Halloween: Should we cancel it?

Should Halloween be banned this year? Is it on the cultural hit list? With the specter of COVID-19 should parents still go ahead with it?

Ideas are being discussed throughout the U.S. about making Halloween safer. In one Connecticut town parents are thinking of using PVC pipes, cut in half, and rigged on an inclined slope. Candy would be tossed on the pipes so that it would slide forward just as people glide down on amusement park tubes and splash into basins filled with water.

Children, with gloves on, socially distanced, would line up at the other end of the pipes to catch the sweets. For added safety, kids would have to wait three days before indulging. One might wonder how hardware store owners would react if this chute plan became a reality. Would they jack up their PVC pipe pricing?

Should Halloween be canceled? Dr. Aaron E. Carroll, in a recent New York Times opinion piece, is in favor of celebrating Oct. 31. He says that kids have suffered enough and if it were “done carefully” trickor-treating should be allowed. Listed were 805 responses to the article offering a wide range of pro and con commentaries.

A recent CNN article about the once horrific 1918 flu during its spread cited how the U.S. had discouraged, restricted, and canceled Halloween festivities. (Worldwide, it estimated that 50 to 100 million lives were lost.) Elizabeth Outka, a professor of English at the University of Richmond, said, “Based on my research of 1918 it certainly seems like a reasonable thing to do something different for Halloween this year, even though I love the holiday and I think it's really great.”

Ms. Outka’s reference to “something different” intrigued me. I wondered what might be considered “different” yet relatively safe to keep the Halloween tradition going.

Among the what-to-dos on Halloween listed on the internet are structured activities, such as a game of charades. I’m not sure the 5 and under crowd would go for that. One suggestion I liked was baking spooky Halloween desserts with children of all ages pitching in. Atop the movies to see is the Charlie Brown’s Halloween TV classic. Again, I’m not sure about this. Even my youngest grandchild would prefer a challenging video game.

Other possibilities include throwing a Zoom costume contest party or turning a home into a Halloween

cave with an assortment of decorations in each room. It was suggested the house redo be started a few days before the actual event with the decorations being removed a few days after Halloween. Such an extravaganza seems comparable to my grandchildren celebrating their birthdays for an endless number of days. In my youth it was one candled cake within a 24-hour period — and done.

Unquestionably communities today are seriously considering alternative ways of celebrating some form of Halloween this year. I wanted to hear more about this first-hand from individuals I knew throughout the U.S. To my younger friends I asked what their towns were doing differently for Halloween. Nothing they texted varied from what I had found on the internet.

To older colleagues and childhood friends my question was, “What do you recall about the Halloweens from your youth?” Responses included a vignette of a dog throwing up after eating all the candy hidden under a chair. Another person wrote about waiting anxiously each year to wear a homemade costume to the big Halloween local event. Then there was the New York City former Brooklynite remembering those less fortunate friends from his teens living in nearby public housing buildings. Yet they gave the most on Oct. 31.

From my Spanish Harlem days neither the girl I took to my high school prom nor I had any memories of past Halloweens. Her sister’s text said she remembered only one outing when as a 10year-old she was given candy, nickels, dimes and one quarter.

I believe I first felt the real spirit of Halloween when we moved to Connecticut and saw my two daughters dazzled by its magic. In the world I grew up this holiday had a seemingly foreign tinge.

As to banning Halloween, the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has asserted that traditional trick-or-treating is a “high-risk” activity. For sure it is. I am not a scientist nor a doctor on infectious diseases but would typically be guided by their expertise in decision making.

Nevertheless, my sense is that not having Halloween one year won’t damage the psyche of any youngster, including my five grandchildren. I am inclined to side with Dr. Carroll observation that it should be allowed if were “done carefully.” There is still time to find ingenious ways to celebrate Halloween safely. Just as that town with its PVC pipe idea is considering.