Halloween is the best time of the year for an examination of fictional villains and monsters. It's also my least favorite holiday (anti-holy-day?) of them all.
While I can admire the creativity, effort and commitment of those who go to extraordinary lengths to decorate their homes and design elaborate costumes, I wish those efforts served a better purpose. For me, Halloween seems little more than an excuse for beautiful children to dress in hideous costumes and go about begging strangers for candy.
That begging enables an outlet for any of those strangers who happen to have a sadistic streak. (Really, what kind of person thinks of putting razor blades in an apple or lacing hard candy with harder drugs?)
Even the history of the day with its tricks and pranks and its over-the-top fear factor raises my hackles while the celebration of goodies raises the blood sugar levels of all the nation's school kids all at once. You only need one November 1 in a room full of fifth graders to start wondering whether it isn't time to scrap the whole tradition.
For my part I scrapped it long ago. If my husband hadn't enjoyed the fun that can come with the occasion, my kids might never have had costumes or trick-or-treat escorts at all. Call me a fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud and I will readily agree, but for the widely-reported incidents of sadism, the apparent celebration of violence, and the elevation of what is ugly, I absolutely detest Halloween.
How do you feel? Is there a different tradition you'd just as soon do away with? Share?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please share your thoughts, ideas, opinions, complaints or compliments. We're all reading and writing together.