On the night of Oct. 31 each year people ranging from little children to adults dress up in their favorite costumes and celebrate the holiday we all know as Halloween. Everyone knows the tradition of dressing up and going from door to door receiving candy to stuff our faces with or going out to costume parties with friends.
According to history.com, Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.
I am not sure where the activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating sweet treats came from, but I’m sure nobody is really complaining. Halloween may be a fun day to some, but to others, it’s a day out of the year that people can do cruel things to others or commit crimes.
“There are on average 17 percent more crime-related claims on Halloween,” said Scott Humphrey, who handles risk control for Travelers.
In 2016 incidents were reported around the U.S. and Canada of people dressing up as armed clowns in inappropiate settings like schools and wooded areas.
The first sighting was in South Carolina by a 9-year-old boy who told his mother that two men tried to lure him into the nearby woods. Two years ago, ULM had a few cases where suspicious people dressed as clowns were spotted knocking on students’ doors trying to scare them.
Many of these incidents ended up leading to arrest for making threats to schools and some cases committing robberies. “The evening violent crime count on Oct. 31 is about 50 percent higher than on any other date during the year, and about twice the daily average,” said Northeastern University professor James Alan Fox. Personally, I never really liked Halloween. My parents never made it a big deal for me to dress up and go trick or treating. My mom thought it was an evil holiday.
Going to school and being told scary stories never amused me. It scared me more than anything.
Part of the reason I didn’t like Halloween was that I use to get scared easily by anything. I never knew what people got out of dressing up as scary characters and scaring little kids half to death.
The best part about Halloween in my opinion is after Halloween when all the candy goes on sale at the stores. That’s the only thing I look forward to when Halloween comes around every year.
Halloween may be nothing but a regular day for me, but for others it is a holiday they look forward to every year.
Maybe one day, when I decide to start a family, I will allow my children to trick or treat and dress up for Halloween. I never had the chance to participate in Halloween festivities as a child, so I would like to let my kids experience that.