EDITORIAL – Let’s forget Black and Orange Day and keep Halloween

An ArmchairMayor editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

IT’S BEEN a long time since anybody celebrated Halloween for any reason other than it’s fun. Fun to dress up in costumes, fun to set off fireworks, fun to carve pumpkins and decorate the front porch, and fun for the little nippers who come to your door begging for treats.

Every year, some party pooper will resurrect the story of the real meaning of Halloween, pointing out its 2,000-year history and origins in a Celtic festival centered on life and death and All Saints Day and all that, and lecturing us on spelling it “Hallowe’en.”

In recent years, a bit of spiritual and cultural correctness has crept in to spoil the Halloween fun, much like a rotting pumpkin after a hard frost. It isn’t appropriate, they say, to celebrate a day that has no special meaning to so many of our new citizens, and may even be religiously offensive to some. Even the Vatican has waded into the debate.

Many schools across the country have banned Hallowe’en and replaced it with “Black and Orange” day, or “Black and Orange Spirit Day,” or “Orange and Black Day.” Kids can dress up in black and orange, as long as they don’t wear costumes. It’s “more inclusive” that way, explain the school brass.

(Kamloops is not exempt. One school, for example, has a “Hallowe’en dance” but lists Halloween as “Black and Orange Day” on its calendar.)

This, of course, has elicited much predictable outrage from those who like to rant about political correctness.

To be sure, Halloween is not without its problems. Some misfits use it as an opportunity to commit vandalism or worse, spiking candy treats with harmful stuff. Fortunately, such incidents have become more rare.

Another excuse for banning Halloween is that poorer families might not be able to afford costumes, but any old thing made out of a discarded bedsheet or a cardboard box will do. And who hasn’t had kids come to the door with nothing more than some lipstick and mascara passing for Hallowe’en dressup?

And then there are the bullies who like wearing scary clown costumes just to frighten children (Trump costumes are even scarier), but that’s a fad that will pass.

We should certainly be sensitive to the cultural and religious traditions of others, but nobody celebrates Halloween in this country for its pagan roots.

Like Christmas, it’s just a time to enjoy. Which we can do by putting reflective vests over the kids’ costumes in the evening, checking over the candy carefully, being careful with the fireworks, and keeping pets inside.

mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca