Perhaps it's time to create new traditions to keep the spirit of Halloween alive, without forfeiting our health. The origins and aims of Halloween may provide some good ideas on how to move forward.
Halloween has a mixed historical heritage. It's often claimed it originated in Europe in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain — both a community and a spiritual event, when bonfires were lit and food offered to the spirits who had crossed over from the Otherworld for the night.
Carved vegetables, such as turnips, were placed outside doors to both guide and ward off evil spirits. Masks were worn: the aim was either to scare off the spirits or to honour them, depending on which source you consult.
Across the centuries, many practices have been part of the Hallowtide celebrations, including "guising", where children dress up in whimsical costumes and go door to door demanding offerings of foods for the departed. This practice survives today and most will recognise it by its American name "trick or treating".
What better way to celebrate the occasion — even if you perceive it as completely secular — than to indulge in fancy dress, games and delicious food.
This is where our cultural creativity comes in. We need to rechannel what's at the heart of Halloween, and consider how we can still make celebrations easy and accessible — especially for children.
Remember that Halloween is all about the sharing of food, community celebrations, the appreciation of each other and, above all, a layer of spiritual awareness that keeps us connected to our dearly departed.
If we think about the event in these terms then we can reshape and reinvent our traditions to fit our changed world.
For example, rather than taking our children from door to door to collect sweets, take a leaf from the "Easter egg hunt" and organise a "Halloween treats hunt" at home instead.
If you can't imagine not being out in the streets, a useful alternative is to take socially distanced Covid-safe Halloween walks. That way children can still see their friends' costumes, and show off their own.
If houses are decorated to match the Halloween spirit, inside and out — whenever possible, both physically and financially — this could add an extra touch to the experience of Halloween.
Carving a pumpkin will, of course, be an unmissable part of the countdown.
While Halloween might be different this year, by embracing new traditions we show the resilience of the event, as well as our own, during difficult times.
Lorna Piatti-Farnell of Auckland University of Technology.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
