Mary van Balen

Like most American's, I am prepared to greet young costumed visitors at my door with small bars of chocolate and a smile. In this part of the country, unlike the east coast, weather is cooperating with crisp air and clear skies. I have never been one to jump into this holiday with extravagant costumes, but I did enjoy the years my children came up with creative outfits. There was the "laundry basket," that was a big hit with everyone who saw my daughter approaching in the middle of a plastic hamper with bottom cut out for her legs, stuffed with towels. She carried a cleaned out laundry detergent bottle to hold her loot. She wasn't as fond of the costume since it made climbing steps difficult.

We had a pac-man that won "most original" in the school contest, and a cheetah with spots hand-painted on orange sweats and a homemade head cap with ears. We have let loose on the streets a Magic Parrot (don't try to find it. It is an obscure Disney film character.), a ballerina, mad scientists with smoking beakers, egyptian gods, well, the list goes on and on.

I remember my first grade year when my mother borrowed a poodle costume from my aunt. It was a hit, but I had to appear in many classrooms and bark when asked to show it off. Not my favorite halloween.

Later, the Catholic schools I attended had "All Saints" day celebrations instead of Halloween parties and the halls were filled with white garbed Marys with heads draped in blue, bearded St. Josephs, and the ever present St. Patrick. A couple angels made appearances too.

I don't go in for the fear tactic of evangelizing would be halloween celebrants with "Hell Scare" scenarios popular with some evangelical churches. I say, let the kids trick or treat, count and sort their candy (good math practice if you think about it), and eat it til its gone. You might want to help a bit. I've been known to raid one of my children's stash on a gloomy November day when I convinced myself that a piece of candy would remedy my mood.

Still, knowing the history of the name "Halloween" and celebrating the two days that follow are good practices, too. Read More 

Yesterday, between grading stacks of tests and reflection papers, I took a walk around the neighborhood. The sky was October blue, and the stunning orange sugar maple leaves brought me to a stop. Overwhelming beauty moved my heart to reverence and thanksgiving for such gifts. Perhaps this prayerful interlude made the intrusion of tacky plastic Halloween decoration more jarring than they would have been if I had come upon them first.

House after house displayed an array of "decorations." Strings of plastic ghosts and pumpkins that light up at night strung over bushes, along porch overhangs, and between branches; a variety of creatures looking as if they were struggling to emerge from their graves; headstones, gauzy fake cobwebs in a variety of colors; witches and ghosts swinging from trees.

I was reminded of a similar blight on the landscape while driving thougth a small town. A giant inflatable spider hovered over an assortment of ghosts, zombies, and skeletons. On the left of the yard was a small pool and fountain of questionable taste at its best. For Halloween the water is died red and gushes out of a skull's mouth.

What happened to Halloween? Is it card companies or manufacturers of cheap plastic throwaways that drive this excess? Occasionally, between "Halloweened houses" a porch would be decorated with pumpkins or gourds, nature's contribution to the season. But on the street I walked, natural displays were the exception.

I am reminded of a professor who taught education courses when I was studying to become an elementary teacher. She had been a British Headmistress of an infant school in London. She was always amazed at the American fascination with holiday decorations and themed work she observed in our schools.

"Every year, turkeys, hearts, ghosts and witches," she would muse. "Why? There is no 'meat' in them for study. Year after year students can count on doing the same thing." She shook her head. "Only in America."

A victim of breast cancer, she passed away a number of years ago. She would have shared my dismay at the trend of draping one's home with plastic and lights, in your face tacky that distracts from the true beauty of the season.

Why not take time to marvel with a child at the exquisite artistry of a spider web or the wonder of changing leaves? Why are we such eager consumers, willing to buy the silliest things that will end up in a landfill in a week or two? It is easy. It is fast. Faster than making homemade costumes, carving jack-o-lanterns, reading stories and poems, or taking walks through a pumpkin patch.

We are a drive-through consumeristic society and gullible enough to think supporting more disposable junk somehow makes a holiday more fun and exciting. We are on clutter overload and so are the children. Enough plastic lights and headstones and no one takes notice.

What if the money spent across this nation on holiday gewgaw was spent instead on food, schools, or dare I say it...taxes...that might make a positive difference for someone? The thought entered my mind but left as I turned a corner to see yet another Frankenstein emerging from someone's lawn. Read More