Thinking about Halloween
I can't seem to really get my head around Halloween. I can't seem to decide if it's just a hyped up holiday (which it actually is) allowing venues to promote special events (which they naturally do), or if it a great chance to have a really good time (which many have).
My kids are still too young to enjoy a good scare, so we tend to go slightly Wiccan celebrating witches and witchcraft. Ok, we don't actually have any odd rituals or such. We just enjoy the idea of magic and my girls love making potions with coloured bath salts and creams in a bucket.
The older I get, the less I am into the scary stuff. No scary movies, no horror books, way way far from dark music. I still can't understand how that monster band from Finland won the Eurovision years back. Parenthood, that is parenting my kids and not the actual website, has enough tensions and scares for me to go looking for more.
The one thing I really don't like about Halloween and also the one thing that makes me pass the time in constant fear, is the scare of a looming belly ache from all the junk thrown at the kids. I know I have stated my annoyance with treats before, see Who Needs the Treat? [http://www.parenthood.ie/blog/barbara/parenting-woes-who-needs-the-treat.html], but the sugar madness on Halloween leaves me astonished.
We had such fun last year trick-or-treating at a friend's estate and I couldn't get over the quantities of sweets thrown at us. The kids and friend where pushing a dolls buggy to all the houses and it kept getting filled up. As they still were small and under our thumb, we recycled the candy to other trick-or-treaters once we got home. They still got plenty to pig out on, but the fun was really on the walking around the estate in a costume after dark and just getting the candy. Their eyes lit up at every generous door.
So I guess I am wondering what I am really teaching my kids when we do all the Halloween celebrations. There just doesn't seem to be any specific thing that this particular holiday it is meant to remember. I do know about the Celtic Samhain, Mexican Day of the Dead and the American witch burnings in Salem, bit is any of that a celebration?
It is just a thought, it is not like I object to any particular reason to throw a party and have plenty of guilt free treats. I will just stock up on Andrews this year and live in suspense of what copious amount of sweet treats can do to a child's stomach.
