Editorial: What Happened to Halloween?

By Shiva Peri

​The doorbell rings. A homeowner opens the door to children who chant, “Trick-or-treat.” The phrase is more of a statement that seems strange as it originated as a question. Trick or treat? The majority of people lean to the latter. Perhaps this bias came to be because of how much easier it is for marketers to sell candy as opposed to… well, what exactly is a ‘trick’ in the context of Halloween?  Nevertheless, Halloween has been sullied in recent years by two disturbing phenomena: elderly treaters and lazy costumes.
 
Trick-or-treating (or the more accurately named treating) remains the centerpiece of Halloween. Children of all ages revel in heaps of saccharine goodness, which literally come in “fun-sizes.” But perhaps the keyword here is children.  Most households are perfectly happy to supply adolescents with candy. But at what age does begging for candy become just crude?
 
If an adult without children came to your door on Halloween, would you give him candy? Would the rarity of the occurrence make it an awkward exchange? Some people believe that one is never too old to beg for candy that he or she does not deserve.  But considering the amount of work it takes to go door-to-door and get 1-2 pieces of candy, it would seem far more effective to just buy candy in bulk quantities.
 
Really, though, trick-or-treating is too immature and too unhealthy to carry on into adulthood. Consuming large sums of sugar without restraint is a childish notion.
 
Another complication that arises out of this popular festivity is the costumes of trick-or-treaters. Many parents of toddlers dress up their kids solely to take pictures to share on social media.  Often, children dress up as Disney characters and wear generic costumes that require no thought or creativity.  Teens may be even worse in the laziness of their costumes.  Should you get candy for wearing larger glasses or a t-shirt with a hastily drawn skull-and-crossbones?  Is a costume even necessary on Halloween? Would you give candy to a trick-or-treater without a costume?
 
This Halloween, let’s set some ground rules:

• No one over 12.
• Costumes must be creative (judged by each homeowner)
• Use your words, i.e. “please” and “thank you”
• Eat no more than 50% of your body weight in candy
• Have fun

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