National Post (National Edition)
trick OR retreat
On COVID-19 and its odds of killing Halloween
The meme was on Facebook, posted by a woman I went to elementary school with, who has children of her own now: “Halloween 2020 cannot be cancelled!” It had a bright-purple banner with a cartoon haunted house in the background, its galvanizing message overlaid in canary-yellow Comic Sans. The image mounts the argument that Halloween “is probably the only holiday that can adhere to most COVID-19 guidelines,” and that anyway, it's “also on a Saturday, will have a full moon, and will be an extra hour long,” as the clock rolls back that night at 2 a.m.
“The universe has never wanted us to celebrate a holiday more than this,” the meme cheerfully concludes.
Now, you may suspect these are merely the livid fulminations of a fringe of moms, indignantly braying against lockdown precautions from the comfort of their smartphones or laptops. But then I saw a different meme about the same issue. This one included a righteous call to action: “Halloween is NOT run by the government! Turn your porch light on and pass out candy! If you can go into Walmart where it's packed, we can have Halloween!” This one had a hashtag — #savehalloween2020. And this meme had been shared, across Facebook, at least 593,000 times.
Clearly, people are passionate about saving Halloween. But does Halloween need saving? On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States updated its guidelines around how to safely trickor-treat this year. Halloween and other holidays “will likely need to be different this fall to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Avoid activities that are higher risk for spread. Consider fun alternatives that pose lower risk of spreading the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC says on its website.
Among the low-risk alternatives recommended by the CDC are carving or decorating pumpkins with members of your household, having a Halloween movie night with people you live with, or a virtual Halloween costume contest. Moderate-risk activities the CDC cites are one-direction trick-or-treating, having individually wrapped goodie bags lined up outside for kids to grab, socially distanced. And, the CDC says, a costume mask is not a substitute for a cloth mask. “A costume mask should not be used unless it is made of two or more layers of breathable fabric that covers the mouth and nose and doesn't leave gaps around the face.”
In Canada, meanwhile, policies vary by region, and in some regions it's still being worked out. Provincial Health Office Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed last week that the children of British Columbia “can have Halloween this year,” suggesting they minimize “rummaging around” for treats and that people handing out candy could “maybe do something at the end of the driveway.”
Dr. Horacio Arruda, in Quebec, has assembled a “scientific committee” to determine the safety of trickor-treating, cautioning that everyone simply “walking around and visiting other people's homes” seems ill-advised. Trick-or-treating has been banned in Woodstock, N.B., a motion passed unanimously by Woodstock's city council. It is so far the only Canadian city to come out against the holiday with such definitive force.
Elsewhere, the prevailing attitude seems to be “wait and see.”
The prospect of sending kids door-to-door in the middle of a global pandemic, of course, seems more or less precarious depending on the number of cases in the particular area. One of the cities in Canada most challenged by COVID-19 right now is Toronto — and understandably the city has been reluctant so far to give trick-or-treating the green light. Mayor John Tory, recently pressed to clarify the city's position on the holiday, equivocated: “We don't have the power to just order Halloween cancelled,” he said, “but I can tell you right now, if the medical officer of health's advice to me is that I should say to parents, `You should not go out and you should not be handing out candy and all those kinds of things, because we think it poses a risk, especially with numbers going up,' I wouldn't hesitate for a second to do that.”
Parents should be greatly reassured. But until the mayor actually speaks out against Halloween, it's worth considering the risks.
On the one hand, walking around the neighbourhood and banging on strangers' doors seems a risk to public health, and indeed, is almost the exact opposite of what we've all been doing for six months in lockdown.
On the other hand — and as the memes on Facebook have carefully laid out — there are a number of reasons why Halloween feels almost expressly designed for this pandemic, and a case could be made that it may be the only holiday we can safely celebrate.
First, there is the matter of the mask: easily worked into most costumes. There is the element of distance: there tends to be little congregation, unless you live in a particularly popular neighbourhood with trick-or-treaters. Trickor-treating is done outdoors, and while you interact with strangers, you don't spend much time face-to-face with them. The treats are sealed and aren't especially infectious. And most uniquely, Halloween is one of the only holidays that doesn't involve spending time with elderly (and therefore vulnerable) relatives.
You can see why many people have embraced this argument with such zeal — the case seems compelling, even to the acutely cautious. This perhaps accounts for the results of a new Abacus Data study of Canadian adults commissioned by the Retail Council of Canada: it found that eight out of 10 parents still intend to celebrate Halloween.
For some people, naturally, a sack of candy will not be worth the small degree of risk involved in the process. And it's expected that whether trick-or-treating ultimately earns the government's approval or not, many parents will elect to celebrate Halloween safely at home.
For now, at least, it seems reasonably certain that Halloween 2020 will not be cancelled. The scarier question is whether or not it can be.