10/31/2023
"Tonight, I beg you:
Go to a stranger’s house, knock on the door and demand a treat.
Let us remind each other of the value of wild nights, where things are different, outside the rules, where no one is in charge and no corporation or religion regulates how we celebrate.
No one tells us to celebrate Halloween -- it's not a government holiday, it's not a patriotic event, and trick-or-treating isn't religious.
It's part of something deeper, and more human: It's a collective way of teaching our children how we deal with fear.
For one night, children get to pretend to be someone else, to frighten away the terrible things in this world.
For one night, let your children exist outside the regular rules and constraints and sanitized celebrations.
For one night, let your children threaten strangers in their home with a mild “trick” if they don’t comply with their demands.
Tell your children that we live in a scary world and always have, and this is a way humans have found to say, "BOO!" to the darkness.
We face strangers because we’re brave.
We wear costumes so the bad things are frightened of us, but also because we’re frightened and we can't face those things alone. We pretend to be brave, funny, or scary.
For one night, we can laugh at death.
We can wage war against the four horsemen.
We can push back against death and devils and demons and destruction by scaring them the way they scare us.
We demand sugar and sweets to remind ourselves that everyone in our community has a shared humanity, that we're all afraid of what's "out there," and we come together with our shared ritual to indulge in sweet things, shiver a little to feel alive, and connect with our ancestors.
Don't get candy from friends and store owners in a parking lot from a trunk.
Don't accept a "harvest festival" or a safe, clean, easy-and-fun Halloween.
The world is scary. There is real danger, real worry, and the hoofbeats of the four horsemen grow louder.
The least we can do for our children is stop pretending that we haven't heard the slow trot turn to a gallop.
We can teach our children to don the garments they need to feel protected in battle, put on some face paint, and yell "I'm not scared of you! Go away, ghosties!" into the night.
Or we can at least all have a bag full of sugar to eat while we face the darkness together."
