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The Catholic New World

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Oct. 29, 2006

Spooky or sweet?

By Michelle Martin

It’s haunted house season again.

Time for scary movies, black cats, ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night.

But not at our house.

Don’t get me wrong. We celebrate Halloween, with costumes and trick-or-treating and a party or two.

We carve pumpkins and make construction paper decorations—bats have been popular for a couple of years now, along with conversation about how much good bats do for the local ecology, eating all those mosquitoes and all.

But neither Caroline, at 8, or Frank, at 5, has much use for the kind of Halloween costume that requires red makeup to look like blood.

Neither has ever been inconvenienced on by a ban on taking look-alike weapons to school Halloween celebrations.

Frank will be a cat again this year. Last year, he was his grandmother’s cat, Spanky. This year, he will be his aunt’s cat, Rosie (Spanky’s littermate). Caroline has graduated from the princess years (Cinderella, Belle from Beauty and the Beast) through TV characters to Kirsten, one of the heroines of the American Girl books.

Both are comfortable with the more usual Halloween decorations—cardboard skeletons and rubber spiders and such—but neither sees the point in going out of their way to be scared.

The first time Caroline watched “The Wizard of Oz,” she asked why there had to be a wicked witch at all. Why not just a fun trip, with colorful characters and lots of singing?

Frank, when he is unsure of a situation, withdraws into himself, almost looking like a hermit crab retreating into its shell, and attaches himself to the nearest trusted adult.

But being a boy, he doesn’t like to admit to being afraid. “I’m not afraid of anything,” he says. “I just don’t like it.”

Of course, that’s always been one of the points of the turning-of-the-year festivals, when the dead are alternately feared or feted. Bringing the scary things out in the open, making them fun, makes them easier to cope with—whether by pretending that evil spirits can be fooled by dressing up as someone or something else, or finding a way to express love and care for family members who have died.

Thoughts of death are hard to escape this time of year, with the days darkening and the leaves falling. Somehow, the mock gravestones and creepy stories (Headless Horseman, anyone?) seem to fit in a way they wouldn’t with spring’s flowers and clear light.

Changing Halloween to a “Harvest Celebration” or “Fall Holiday” might work for schools or other organizations are concerned about including students whose parents’ religious sensibilities are offended by the day—who see it as more than a chance to try on another persona for a couple of hours.

But it doesn’t fool anyone, especially their kids, who know that Halloween is supposed to be spooky fun.

So I’m glad that we can make them fun enough that Caroline can look out at a blustery October night and say she likes the spookiness, because it reminds her of Halloween—a day that is more treat than trick.

Martin is a Catholic New World staff writer. Contact her at [email protected]

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