirteen years ago, T/T was just not the same at all. They limit the time you get to spend out to two hours and you have to do a silly costume parade first. I stopped trick or treating shortly after we moved to this town. I still find some way to celebrate the day though. Some day in the future, I would love to get married on Halloween. I think it would be an awesome day to have an anniversary on.

 

[sezjasper]

Halloween is one of the few events of my childhood that I can remember with absolutely no negatives attached to it...always huge fun and when I had kids of my own, I couldn't wait for them to be old enough to enjoy it too. My youngest child is 11 now and I'll be sorry when she is finished with her trick or treat years. In my neighborhood, we get lots of kids. I always buy those little paper bags to fill with candy, and this way I can keep track of how many kids we get...this year I'm prepared for 120 children. My adult daughter either accompanies my youngest on her rounds, or if another adult is on trick or treat duty, she will sit with me on the front porch to hand out treats to the kids. I love it! I do think my daughter would be fine to go with her friends without an adult in this neighborhood, but it's one of those things where I'm just not willing to take the chance. Other than that, it's great to see her experience the fun just as I did when I was a kid.

 

[mom'sfolly]

My neighborhood is big on trick or treating too; just not so much on my street. I live on a cul de sac at the edge of the neighborhood, and several families on the street do not do Halloween. This means that not many kids venture up the dark street. My youngest is also 11, but he is going to a friends house, to hide in the bushes and scare kids. He has a camo ghilly suit, so in the dark he is nearly impossible to see. He'll have so much fun!

 

[KristyHall]

My neighborhood is big on trick or treating too; just not so much on my street. I live on a cul de sac at the edge of the neighborhood, and several families on the street do not do Halloween. This means that not many kids venture up the dark street. My youngest is also 11, but he is going to a friends house, to hide in the bushes and scare kids. He has a camo ghilly suit, so in the dark he is nearly impossible to see. He'll have so much fun!

sounds like a blast

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Ah man, what a great Halloween this year! Instead of one trick-or-treater we got about 30! This year we had people come from outside our area. Lots of different races, which is not something you see in this neighborhood...or this state really. Also had one local young and very sweet couple and their kid from the U. We did have two larger groups who stopped and talked with each neighbor but passed our house by with one kid saying, "why not that house?". We happen to be the only couple on this street who don't belong to a certain group. If you can believe it, we actually do not live in a suburb.

So that kind of settles it for me. Our lack of kiddies was not due to 9/11, but rather the dominant culture here.

 

[redhen]

What does race have to do with trick or treating on Halloween?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

In this area, it means that this year we had kids from other areas come, hence, we actually got to enjoy trick or treaters for the first time in four years. My original thought that for our area the closed micro-culture is what is behind the lack of candy hunters was probably correct. Basically, I am happy to be moving.

 

[redhen]

Closed micro culture?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Ayup.

 

[sezjasper]

I was really disappointed in Halloween this year. I was prepared for 120 children and we got 50...so that means I have a HUGE bowl of leftover candy, plus the haul that my daughter brought home. I'll have to find an outlet for all that candy, which will probably end up harder than it should be...people are suspicious when somebody tries to give something away. I guess I can't blame them though.