Halloween Rules

Earlier this fall I mentioned that Mom and Dad didn't really allow us to celebrate Halloween when we were  kids. Well, other than the fact that we attended Harvest Festivals where children were encouraged to dress up and receive candy from Christian strangers. The important thing, though, is that we were not dressing up and receiving candy from our possibly secular neighbours.  ;)

This rule relaxed a little at the tail end of my childhood. By 1994, Mom and Dad decided that trick-or-treating was ok if we followed a few rules:

1) Some of the houses in our neighbourhood would be lavishly decorated to look like graveyards or the house of a witch or vampire or Dr. Frankensteins monster. We should avoid those houses (although it was ok to visit a house that only had, say, a cardboard cutout of a witch or pumpkin in the front window.)

2) Under no circumstances were we allowed to dress up as anything scary or demonic - no witches, monster or ghosts. No vampires, serial killers, or mummies.

I don't know that this was an official rule, but I'm very tempted to add 3) Costumes should be respectful, especially if one is dressing up as a historical figure or anyone else who is dead.

Mom didn't mind the sugar aspect of Halloween (er, too much ;) ), but looking back I do get the impression that she was bothered by the part of Halloween  that treats death or dying as if it was a joke, or as if what was waiting for us on the other side was unavoidably painful and terrifying, or as if it was something that we use just to spruce up a costume.  I could be wrong about this, of course.

I will talk more about death and dying the day after Halloween. It just seems a little disrespectful to put up such a serious post beforehand.