I can’t tell you how relieved I am that Halloween has come and gone and that I don’t need to give it a second thought until next October. My reservations against Halloween aside, by orders from my seven-year-old I dressed up as a mum-witch with long green hair and a pointy black hat. By the end of an evening of marathon-style trick or treating, however, I had lost the fake hair and the hat and felt more like a donkey carrying various coats, bags, discarded costume paraphernalia that the four girls in my care were casting off as the evening wore on. Ironically, a female donkey is commonly referred to as a ‘Jenny’; how fitting.
At least the girls had fun, and I must admit I was impressed with the obscene amount of sweets and chocolate my youngest daughter (also dressed as a witch) managed to accrue for herself. Fearlessly, she approached the most scarily decked out homes of strangers to demand a handful of treats, while the three older girls were slightly more reserved, choosing to hold back until the door had opened and sweets were being proffered.
What of all the costumes? There were children and adults decked out in ‘zombie’ outfits, vampires and witches galore, as well as plenty of Harry Potter-themed costumes and the odd Yoda. Amidst all the gore and scare, one person stood out from the crowd: a barely teenaged boy dressed in what at first looked like a giant beige mushroom, before my eleven-year-old daughter’s friend realised: “OMG, he’s wearing a penis costume!”
But if Halloween is all about scaring people, children in particular, then why go through all that trouble of dressing up when the real world in which we currently live is so much scarier than any ghost, monster or zombie? Girls and boys, it’s not the darkness of night you should fear, for what’s truly frightening are rich white men with unchecked power.
Next year I might just dress up as a giant dick.
Born Whole 