Now a school in Port Colborne near St. Catharines has declared an end to Halloween. Instead, the administration at McKay Public School will have an “orange and black”: day with no costumes. Earlier this week a school in Winnipeg did the same thing. A common thread running through cases of Halloween cancellation is that school authorities have no explanation or reasoning whatsoever behind their decision. “Why are you doing this?” parents are asking. There is only silence in return. How is it that a time of childish dressing-up fun is now to be forbidden in our schools? Is there a secret fear that Halloween is rooted in ancient religious rituals? Does it offend somebody (no names please) in a spiritual or practical way? Are school authorities fretful about naughty costumes or the simple high-spirited behaviour of children? The suspicion grows that whatever the nominal excuse, these decisions are born in our society’s pathological need to somehow zero-tolerance itself to a higher-state of perfection. Who cares if this spoils the fun for a lot of kids? What matters, it seems, is our hatred of the harmless way that we are.
