Halloween

That holiday is coming up this weekend, the one that we don't talk about in Jewish preschools but that most of the kids eagerly await... Halloween!  Why don't we celebrate Halloween in Jewish preschools even though many American Jewish families dress up and go trick or treating every year?  Is it that different from the 4th of July, or Thanksgiving, real American holidays that we take as our own? 

The answer is in the origins of the holiday.  Thanksgiving and the 4th of July are secular holidays, and the values they espouse are ones we call our own-- freedom, thankfulness, etc.  Halloween, or "All Hallow's Eve," on the other hand, has pagan origins, and was later adopted by the Catholic church.  Jews don't believe in ghosts, goblins, or hauntings, and we also don't participate in any "idolatrous customs" (like devil worship, bowing to statues, etc.!).  So we don't celebrate Halloween, at least according to Jewish tradition.
But then why do so many Jews celebrate this holiday?  Most people, I believe, separate the make-believe, costume, free candy-seeking parts of Halloween from it's pagan spooky origins.  For most of us, it's about simple fun, and has nothing to do with the pagan origins of the holiday.

I have mixed feelings about it myself.  Lena loves make-believe and dressing up, and is VERY EXCITED (to put it mildly) about being able to wear her Ariel costume in public.  I also grew up going trick or treating every year, without giving it a second thought.  My general belief is that, as long as we don't participate in the scary, haunted aspects of the holiday and make it about fun, dressing up and candy, it's fine for our kids to trick or treat and have fun with our neighbors on October 31.  I don't want to be that crazy mom who ruins the fun for her kids.

But it's also hard to separate the fun from the scary.  I found that out at the Chappaqua Ragamuffin parade this past weekend, from which Lena came home early because she was so afraid of the witches and "steletons."  We told her it was all pretend and for fun, that the witches weren't "real witches," but she responded with great fright "except for the ones which ARE real!!!"  I know on Sunday night there will be neighbors of ours in scary costumes, that houses will be decorated over the top with music, steletons, and other scary things, and that WAY TOO late at night, kids that are WAY TOO old (and menacing!) will be ringing our doorbell repeatedly for their free candy handouts, while Lena quakes upstairs unable to get to sleep.

So what to do?  I actually bought a witch's hat for myself to wear so I can show Lena that it's all pretend.  We may trick or treat very early, just in our little court.  I'll probably bring most of the candy in to give to my well-prepared b'nei mitzvah students, or even better, donate it through our preschool association.  And when Purim comes around in the early spring we will find as many opportunities as we can to go out dressed in a happy, festive costume and to celebrate that Jewish masquerade holiday.