Good Morning!

It's Halloween; do you have your big bags of candy, fake spiders, and jack-o-lantern carved and ready to go?

This is big business these days. It's estimated that this is the second biggest consumer spending holiday after Christmas. Of course, for us in retail, this is the kickoff for the busy holiday season, and we'll be selling tons of stuff in a vast consumer orgy of credit overruns, but I digress.

Back to Halloween. We all know it's a pagan holiday, right? This is one of those weird days on the calendar called a "Cross-Quarter Day", halfway between the equinoxes. We celebrate 2 others in Groundhog Day and May Day, but it's Halloween that gets all the glory. (Bonus points: what's the fourth one?)






Of course, as Christianity rose throughout the world, they needed holidays too, and the early church took over many of the old secular holidays by eminent domain. (See Christmas.) Halloween is no exception, and Popes Gregory III and IV tried to supplant it by moving All Saints Day from May to November.




'But TriSec', you must be saying, 'this is all innocent enough. Why is there a war on Halloween?'

Well, I'm glad you asked. We all know a Mr. O'Reilly on a certain network TV channel, and how he's made it into his lifetime cause to defend Christmas and Baby Jesus, while at the same time sending out official "Holiday Greetings" cards from his studio. You may have missed it, but some localities are moving against Halloween in their public forums because it has elements of satanism and the occult in it. (really).

Although I can't find a link right now, more and more local schools are cancelling their halloween events because of a few busybody parents. In neighboring Newton, MA, the public schools famously cancelled ALL of their halloween activities a few years back because a fundie complained about it. Officially, of course, it was because the school was afraid of food allergies, and they couldn't sanction kids bringing in candy or homemade cupcakes or anything else that was remotely fun.

Fortunately in Waltham, no such parents exist (yet), or if they do they had the good sense to STFU and keep their kids home last night. We, of course, went to the school and participated in a number of games and activities, and stuffed ourselves full of pizza. A fine time was had by all.

So...if you're heading out tonight, please stay safe. And if you're staying home handing out candy, please save me some Twix. And if you're getting dressed up and heading out to an "adult" party.....please post pix!

And don't punch any scarecrows!