Our little street in Newton Corner, right off the Mass Pike, has become a must-go Halloween spot. It’s such a scene! Tons of kids in fabulous costumes, from babies as angels to the teens straggling up to the door who have, quite frankly, aged out. Last year we went through over thirty pounds of goodies. And this year I expect even more trick-or-treaters.
I loved Halloween as a child. Collecting candy at night with friends, laughing, having a great time: what could be better? It’s a wonderful American secular tradition, and I always participated. Like so many of you, as a little kid I started with a small plastic pumpkin to collect my loot. I eventually graduated to a king-size pillowcase…
I love that slight sense of mayhem and chaos on the street. It’s never dangerous, but always busy and entertaining. Despite the occasional stories that make parents and kids anxious: loose candy laced with LSD, razors in apples, etc., there has never been a reported case of poisoned or laced candy. There has never been a report of injury due to booby-trapped fruit. Why wouldn’t every kid in America be on the streets?
Given Halloween’s thoroughly secular character, it has always surprised me that some Jews consider it treif. Kveller.com puts the case this way: “Increasingly, rabbis and educators have challenged Jewish participation in Halloween activities.” It adds that the holiday has pagan origins and was later adopted by the Catholic Church, so some Jews understandably hesitate to celebrate a holiday that was never their own.
I would challenge the first claim. I bet most Jewish professionals have no real problem with Halloween.
The second claim proves too much. Do you really think the lulav and etrog are free of ancient pagan associations? Or that the Urim and Thummim, which the Torah places in the priestly breastplate, have no pagan antecedents? Our tradition has always absorbed older practices and given them new meaning. Acknowledging a custom’s pagan roots is not idolatry when it no longer functions as a pagan ritual. (Historians also dispute how direct the Samhain connection really is.)
Most importantly, Halloween is not a religious holiday! It’s only about having a good time. There is no religious imagery or content in it. Unless you worship sugar.
The Chabad website urges parents to make their children “the vanguard,” a people charged with being a light to the nations, “not an ominous light inside a pumpkin.” It suggests forgetting Halloween and waiting for Purim to turn the neighborhood upside down. But Purim is no cleaner an alternative. The Talmud (Megillah 7b) requires drinking on Purim until one cannot tell “cursed is Haman” from “blessed is Mordechai,” and the holiday celebrates the hanging of Haman and his ten sons. So much for the light to nations…
The aversion some Jews have to Halloween reminds me of the old Ashkenazic dourness, the habit of avoiding things that are permissible in themselves because they resemble things that are not. We need to unclench on this one. There’s no conversion conspiracy hiding behind the jack-o’-lantern, and there’s no satanic worship in a Snickers bar. It’s nothing but fun.
Halloween is a lot like Thanksgiving. It is a civic celebration, uniting Americans across virtually all socioeconomic, religious, and racial barriers. In the costumes and masks, there are no divisions, no us and them. For one night, the children on our street are simply children.
We live in a partisan time. With all that divides us, how nice that there is still a tradition that transcends barriers of culture, religion, and politics, and brings us together in a non-threatening, joyful celebration.
rebhayim
