In my opinionated opinion, Halloween ranks right up there with Christmas as one of the coolest holidays out there. I love to dress as someone or something I am not, have a great time, eat candy, and take my little one trick-or-treating. I loved to trick-or-treat myself when I was younger, and would do it again if anyone would give me candy!
There is a lot more to Halloween than just the fun for many people. For Pagans and Wiccans it is a holiday in which to recognize the dead. Many pagans even resent the commercialization of this ancient day of worship. It is partially as a result of Halloween that children and even adults think that a witch is an old green hag with a wart on her nose reciting lines from Shakespeare.
On the other side of the coin, some Christian groups believe Halloween to be an evil time where we unknowingly call on satanic and demonic spirits though our trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating was initially a practice use to please a god. If you didn't leave gifts and food for the dead...treats...you would be tricked, and some bad luck would fall upon you. If you left a great deal for the gods and the dead, good fortune would come your way. Some believe that when we call out "Trick-or-treat" that it is actually calling upon those evil and satanic forces and inadvertently manipulating people with fear in order to get what we want.
Personally, I have a hard time believing that a group of 6 year olds dressed like Batman and/ or Xena: Warrior Princess or Po the Telletubby is harmful to anyone. Yes, Halloween is more of a commercial holiday than it was when I was a child, and people have forgotten the real meaning. So it is with Christmas and Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.
My feeling is to allow the children to lead. They do not care about how much money Hershey is making or anything of the sort. They just want to get dressed up and have fun and meet people! If you are fully opposed to Halloween and decide not to let the children participate in this yearly ritual, that is your choice. You may also consider that you owe it, not to them, but to yourself, to be educated on the real meanings behind Halloween, from all perspectives (even those which you do not agree with).
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