By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

Next Tuesday, hundreds of neighborhood children will dress up as their favorite animated characters, or something a little spooky or as something they would like to be in the future.

They will go door to door, begging for candy and they will return home with a bag full of sweets that will last them until election day, if they are lucky. It is a tradition that has gone on for many years and will continue to do so for many more, unless certain groups exert enough influence or employ enough scare tactics to stop it all together.

Some people would have you believe that Halloween is a day of evil and that those who participate are going to a place much warmer and more dangerous than Miami. I think they are wrong.

Halloween is not evil because the children who trick or treat are not evil. They are children looking to score candy like the rest of their friends. They do not view it as a pagan holiday, nor do they view it as a day to worship the devil and perform animal sacrifices. That is Thanksgiving. They view it as an orange-and-black-colored type of Christmas, where they receive candy instead of toys.

People cite ancient history as an evil origin of this holiday. The Celts of the ninth century would dress up in scary costumes Oct. 31, called Samhain, to scare off the souls of those who had died in the past year and would be trying to inhabit the bodies of the living. It is kind of spooky but it was just a superstition, like having a black cat cross your path or walking under a ladder. It has only as much credence as you give it.

Nov. 1 also marked the end of the season of the sun for the Celts, meaning the end of the harvest season. The sun would move farther from the earth for awhile, making the world as they knew it darker and colder. Other traditions around that time included leaving out bowls of nuts and fruits to "appease" the wandering souls of Samhain. There is nothing too creepy about nuts and berries or even spooks that would be appeased by them.

Early Christians also were involved in traditions around this time. They went "souling" village to village, begging for soul cakes. The more cakes given by people, the more prayers for their departed loved ones they would receive. This is allegedly one of the origins of trick or treating.

If you cite these "dark" origins as a reason not to let children trick or treat or celebrate Halloween, you are being ruled by archaic, superstitious history. The Samhain traditions were 1,200 years ago and the world has changed a bit since then. For one thing, we now know that the world isn't flat and that the sun doesn't revolve around us.

The other argument I hear every year is that it just isn't safe for children to trick or treat... that there are evil, satanic people out there looking to run amok and ruin the holiday.

First off, no child should be trick or treating alone. If they are supervised by at least one parent or adolescent, they are safe. Secondly, scary people who want to do harm to children have always existed. They didn't start coming around just last year and they don't just strike on Halloween. If you follow normal safety procedures, you should be fine.

I've also heard the razor blade in the candy story since I went trick or treating, but it never happened in my town or to anybody I knew. In fact, I've only heard it passed around from other people who knew a friend of as cousin that it happened to, like a scary story or an urban legend. It may have happened and it may still, but that is why parents should be parents and examine their children's haul (grabbing the stuff they like first) and discarding food that isn't wrapped or looks suspicious.

I am just sick of the holiday being ruined by this overly sensitive, overly protective attitude. Children shouldn't have to go trick or treating in a mall several days before Halloween. They shouldn't go out in broad daylight on the holiday either. They should be able to dress up like Pikachu, or a ghost, or a princess or Jar Jar Binks and they shouldn't be made to feel like they are evil if they do.

They should be able to see all their friends and look at their costumes and giggle into the night and feel like they have the run of the neighborhood and that all is right with the world. Getting candy for free is every child's dream and it gets destroyed by people pushing an agenda.

I'm not against fall festivals that offer alternative celebrations to Halloween. It's a fun way to spend a day and people are free to believe what they want to believe and to do as they choose. God Bless America. But think before you subject your children, who must do as you choose, to a nontraditional Halloween.

Kids that can go trick or treating will ring your bell next Tuesday and if your kids are inside looking out, they will see something more scary. Namely, what they're missing.

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