1 Nov 2000 aaronl   » (Master)

Halloween

I just don't get it. All throughout the year, we have morals and responsibilities. As always, there is an exception. Halloween. What really bothers me is that kids are encouraged by their parents to demand candy from neighbors in a rude, disrespectful way, and their kids have come to expect this candy. Someone needs to tell them that this kind of behavior is not acceptable. I, personally, am very disturbed when I am working and dozens of people ring my doorbell because it is social convention that I am to give them candy for no good reason. I do not observe halloween and I would find it similarly offensive if people demanded church taxes or some other nonsense from me on christmas.

When I was young, I used to give in to this becuase my parents told me it would be fun. As an older, possibly more mature person, I now know that it is wrong to knock on strangers' doors and demand candy. Now that I know this, I am doing my best to try to educate children about it.

In short, my hopes are very simple: that parents will strive to educate their children about what conduct is permissible, not what conduct is acceptable to society. The example of this not happening that I am most shocked by is Halloween, which is probably the easiest to recognize becuase it is so stupid. The whole idea of Halloween, involving dressing up in odd costumes and running around threatening neighbors over candy is so remarkably stupid ti any reasonable person that it becomes apparent that such behavior is unwelcomed and an accident of society. The problem with society is that once any holiday is established, it is extremely hard to antiquate. This is the same reason as why holidays get added at an unsustainable pace and will continue to be shoved into the calendar until we are stuck with a great number more than 366 holidays annually. But of more relevence, it is a reason why Halloween is not socially depricated, like other stupid immoral and stupid practices such as witchburning censorship already are. This makes Halloween a very difficult annoyance to combat. For now, the best way to go about that is probably to educate parents on how Halloween rampages are obnoxious to neigbors and are detrimental to society.

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