The Magic of Halloween
Last night, my children joined in that annual tradition where ordinary boys and girls transform themselves into witches, pirates, princesses, Spidermans and various ghouls in the pursuit of collecting confectionery from nearby neighbourhood houses. Of course, I’m talking about Halloween, which is without question my favourite secular holiday that our society celebrates for the simple fact that for one day of the year, kids everywhere get to revel in the simple pleasures that come with childhood.
Without question, the world our children live in today is far different from the one my generation grew up in with new dangers like cyber-bullying and even identity theft in addition to those threats that we had to deal with as children. There’s also a greater pressure on children these days to live according to some schedule or activity regimen – I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard fellow parents complain about how many sporting events, tournaments, dance practices and so forth they have to take their kids to. And every time, I find myself biting my tongue from pointing out the obvious of who chose to sign them up for so many activities instead of just a select few. After all, let’s face it – children by nature lack the ability for self-control as well as knowing their limits and as such, that kind of decision-making lies squarely on the shoulders of the parents. Put it to you this way – switch these activities for video games or some other toys at the department store. If your child asks that he/she wants all these toys, are you simply going to buy all of them or are you going to inform your child that we can’t get everything we want simply because we want it? I think you can appreciate now why I discretely roll my eyes when I’m subjected to hearing these complaints from other parents about how busy their children are as a reply to my mentioning the fact that my kids were joining a swimming class this session.
That’s why Halloween for me is so important to make a big deal of, not just for my kids, but for all kids because on that day, we don’t expect them to be minature versions of ourselves, checking the calendar to see what’s been booked that day and such. Instead, we allow them to enjoy an event that we ourselves participated in many a moons ago that’s a source of happy memories of what it was like being a kid. In fact, just this past week, I shared with my children a fond memory I have of going out trick-or-treating one year where one of the neighbours went all out in decorating their house for Halloween. Now, I can’t remember exactly what it looked like or even which house it was. But that doesn’t matter since in the end, I have this wonderful memory of being dazzled by the handiwork of these homeowners from that Halloween night, a memory which to this day still brings a smile to my face.
And it’s for that reason why every Halloween my family and I transform the front of our house into an almost magical Halloween setting, complete with a small cornfield maze-like walkway, Halloween-inspired songs piped out from an outdoor speaker, and enough lights to make our house easy to spot from near the end of the street. Yep, Tim Taylor would be proud. What’s especially nice about decorating the house for Halloween is that the kids now want to help us out in getting the front of our house ready for the big day. For them, this process is now a part of the magic surrounding Halloween and they look forward to it almost as much as trick-or-treating. Almost.
Of course, when you go all out decorating your house for Halloween trick or treaters, you do end up with your share of interesting moments. For example, it’s become a regular event every Halloween for parents to take pictures of their kids standing in front of our Halloween menagerie – some in fact even sit on the hay bay next to our little witch decoration to pose for their picture. Then there are those trick or treaters whose parents drive them to our street to canvass for candies. Oddly enough last night, one family drove their two kids to our house, waited for the kids to come get their bag of goodies from me before the kids got back in and they took off – they didn’t even bother to visit my neighbour next door or the ones across the street. But the best moment has to be when the kids take the time from their rushing from house to house to stop and thank us for making such a beautiful display for Halloween. In fact, I still remember how last Halloween this little boy said to me ‘Thank you for decorating your house so much for me’. From an adult’s perspective, it could be easy to think that this boy is being a bit self-absorbed, but the reality is that he got it – I did decorate it for him so that he could have this lasting memory of a magical Halloween night when he was little. And that’s true for every child that comes to visit our house on Halloween night – whether they were a just a little toddler or one of those young teenagers reveling in their last moments of childhood before accepting the reality of growing into an adult.
That’s why I was so touched by what this mother who came with her daughter told me last night. At first, she started complimenting me on the beautiful decorations and how she hadn’t seen anything like this all night. And then she thanked me with such emotion and sincerity that I knew this mother understood why I was motivated to create this magical world if only for one night – I had grown up into the role of my old neighbour who decorated his house in such a way that even now, it brings a warm memory to my mind and heart about my childhood. And last night, I passed that memory on to that little girl who stopped by our house for a little treat. After hearing her mother’s warm thanks, I know her daughter left our house with something more special than just a few sugary treats. She now has a sweet memory of what it was like when she was a child.
Like I said before, I love Halloween. It’s just too bad it comes only once a year.
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I envy your kids for having parents who indulge this sort of thing. I was raised by someone who’d only come to this country a decade or so before my early childhood, and didn’t mix in well with such longstanding cultural traditions, especially if they smacked of something unfamiliar to her resolute-but-mostly-secular-in-practice, indiscriminately cynical Judaism. By the time I understood what Hallowe’en was actually about, I was too old to participate in it as a kid.
Hallowe’en is an opportunity to connect kids with something very valuable. I wish my mother had understood that better.
I always find it sad when people eschew Halloween on the grounds of its historical origins instead of focusing on how its celebrated now. Unlike Christmas, which is still very much a Christian holiday despite some secularization and over-commercialization, there are no tangible remnants of the theological origins found in Halloween that would make anyone believe it has any basis in a religious doctrine.
Besides, whether one lives in a pluralistic society or one abiding to a single predominant faith should not deter parents who wish to raise their children under any given religion from exposing them to other cultural and/or religious traditions. Education regarding the diversity of the world around them, instead of isolation from it, would serve their children far better in strengthening their understanding of their own faith in an ever-shrinking world. It would also lend itself to creating bridges of understanding instead of chasms of ignorance. After all, how does dressing up as pirate or a princess to collect candy really destabilize a child’s education of religious values? Granted, I’m no expert on two of the major faiths, but their similarities to the one I do know leave me wondering if this is more about a parent’s inability to properly educate their children about their faith instead of being about something that violates their religious values.
In any case, as I’ve taught my own children ‘to each their own’ and as such, Halloween will continue to be a holiday celebrated in our house. To that end, I have acquired even more Halloween decorations this weekend, including one that I have been bugging my wife to let me buy for years – my very own fog machine. Oh yes, next year we will take Halloween up another notch again.
Hi,
Halloween is great for kids, they can have fun and not just trick o’ treat and candy. Spooky scary Halloween stories and funny poems and poetry for kids are great too.
Happy Halloween,
Milou
Hi Milou,
You’re right that there are so many fun and entertaining activities for children to participate in for Halloween. For me, I enjoy how Halloween allows us to participate as a community in helping kids revel in the simple joys that should be a part of every childhood.
Thanks Milou for your comment and Happy Halloween to you too.