You can’t open the newspaper these days without reading some alarming new tidbit about the wages of fatness or childhood obesity.
Happily, tomorrow is Halloween, and we get to lay all that aside for one night and indulge in a bacchanalia of candy consumption only dreamed about on the other 364 days of the year.
Some people, of course, have a harder time laying aside their concerns about fat, calories, and tooth decay: nutritionists, dentists, spokespersons for nutritionally correct organizations. The L. A. Times has corralled a group of these professional healthy eaters to ask what they plan to pass out to the little witches, ghosts, and goblins who ring their doorbells.
The overwhelming favorite? Candy! Oh yes, they may offer toothbrushes or toys alongside the Snickers, but even the director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public interest is planning to go with the Halloween flow and pass out the sweet stuff. And while my personal hero Marion Nestle isn’t planning on passing out anything (she says no kids come to her Manhattan apartment), she does admit to an occasional candy apple jones:
“Especially ones with the worst red, hard candy on them.”
It took ages for my mother to stop handing out erasers and cheap plastic spider rings. It will ease her conscience to know even the dentists will indulge a little sugar loading.
Halloween vs. Purim
Halloween: Today’s practice of children ringing doorbells and yelling “trick or treat” to solicit and/or demand gifts of candies, actually began as a a Celtic holiday,(no, not the Boston Celtics Basketball Team). In Scotland and Ireland as a fall ritual to ward away evil spirits from the harvests, the Celtics of Scotland would go door to door demanding ’soul cakes’ in exchange for prayers to protect the harvests. (The trick would be to ruin the harvest if the soul cakes weren’t forthcoming.)
It was believed that the wearing of hideous masks would frighten off any demons who want to bring misfortune to their fall harvests. Great Britain adopted the holiday and joined with Ireland in naming the night before Halloween, “All Hallows Eve.” The day after Halloween came to be known as All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day, and those are indeed Christian holidays.
These holidays were brought to America and the rest of the western world during the great immigration years.
Purim: On Purim disguises are worn and gifts of food and/or money are GIVEN to friends and poor people
Some 600 years before Jesus was born Haman (chief enemy of the Jews) plotted to kill all the Jews all over the world on the 13th & 14th days of the Hebrew month of Adar. However, it is said that G-d turned the tables on Haman and the Jews now stood in authority of Haman.
These two days, the 13th and 14th would become days of rejoicing, rather than
days of mourning and will be known as Purim, celebrated forever
by sending food to one to another and gifts to the poor.
Ever since, Jews celebrate the Festival of Purim by dressing their children up in costumes of the heroes and of the enemies in the story of Esther. Special pastries and treats are prepared The costumed children are sent out with baskets of these ready-to-eat treats to be delivered to the doors of their most favored friends and relatives and to the poor
…I ask you…
Let’s put religion aside…Let’s call them Holiday A and Holiday B
Holiday A:
Disguises are worn and gifts of food and/or money are GIVEN to friends and poor people.
Holiday B:
Costumes are worn & gifts of food and/or money are DEMANDED with penalty of ‘evil’ or the ‘trick’ for those who do not heed the demands.
I, for one, would rather teach my children the greater goodness of giving rather than demanding.
I, for one, would like to turn the tables on the candy companies (who have successfully promoted their cavity creating ‘goodies’ into a multi zillion dollar industry who makes 90% of their annual revenue during Halloween.
In keeping with the Purim theme, I have taught my children a number of important lessons, such as the greater goodness of giving rather than demanding. They dress up on Halloween and carry in their plastic pumpkin bags bring home made cookies to our neighbors.
They are happier baking, wrapping and delivering their Halloween baked goods than any of their friends who go out demanding
goodies and have to sift thru their spoils for tainted candies.
But who am I to judge? I ask you…think about it… can we turn Halloween into a fun costume holiday where home baked goodies are delivered and not solicited.
From: A Jew from Kalamazoo
R. Brodie
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