America Makes Halloween Mask More Friendly

Christina Minor
Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald

October 30, 2001

Halloween is the one holiday that asks people to suspend disbelief. It
gives them a chance, for just one moment, to mask themselves and create
a character. It offers them a chance to play a role, to escape from
their ordinary lives.

For kids, though, some roles are off-limits these days.

Concerns about evil images and violent characters even before the September 11 terrorist attacks have put gory, mean-spirited monsters, once as Halloween as pumpkins and candy, on the endangered species list. Many Halloween parties for kids, now called "fall festivals," don't even allow ghosts and other scary costumes.

Halloween, it seems, has met its maker.

"(It's) a time to be creative and inventive," said Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia. "But we don't need the gory, scary images to do that."

Halloween began as the ancient Celtic festival, in which the Celts believed ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. Sacred bonfires were built, and people would dress in costumes and burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. Trick-or-treating in costumes originated in Europe. On Halloween, people who feared meeting ghosts if they left their homes wore masks to "blend in" with the spirits. To keep ghosts away from their homes, candy dishes were left on porches in hopes the spirits would eat the candy and not enter their homes.

Scary Monsters Part of the Fun

Immigrants helped make Halloween a yearly celebration in the United States, with children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door in search of tricks and treats. The tradition grew from there. People began hosting parties for children, and offering games and food all with scary monsters part of the fun.

But Michael Nuccitelli, a family and child psychologist in New York, said Americans have begun to change the face of Halloween in recent years with the focus off the dead and frightful images.

"It's been a trend in the last few years that festivities have dropped off," he said. "Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we heard about razor blades in candy and kids being beaten up. Parents became concerned, and I think that set the precedence for today."

Nuccitelli said parents also have changed their trick-or-treating habits. Visiting homes throughout the neighborhood was once acceptable. Now children mostly visit close friends and family. Some even trick or treat during daylight hours.

Schools also have changed their Halloween habits. Gone are the ghosts and monsters. Now children see only pictures of scarecrows and pumpkins. Halloween parties have been changed to "fall festivals."

No Witches or Scary Jack-O'-Lanterns

At Hewitt Elementary, in Waco, Texas, the focus is on a harvest theme instead of scary images.

"This is something that we have done for about three or four years," principal Sarah Holland said. "We decided not to focus on (Halloween) because we want to be sensitive to others' beliefs. We don't want to offend anyone."

Holland said the decision was made by school officials, but some parents had voiced concerns about their children participating in Halloween parties that showcase scary images.

Elementary and middle schools in the Waco Independent School District in Texas also aren't celebrating Halloween because of its frightening focus.

Nuccitelli said some costumes can be problematic for children, especially if they see classmates wearing scary masks.

"Halloween is about getting dressed up and masking your face," he said. "Some children can have problems differentiating between what is real and what is unreal."

Farley, who also is a former president of the American Psychological Association, said children show fear because of exaggerated decorations and outfits seen in movies and neighborhood yards.

"Kids pick up fear secondhand," he said. "It creates a higher level of fear in them. When you add on that fear at Halloween, then there is more than they need."

Farley said most children understand the costumes and props are make-believe. But he hopes children will opt for fun costumes, with an emphasis on dress-up.

"My five- and seven-year-old daughters are going as the witches from 'The Wizard of Oz,'" he said. "They know it's fiction. I think it helps kids to (dress up) as known figures that they know are fictional. It creates a more upbeat Halloween, and it connects them to another part of their life."

Farley said no matter how hard Americans try to change Halloween, the gore will always creep into the holiday.

"Throughout human history, we've had an interest in the dark side," Farley said. "We wonder about it. Most of us live on the light side, so it's only natural we wonder about the other side. And it's OK to have an annual day for the dark side, but I think we need to offer kids a safe peek at that side."

Robbye Rusek, a Waco ISD teacher and mother of five, agreed exposing children to a scary but safe Halloween is not all bad.

"How can anything be bad that let's kids be creative and have fun," she said. "Let them be kids. They don't have much time to do that."

Copyright 2001 Cox News Service