What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did he eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from some distant window! How often was he appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted specter, beset his very path! How often did he shrink with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath his feet; and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him! and how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scouring!
- Washington Irving (from The Legend of Sleep Hollow)
Yesterday marked our annual celebration of Evil. Personally, I’ve long since grown bored of the spectacle. Never having been much of a candy eater, I stop trick-or-treating when I was 12. I discovered that I was still eating candy from the previous Halloween, and it dawned on me that going house to house in the dark of an early northern Minnesota winter was no fun at all. Combining chocolate with frostbite always seemed like such a downer. Never mind the fact that it’s very difficult to have a great costume when you have to fit it over a parka or a snowmobile suit….
I suppose that it’s good that at least one time a year our children get to go outside the bounds of what’s considered healthy, normal behavior. There is something to be said for allowing our children to dress up in costumes that celebrate racism, sexism, evil, or just plain old poor taste. I mean, how else are our children supposed to learn the difference between US and THEM? How are our children supposed to come to grips with the reality that it’s not easy being a member of the oppressing class? Hey, who hasn’t worn blackface or a Muslim kaffiyeh with a fake plastic explosives belt? Who hasn’t dressed up as a serial killer or a sexual predator? Who hasn’t embraced caricatures of cultures that the White majority has managed to oppress? Hey, it’s what good, God-fearing White Folks do, right? Even if we haven’t engaged in a little gratuitous racism and/or sexism, there’s also the “dress up like a Waffen SS officer and glorify a regime that killed six million Jews” option, eh?
I guess this speaks to why I don’t celebrate Halloween except for handing out candy to kids. Sure, it’s only one night a year, but respect for other members of the human race is a 365 day a year thing for me. That’s just me, though…and I don’t want to rain on anyone else’s parade. If you and/or your children celebrated Halloween, I hope that yours was a safe and happy one. Mine was equally enjoyable for other reasons. Hey, I still have candy I’m working on from when I was 12….
