Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002 |
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Finally, the candy day has arrived By BILLY MURPHY The most controversial of all our holidays is upon us. Thankfully, though, most people have stopped opposing "Trick-or-Treating," and the Satanic mission that it supposedly propagates. I guess those people are spending all their time these days deriding anything "Harry Potter." You can't feel cleaner without something getting dirty. Halloween, like all holidays in our country, has simply become commercial. And even the gates of Hades or the brew of witches can't withstand the power of Madison Avenue and a good Wal-Mart promotion. At this time of the year I worry less about the forces of evil polluting the minds of my children, than I do during station breaks from "Sponge Bob Square Pants." Halloween has become the great promotional bridge between "Back to School" and Christmas (Which begins ironically on Thanksgiving). Besides, what would Eckerd, Kmart and CVS do with those two aisles of sheet-metal-shelves if they couldn't fill them with just something? I find it funny how every season now has its own color scheme too. Christmas is green and red that is a given but now add Easter in pastels pink, blue and green, July 4th in red, white and blue and Halloween in black and pumpkin. I expect sometime soon, to see a new anxiety disorder caused by the shifting tides and emotions regarding the current "holiday." How can we as a people expect to change moods and colors as fast as the seasonal M&Ms? Speaking of M&Ms, that is the true icon of Halloween: Candy. And not just candy, but mini-candy. Isn't that what it's all about? The little Skittles? People want to talk about all the macabre meanings behind Halloween and all that, but what it's really about is the teeny Twix, the minute Mars bars and the elfin Butterfingers. It would almost be healthy to consider that these petite morsels of chocolate and sugar have way less calories, but you just have to eat so many more. I tell you another reason I like Oct. 31. Halloween may be the only time of the year parents finally get their kids back. After spending 12 months of giving and buying and spoiling and pampering, literally thousands of dollars, we finally get our revenge. Because real late on Halloween night, after the kids have fallen asleep, after the sugar rush has subsided, we sneak in, we quietly tiptoe past crumpled Power Ranger and Barbie costumes and we steal their candy! Just the irony of it is such a guilty pleasure: that we as parents have the power and bank accounts to buy the candy in their trick or treat bags 100 times over. Yet, here we are, in the dark, on our hands and knees, digging to find a dwarf Snickers bar.
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