Opinion: Halloween has lost its roots

Halloween is the second worst holiday of the year — just behind Valentine’s Day — because it offers no valuable contribution to humanity outside of loads of candy.

Admittedly, I am not a fan of anything scary — I find no joy in intentionally putting myself through something that is created purely to frighten me.

However, my real issue lies in how modern-day Halloween has abandoned the traditional roots of All-Hallows Eve.

The holiday began in ancient Ireland at a Celtic festival called Samhain — a day thought to be when the ghosts of the dead came back to earth.

When the Romans took over Celtic land, they combined Samhain with two of their own holidays that commemorated the dead. The festival, known as All-Hallows Eve, was expanded around the 9th century to celebrate Christian martyrs and saints on All Saints Day.

These days, Halloween is not the traditional celebration it once was. Last year, Americans were expected to spend $8.4 billion on Halloween, according to a National Retail Federation survey.

Creating costumes, exchanging stories and eating candy are all great things — I love those aspects of the holiday. But our focus has shifted too much onto just those things.

We have become so engrossed in the material aspects of Halloween that we have strayed from the community aspect of it. It has become more of a popularity contest than a celebration, and the costumes have even become more risqué over the years as a result.

Outside of the consumerism, the grotesque, horror heavy focus of Halloween has dramatically strayed from its origins.

Joe Persampiere, president of hauntedprops.com, told the Chicago Tribune that we should “bury or cover gory stuff, and then uncover for the older crowds.”

Halloween should serve as a fun time for kids and families of all ages and backgrounds, so the fact we’re even having a conversation about whether or not decorations are too scary for some people means we’ve gotten way off message with the holiday.

“You don’t want to scare little kids,” Persampiere said. “That’s not the point of Halloween.”

While the history of Halloween was established in death and ghosts, it doesn’t mean that we have to overindulge ourselves to create the most horrid things possible.

Halloween should be recognized as a day of celebration and reflection, not only because cooler weather has arrived and winter holidays are just around the corner, but because of the community we share and the lives we lead together.