Is it just ME?

Or has Halloween become truly horrific?

HOW did we allow Halloween to be turned into a festival that celebrates greed and careless cruelty?

It began as a religious festival and became an occasion on which ghouls and ghosties would be discussed round an open fire as parents told their children a scary story or two.

There would be apple bobbing and candles to light the dark night.

The festival’s proper name is All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve, a Christian festival with its roots in a pagan tradition, when people remember the saints and departed.

There’s nothing heavenly about what it’s become. Look at some of the fancy dress costumes on sale for this year’s parties — ghastly getups such as ‘roadkill’.

Who on earth finds it amusing to see their little one looking as if they’ve been knocked over?

Most distressing is that appalling American import trick or treat. Children are dressed up and encouraged to walk the streets, banging on the doors of unsuspecting neighbours demanding a treat and threatening a trick if you fail to comply.

I’ve answered in the past to groups of little children who have been supervised by parents and have appeared quite grateful for a mini Mars bar each. But then there have been marauding teenagers who have said ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ and trashed my flower pots regardless of my generosity.

I have elderly neighbours who have been terrified when they’ve failed to produce a treat and had a stone thrown at their window or half a dozen stinking eggs or even a firework pushed through the letterbox. Some trick! I have no plans for a pile of sweeties to hand out. I won’t answer the door. I urge all parents to end the practice. It’s mean. It’s grasping. It’s frightening. It’s dangerous.

What’s so wrong with bobbing for apples in the privacy of your own cosy home anyway?

Who finds it amusing to see their little one looking as if they’ve been knocked over?