Halloween, a favorite holiday during the year for most people, full of spooks, candy, and fun with friends and family. Typically meant for younger kids to dress up and gather candy, but is there really an age limit when it comes to trick-or-treating?
For me, I believe that trick-or-treating shouldn’t have an age limit. The point of Halloween is to dress up and have nobody know who or what is behind the mask.
Halloween hasn’t always been like the traditional holiday that we all know it as. It actually has a crazy origin and history. The History Channel states Halloween “dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and Northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.” It further states, “This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.”
As Halloween evolved and started to make its way to North America, Halloween lost its religious intentions and turned into more of a community celebration event to gather and tell stories of the dead. By the 20th century, Halloween became very popular and turned into the Halloween we all know and love today. Full of costumes, candy, and fall type foods that brings communities together.
“By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high amount of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated,’’ The History Channel stated.
Natalia Lopez, senior, said, “At some point, people stop thinking it is cute that you come to their porch and ask for free stuff. It begins to seem like you are abusing the system. But if it was socially acceptable, it would still be fun to participate in trick-or-treating.”
Since the older kids and adults “can’t” participate in trick-or-treating, they are left with a couple of options. Staying home and handing candy out to kids, partying, or going to haunted houses. Which is not bad, but would be better if it was more inclusive to older kids and adults.
Alex Willman, Staff Reporter
