Len Hanley: The downsides of participating in Halloween

To The Daily Sun,

I have decided to write this because a wsoctv.com poll recently taken of over 2,000 people asked "Will you allow your children to participate in trick-or-treat amid the coronavirus pandemic?" and 49% said yes despite CDC recommendations that it is among one of the activities which are high risk for spreading the virus. The CDC lists other "Higher Risk Activities" as:

• Participating in traditional trick-or-treating where treats are handed to children who go door to door.

• Having trunk-or-treat where treats are handed out from trunks of cars lined up in large parking lots.

• Attending crowded costume parties held indoors.

• Going to an indoor haunted house where people may be crowded together and screaming.

• Going on hayrides or tractor rides with people who are not in your household.

• Using alcohol or drugs, which can cloud judgement and increase risky behaviors.

• Traveling to a rural fall festival that is not in your community if you live in an area with community spread of COVID-19.

What are you celebrating on Halloween? If you go to any store or specialty shop like Spirit Halloween, you see that the answer is death, fear, violence, horror, and the occult (witches,satanists,etc.) to whom Halloween is a religious holiday. Parents who don't let their children watch a rated R horror movie like Friday the 13th will nevertheless encourage and allow them to participate in Halloween, which basically is a horror movie holiday. How can you justify doing this when on any other day it would be viewed as disturbing behavior and just cause to call Dr. Phil? Non-scary costumes is still participation in a day that historically involved Druids making living sacrifices to their god Samhain by going door to door asking for animals and people while they dressed in costumes made from animal skins and heads. Jack-O-Lanterns were used to mark the homes that gave these living sacrifices.

Have you weighed the risks involved in Halloween participation such as costumes that easily catch fire or drivers hitting children or masks that make it difficult to see or breathe properly? Is the risk of getting coronavirus worth it? So much for the harmless fun defensive argument. Seriously, why turn your house, yard, etc., into something that looks like Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment? Dahmer, by the way,said in an interview that he spray painted the skulls of his victims so they would look fake in case anyone saw them, and on Halloween people buy fake skulls painted to look real so if people saw them they would think they were real. Cringy isn't it? By the way,you are legally responsible for any injuries on your property, in case you forgot.

If you're going to spend the average of over 90 dollars per person for a one night a year holiday, why not instead give it to charities for people in need? Christians please consider what Anton LaVey, the late founder of the Church of Satan, said: "I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the Devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween."

I won't celebrate Halloween.

Len Hanley

Barnstead