By Jess Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 30, 2013
People are always shocked to hear that I don’t celebrate Halloween.
It’s not for any religious reasons that I steer clear of the day, but because I can’t in good conscience celebrate empty consumerism or a popularity contest that perpetuates bullying.
Halloween is scheduled for the last day of October, but, like Christmas, it’s reach extends earlier and earlier in the month.
I don’t need to walk into the grocery store and have animatronic zombie heads screaming at me in September. I don’t need to have Value Village’s remix of “Thrift Shop” stuck in my head for two months. I don’t need to drop money on a costume I won’t wear again. I certainly don’t need to eat smaller versions of my favourite candy at an inflated cost simply because it’s October.
More and more I hear about parents having to buy the newest costume on the market. Specialty stores have popped up for Halloween to take advantage of the costume- and candy-driven season.
Whatever happened to making your own costumes?
Halloween, like many other “holidays” (see Valentine’s Day) is a money pit.
And it goes beyond that.
On a day that celebrates dressing up as something you’re not, the threat of standing out still hovers over children.
A radio announcer on The Peak told a story about their niece, in which she was teased for dressing up as Shrek for Halloween at school. Now, if you have the confidence to paint your face green and dress in plaid pants, a dirty tunic, and a tattered leather vest, you deserve props. More props if you stick ogre ears to the side of your head. Why does it matter that she didn’t dress up like a princess? That she didn’t buy the same mass-produced costume as every other kid? Perhaps in the adult world, a best-dressed competition can work, and you are rewarded for the effort you put into your costume, but for kids in school, on a day that celebrates “freak,” the kid that puts originality into his or her costume is ostracized for not looking like everyone else.
CTV Winnipeg reported that the city’s Hastings School had cancelled its Halloween celebrations. In the segment, the reporter asks, “what’s left?” before cutting to an onsite reporter standing in the middle of the costume aisle at a store. The reporter talks to angry parents about the cancellation, but doesn’t touch on the why’s – doesn’t ask the school administrators why they made the decision.
And the resulting comments are backlash about how the kids are having their holidays taken away from them.
It’s not a holiday. It is not something children are required to experience in school. Curriculum does not involve cutting a jack-o-lantern out of construction paper. I applaud Hastings School for avoiding Halloween celebrations. It is one small step toward protecting kids.
Editor’s Note: Following the decision’s negative reception, the Hastings School reinstated Halloween events.
