Halloween Haunts Today's Society With Lost Meaning

What I have noted over my past 45 years are a few subtle, and some not-so-subtle, changes in Halloween.

Courtesy: visions.umr.edu

(SALEM, Ore.) - Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, or Samhain or the Candy Holiday or Costume Day... it is many things to many people, even in Salem, Oregon.

To ancient Celts and more recently Wiccans or other pagans/neopagans, the time is a festival honoring the dead, based in a belief that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is thinnest and more able to be pierced. Wiccans hold the Greater Sabbat of Samhain, considered by many the most important of the four Greater Sabbats, after sundown on October 31st in the northern hemisphere. Much maligned, it is not a scary holiday nor is any form of necromancy generally practiced.

It is a time for respecting those who have passed as well as one's elders. Different schools of Wicca celebrate differently, of course, but that is the main thread in all of them.

To Christians it is the night before All Saint's Day, something of a catch-all to honor all those of religiously significant piety and note who do not have their own special celebrations. In a way it mirrors the Celtic/Wiccan aspec in that it honors those who have passed before.

Just a bit more selectively. To some Christians it is a time to bash other faiths and hand out ridiculous religious tracts which in the past would have resulted in many 'tricks'.

To Americans in the 21st century it would seem by most accounts to be a holiday promoted most by the candy and costuming industries.

What I have noted over my past 45 years are a few subtle, and some not-so-subtle, changes in Halloween.

In the days of my youth it was not uncommon for the 'trick or treat' aspect to be a more significant threat, almost bordering on extortion. Houses that did not give out treats, or whose treats were considered to be offensive or substandard, were at serious risk of egging, toilet papering or other acts of minor, though annoying, vandalism. As such almost every house at least made some effort both in decorations as well as in treat giving to avoid being 'tricked'.

These days with paranoia running rampant most parents will not even allow kids out to trick or treat, and if they do they will confiscate most, if not all, of the treats. Additionally the laws have cracked down so severely on what used to be 'expected rowdiness' that a single egg thrown or tree papered could result in actual jail time in some communities, loss of scholarships and other, in my humble opinion, penalties way out of proportion to the offense. The now common 'Mall Trudge', where kids latched to their parents march around inside the nearest large mall to collect a few treats from the stores, have replaced much of the frivolity that once marked one of the best holidays to be a kid. I think it has to be one of the lamest things I've ever witnessed.

Yes, there are risks in the world but in my opinion they are really no more severe or significant than they were in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up. We are just more aware of them today. And I think kids are grossly underestimated these days. Is it any wonder we now have so many thirtysomethings living in their parents' basement? They were so overprotected as kids that they never stopped being kids and never became adults. That is not only sad and pathetic but it is dangerous for our future. These kids we raise today are not only those who will provide for and care for us later but also they are those who will be the leaders of the world - socially, politically, and in business. Do we really want the cast of Clerks in the White House? (some might say we are already there after a fashion). Has anyone besides me seen the movie Idiocracy?

But I digress.

Another aspect I have seen is also a victim of the paranoia - homemade treats have vanished. I remember candy apples, rice crispy treats, cookies, brownies, popcorn balls and the like. No more. Pre-packaged mass produced sugar highs are all that are allowed these days. It is a shame.

I remember even on stormy rainy Halloween nights (or snowy ones in New England where I was for a while) armies of kids wandering the neighborhood. It seemed to go in shifts... first were the tiny kids who went with parents or older siblings/relatives. This usually happened right after dinner but before it got dark. Then the sun set and the shift changed to the tween/teen crowd rampaging around the vicinity having as much fun between houses as they did going through their 'take' later. Last was the older teens and young adults who pretty much swept up the leavings and served as a reporting system for the adults in the neighborhood as to which houses suffered, etc, as well as rounding up straggling or lost younger kids and getting them to where they belonged. Then the babysitters arrived at homes and the parents formed the final shift as they went out to their private or office parties.

Today you see almost none of this.

Back in the day it was a big deal to make your costume and for it to be imaginative and original. Horror befall those who arrived and found everyone dressed just like them, and shame unto the poor kid with lazy parents and a storebought costume. Now it is all cookiecutter costumes with little or no imagination. Witch, Vampire, Pirate or the current reigning superhero or Disney character. So many costumes are not even considered because of how oversensitive people are these days. Even witch costumes and decorations elicit anti-defamation or anti-discrimination shrieks. It is ridiculous, and I'm Wiccan!

And far from me being a prude or anything but honestly it seems like many these days, males as well as females, seem to think that it is carte blanche to dress as slutty as they can when they would never even dream of doing so at any other time. I've seen Times Square hookers wearing more. It is amazing to me that the rape statistics do not skyrocket! And considering the ages of some of the celebrants, you really have to wonder where their parents' heads are at. It is bad enough with adults or even late teens but to see girls who are 10-12 or younger dressing up like that... I know I know it is all in fun and all that but still. A little decorum and propriety, please!.

It is probably just me. I'm sure the comments will reflect that fact.

Sigh.

I guess it is just the nature of things to change but I do not necessarily see that all change is for the better. And in the changes I have seen regarding Halloween I do not see them as positive almost at all. A joyous and fun-filled holiday for kids has been straitjacketed by paranoia at the same time being sexed up outside the realm of childhood. There is no place left in it for a kid to just enjoy being a kid.

Much like the rest of life these days where kids are so over-scheduled they resemble CEOs more than children.

Ah for simpler times.