HALLOWEEN; A SENSELESS EXCUSE TO EAT CANDY AAccording to the US Department of the Census, Halloween was first celebrated in America in Anoka , Minnesota
Samhain was the feast for the Lord of the Dead. It was celebrated on October 31st because that is the day that the spirits of dead ancestors were believed to return to earth. By 800 AD, Christianity had spread to Ireland Ireland
People wore masks because they believed all these dead souls were wondering the earth that night and they wanted to disguise themselves so the spirits would think they were part of that group. There is all sorts of other blah, blah historical info I could impart of how the begging for “soul cakes” turned into begging for candy, but I won’t bore you with more facts or disputed facts. The bottom line is that Halloween is just a senseless excuse for children to eat candy.
Being a fat kid, I salivated and dreamed as October 31st approached. Since I was a sneak candy eater, this holiday gave me an excuse to openly devour as much chocolate as I could. I grew up in a suburb of New York
Times have changed and parents can no longer allow their children to trick or treat door to door. In Google if you type in the phrase, “Halloween Safety Tips,” you get 67 million matches. One of the scariest and saddest tips I found was—“Make a map of your Trick-or-Treat route and check the route against the sex offender database.”
When a holiday’s commemoration includes a tip about sex offenders it’s not much of a celebration anymore.
I might sound like an old curmudgeon being so negative about a day that so many other people enjoy celebrating, but at least let us have some honesty in why we enjoy October 31st. It has nothing to do with honoring dead souls; it’s all about the candy.
Teresa writes:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for educating me AGAIN, it is about the candy! "
Teresa also write;
ReplyDelete"I hate the use of "fat and kid" in the same sentence. Please don't do
that anymore, my son was a larger boy when he was small and the kids
tortured him about it, to this day he has issues with thinking he is
over weight. I think now as I did when he was little, he is perfect!"
Teresa is correct that it is offensive to say "fat kid." It is only because I was a fat kid myself that I used the phrase. I will avoid it in the future.
ReplyDeleteFritz writes:
ReplyDelete"I've got a funny story for you about candy.
When I was a young boy, my father owned a company that among other things, ran retail operations in stores like KMart, Target, etc. These 'leased' departments ranged from toys (that was fun), sporting goods (also fun) to the food and drug aisles. Since candy makes up a portion of the so-called drug department, he went every year to the confectioners convention at McCormick Place. He'd come home with bags and bags of candy of all types, ranging from the typical chocolate bars to lolly-pops, licorice, hard wrapped candies, etc. SO, every year at the appointed week, kids who barely knew me in school would suddenly become my best friend. And, after that candy binge was over, all the kids in the neighborhood would be strung out after a sugar high. I'm sure that the parents *loved* this (their dentists I'm sure did)!
So, 45 years later, I find that I'm not a really big candy person these days (a few Frangos aside). Perhaps it was too much at that early stage in life!"
Fan Club President Sue writes:
ReplyDelete"Halloween is for the young...and the parents of the young. We loved it as a child, so let's let our children have fun with their costume imagination and treats to collect! The rules are simple...no kid goes without a parent or eats anything unwrapped or without a parent's inspection. Just like everything else...people need to use common sense...and then have a fun time!!"
Blog Follower Sue writes:
ReplyDelete"I enjoyed your Halloween blog and agree it is sad to have to be concerned about registered sex offenders. But what if they are giving out really good chocolate?"