3 minute read
Sweets Gone Sour
BY ISABELLE SOUTHCOTT | isabelle@prliving.ca
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If someone suggested we launch a new holiday involving kids going door to door asking complete strangers for candy, chances are pretty good it wouldn’t fly.
It definitely wouldn’t fly this year given that there’s a global pandemic.
The scope of Halloween celebrations have grown in the last thirty-odd years. But each October, as the fun mounts for many, so do feelings of dread for others. COVID-19’s cold water on the holiday is just what’s needed to rethink it.
For example, for as long as I can remember, Halloween has been celebrated on October 31 with kids of every age dressed up in costume to amass chocolate bars, chips, lollipops, rockets, toffee, and candy corn. Most parents are horrified at what their kids bring home and many throw it out when their offspring aren’t looking.
After all, who really needs an entire pillowcase stuffed full of chips and chocolate? Environmentally, the waste is a disaster, given that the cacao has been container-shipped across the world, and the plastic will likely sit in landfills for eons.
The people who are spending their hard earned money on mountains of tooth-rotting candy are right to wonder why they’re supporting the junk food industry. Isn’t there something better to get behind, such as the local food bank or the SPCA–or research into finding a cure or vaccine for COVID-19?
When I was a kid, we used to carry a little cardboard box around with us and people would put coins in that box for UNICEF. We’d also get candy, but at least we were also collecting for someone other than ourselves that night.
We’ve all bought in to Halloween’s current model, though, it seems. Canadians spend about $1 billion a year on Halloween, an amount that doubled between 2004 and 2014, making the holiday the second-most successful behind Christmas. A 2014 survey shows that 68 per cent of Canadians celebrate Halloween and 33 per cent of adults attend a Halloween party. Canadians spend more per capita ($70) on costumes, candy and decorations than Americans.
Every year, I spend about $100 on candy (we live on Maple Avenue in the Townsite and get 350 to 400 trick or treaters). I wonder if we would be better off donating that money to someone or some group that needs the money for real food?
As an alternative to today’s bloated blow-out, a simpler celebration can bring more joy.
The first record of children dressing up in disguise on Halloween in Canada that I could find took place in Vancouver in 1898. The first notation of trick or treat in North America was in the Lethbridge Herald on November 4, 1927 in reference to festivities that took place in the Blackie, Alberta area. It spoke of “youthful tormentors,” who moved wagon wheels, gates, wagons and barrels about and demanded treats.
PUMPKIN PEOPLE: This PRL-sponsored event and contest asks you to build pumpkin people in your yard at the end of October, for your neighbours’ enjoyment and the chance to win prizes Above is last year’s winner Bill Hopkins’ creation: the team from City Motors
Kids have been trick-or-treating for as long as most of us can remember. I did it, my kids did it and you probably did too. But with the age of COVID-19 upon us, Halloween as we know it might not survive. And that might not be a bad thing, because it gives us time to look at Halloween through a brand-new lens and figure out if this is really something we want to continue doing or if maybe, it’s time to change direction.
Like you, I love the fact that kids have fun at Halloween, but do they need to collect so much candy to enjoy it?
PRL’s Alena Devlin with the Kings pumpkin.
For this year’s unusual COVID-restricted celebrations, we’re thrilled that so many event organizers have stepped up with alternative, safe, genuinely fun celebrations. The pumpkin patches are kicking off the season in early October (see next page). Many neighbourhoods are organizing their own socially-distanced events. The Town Centre Mall, the Library and The Art Centre Public Gallery are all working to make the holiday magical and meaningful.
Powell River Living magazine is hosting our second Pumpkin People festival, and we hope you participate either by building figures in your yard, or viewing them with your loved ones in late October.
