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Why I hate halloween

Halloween has seemingly creeped up on us. In more ways than one. It is never on our mind particularly, not like the bigger events like easter or christmas, until we see masks, pumpkins and the like in shop windows and shelves. But also in how it has steadily grown here in the UK. Never a particularly popular 'holiday' (and I use that term loosely), in the last few years the spending has increased, the trick and treaters grown in number, and halloween parties more widespread. All harmless fun right?

Not in my eyes. The very basis of halloween is evil. A celebration of darkness, ghosts and ghouls, demons and vampires. All things bad, scary. The very concept is just weird. I don't get it. Fun seems to be the name of the game, the reason for the season, but when has 'because it has fun', been the sole reason to do anything? Maybe a strange question, but genuinely, fun can't be our only basis. Murder can be fun to the serial killer, robbery a thrill to the thief. Pictures of prisoners of war being tortured by their captors, often show a grin representing fun on the face of the perpetrator. Fun can't be our yard stick or measurement, sometimes, actually more times than not,  doing the necessary and the right is far more important than the fun (it's why most of us work, right?).

This isn't just a religious argument. In my role I come across people of all ages, and of varying belief. My experience is that both young and old suffer at the hands of this 'fun' day of 'celebration'. The young can get scared going into shops and meeting checkout girls with fake blood dripping down their head, and the old and vulnerable, who can feel lonely at the best of times, dread the coming of this night, when the clocks have turned back, it is dark outside, and young people knock on their door demanding sweets. Since when to buy a loaf of hovis do you have to enter the haunted house, like at a theme park? And since when has a quiet night in, left the elderly shaking in their slippers?

Halloween is a night off. A night off from the things we tell our kids not to embrace. Don't talk to strangers, and definitely never take sweets off of them, care for the vulnerable, treat others with kindness and respect, and be repulsed by evil.

In celebrating this event, we are saying that it is ok to take a night off from these moral rights we have laid down. The corporations have sown the seed, cast their line, and they have got a catch, the nation is hooked. It is time we stood up for what is right, and instead of what is fun, choose to protect the vulnerable in our society, rather than ask them for sweets, dressed as a murder victim. Evil is nothing to celebrate, or embrace, even if it is make believe. Even if it is just a bit of fun.

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