Common sense for Halloween

EDITORIAL: WHAT OTHERS THINK

There’s no other night in the year like Halloween. For the costumed youngsters who scurry along the darkened streets searching for homes with glowing jack-o’-lanterns and their unspoken promises of treats, it’s a time of pure magic, when fantasy comes to life.

For the grown-ups watching over them, and who may themselves be eager to dress up for a party later on, it is a time of carefree delights, a fleeting escape from workaday life.

But in Canada in 2017, Halloween is also a time of controversy.

Too often the costumes some people wear innocently — or is it thoughtlessly? — deeply offend others.

A disguise concocted from old sheets, scarves or housecoats which might have been fine 20 years ago could now be considered sexist or racist.

No wonder many universities advise students on what to avoid on the Oct. 31 sartorial front.

No wonder a new school in Winnipeg recently made headlines by telling kids to keep their costumes at home this Halloween.

Nor was it surprising to read reports last week of a Toronto woman of Indigenous descent who publicly denounced a retailer selling costumes she considered disrespectful.

These concerns and complaints are far from frivolous; rather, they should make us pause and think.

Halloween is a festival with deep roots in Canadian culture and definitely worth celebrating.

It’s a unique occasion that blends the excitement of a street festival with the pleasurable frisson of a fright night.

At the same time it can be unfamiliar, even unsettling to new Canadians, while to many citizens of our cultural mosaic aspects of it can seem insulting.

With the increasing diversity of Canadian society and a history that includes discrimination, we need to show a new sensitivity on Oct. 31.

In our view, that means some costumes should be non-starters.

A First Nation headdress, for instance, has deep cultural and spiritual significance for Indigenous Canadians. To make a facsimile of one for a Halloween costume for an evening of entertainment ignores or denies that significance and could easily offend. And that’s just one example. That’s why dressing up as someone from another ethnic, racial, cultural or religious community should be off-limits. However much they are meant to be good natured or humorous, the costumes can be hurtful. Why risk this when there are so many alternatives?

At the same time, it’s challenging to know where to draw the line.

Dressing up like a hobo — a perennial favourite — could offend a homeless person.

Feminists might chafe to see a young girl in fairy-princess garb.

Those who don a black hat and black dress to become a witch might offend Wiccans.

Just as cultural sensitivity should be our guide, so should reason.

Halloween is governed by no specific law or rule book that we know of. Nor should it be.

At its best it is a night that celebrates the imagination and freedom of expression.

There’s no reason that with common sense this marvellous tradition should not continue. Happy Halloween 2017.