Take Halloween. I bought a big bag of candy that's not good for anybody-including me. And nobody came trick or treating to my house.

I shoulda known that was going to happened. After all, I haven't had any trick or treaters ring my doorbell or knock on my door for three years now. But each year I buy candy thinking that some children dressed up in customes I can ooh and ahh over will come to my house and I can give away all this candy rather than eat it myself.
On Halloween night I wait. And I wait. And I wait-only to be disappointed once again.

Poor Halloween. If ever a holiday probably suffers from an inferiority complex, it's Halloween. You've got church members saying that's it's celebrating the devil. And you've got a lot of other adults saying that with all those perverts out there, it's not safe for kids to go knocking on strangers doors. They're probably right about that. But I'm not a pervert, but how would anybody know that who doesn't really know me? After all, I don't look like a pervert, but then again, what do perverts look like?

I have fond memories of Halloween. When I was in elementary school, my mother used to sew costumes for my sisters and me. Just about all the children in the school would wear a homemade costume {though I confess I envied the ones who had fancy store bought princess outfits}. On the school day closest to Halloween, we'd have a morning assembly. Students in each classroom would march across the stage showing off their costumes. It wasn't really a competition. No prizes were given. People clapped for every group that paraded up to and across that stage. I remember that being on stage was a big deal. It gave little kids an opportunity to shine, and to feel special, and that's a good thing.

After that assembly, students in the primary grades {kindergarten through 3rd grade} would carry a paper bag that we'd made & decorated in our classroom, and we'd walk upstairs to each of the big people's classrooms {4th through 6th grade}. The teachers and students in those classrooms would give us candy, and cookies, and apples. And that custom gave bigger kids an opportunity to practice the habit of giving, and that's a good thing..

That was a looong time ago. I don't know of any school in my area that has Halloween parades or has the bigger kids giving treats to younger children.

My daughter is a kindergarten teacher in a public school that doesn't even allow the teachers let alone the kids to wear costumes. {She cheated a little bit 'cause she wore a Diane Ross type wig and put on glittery eye shadow}.

Instead of having a Halloween party, that school is having a Harvest festival. With a harvest festival, you can still use pumpkins, and corn stalks decorations. You can even carve real pumpkins and bob for apples. I believe that at my daughter's school they're even getting some real hay and putting it in the back of a truck so children can sit in it and pretend they're going on a real hay ride. I'm not sure what else you do at a harvest festival besides those things.

I'm all for creating new holidays. But why can't children have both the Harvest festival and Halloween?

I suppose I wouldn't have good memories of Halloween if it had been against my religion to dress up in costumes or otherwise celebrate that day. Now that I think about it, when I was in school, there were a few kids who either didn't come to school on Halloween, or who went to another room when we had our school wide Halloween assembly and parade. I can't imagine that made them feel good. So, maybe it's not such a bad idea that kids aren't allowed to dress up for Halloween.

And besides, I suppose that there really are too many bad people out there for kids to go door to door to strangers homes.

Maybe it's a good thing that Halloween doesn't appear to be celebrated the same way anymore. It seems like eventually the only ones who'll be celebrating Halloween are the adults who go to parties dressed up like movie characters or political figures.

Poor Halloween. I'm sorry time hasn't been good to you.

**

I'd love to read your memories of Halloween or other holidays, and how you think that celebrating those holidays have changed or stayed the same, and whether you think that's a good thing.

Thanks in advance for your comments!