Others can deal with Halloween grumbling

Halloween is a simple holiday dedicated to candy and make-believe. Any religious meaning the day once had has been long forgotten. 

I have recently read stories about a new pumpkin in town. It is teal. Teal? I thought teal was some kind of duck. A quick check reveals that teal is a type of duck but it is also a color. It is a greenish blue or maybe a bluish green. The duck is the usual mottled brown. I found a reference that says the duck has teal coloring around its eyes. If that is so, it sure didn’t show up in any image I have found. 

Houses displaying teal pumpkins are supposed to offer non-food items. Stickers, small toys, glow sticks or other treats are offered so the child isn’t harmed by something he or she is allergic to. The goal is to allow children with food allergies a way to enjoy Halloween without  having all their candy confiscated because it might hurt them.

I also read about blue pumpkins. These are for autistic kids who have their own problems to deal with. They may or may not react the way you expect and the blue pumpkins are a way to alert candy givers to that possibility.

A part of me thinks this is a grand idea. Kids have enough to deal with without their parents having to examine every little thing in the trick or treat bag or bucket. The problem is that there will still be people who hand out candy or whatever with the reasoning that one little treat can’t hurt.

Except that one little treat can make the difference to a child who is highly allergic. One house where the person demands the child say, “trick or treat” before handing over the treat can ruin the entire evening.

In addition to stories about various colored pumpkins I saw one condemning the sale of a costume that looks like a bride’s dress. The complainant maintains the dress promotes forced child marriage. She cites statistics that state there is one child marriage every two minutes. She goes on to say that child marriage leads to abuse, rape, slavery and sex trafficking. Apparently, a bride costume implies approval of those atrocities.

Perhaps I am naive. I don’t agree with child marriage in any form, however, most little girls I have known love to play dress up. All the horrible things that might happen are not even considered. Little girls love to twirl in a fancy dress. Yes, they also play bride. With or without a white dress and veil, they will prance down a make believe aisle, sometimes strewing petals of your prize rose that just bloomed for the first time. The “husband” may be anything from a stuffed animal, a family pet, or as a last resort, the kid down the street. 

Nevertheless, I will not be handing out candy on beggars night or any other night. It is not because our porch light doesn’t work. It is not because I fear being faced with a slew of buckets in a whole crayon box of colors. It isn’t because I can’t remember what all the colors stand for. 

It is because the last couple of years we did hand out candy, most of our visitors were adults, and no, I don’t mean teenagers. I mean grown up people, some of whom didn’t even bother with a costume or a “trick or treat” before extending a container of some sort to hold the candy. As they walked away they grumbled at what I had given them.   

I leave Halloween to other people. There are enough alternate sites and dates to cater to all the children who choose to take that one night to be whoever they want to be, even if what they want to be is a bride.