In a few days doorbells will ring and door-knockers will clack all over America. Our neighbor's children will appear in and out of costume with a bag pulled open or an upturned hand outstretched. Our reputations will be on the line, but what's the right thing to do?
Shopping for treats to give the future of America has turned into a lose-lose proposition, in my humble opinion. Most of the stores are promoting bite-sized candy. These so-called treats come in tamper-evident packages -- from the point of view of the health and welfare of those little tykes, that's the only good thing about them.
Sure, kids love 'em. Humans crave sweet foods. Unfortunately, a look at the ingredients reveals high-fructose corn syrup up near the top of the list. Even the ones that list sugar are no health bargain. A couple of bites of HFCS is not the worst thing in the world, but I remember in my childhood coming home with a shopping bag full of booty and finishing it all by the second or third day, at the latest.
Back then some people actually gave out homemade baked goods or fresh fruit. Now the giver of apples is viewed more like the evil witch in the Disney classic Snow White. It might have pins stashed inside, if not a sleeping potion. If you were to hand out shelled peanuts, the parents might also reject them and you'd probably be marked for an egg treatment later that night. Yes, it seems as if our culture only smiles on those who support industrial food.
Has anybody out there got a more optimistic Halloween experience to report?
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kayser Posted 4:08 am
29 Oct 2007
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Jones Posted 5:51 am
29 Oct 2007
And anyways, by the time your kids are 17, they'll probably be self-righteous vegetarians and hating you for all the "junk" they think you fed them growing up.
Seriously--one day (or two or three) a year of indulgence isn't going to harm any kids, but protecting them from it, might.
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PermieWriter Posted 4:08 pm
29 Oct 2007
I nearly bought little fair trade chocolates this year. But kids' palates aren't sophistocated enough to appreciate them. Yeah, I'd love to make popcorn balls or something more wholesome -- sure, Halloween is only one day of the year, but kids are eating crap every single day -- but I'd get burned at the stake by outraged parents. How dare I threaten their children with organic corn, sugar, butter and nuts?
Eat what you grow, grow what you eat
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mihan Posted 11:37 pm
29 Oct 2007
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caniscandida Posted 2:13 am
30 Oct 2007
Mihan,
I WAS raised in this culture, I guess, and did go out trick-or-treating in costume round my neighborhood, an urban block of row-homes in which everyone knew everyone else. But I cannot imagine doing it in suburbia. When I think about what would be involved, it does not seem like it would be fun at all.
Here in NYC, where nearly nothing is done just as it is done elsewhere in the US, young families in apartment buildings generally arrange to make lists, posted in lobbies, of who in the building is willing to be visited on Halloween. (Elsewhere, I assume the etiquette is that if your outside light is on, and there is prominently displayed some sort of Halloween decoration, that house is ready to receive trick-or-treaters. Unfortunately, adventurous and mischievous kids who are out unsupervised will occasionally try to bother the solitary types, the kind that turn out their lights and read a book.) We are friendly with all the kids and their parents in this building, and the kids like to pet Little Dog when they see her; and yet, in the twelve years that we have lived here, we have never put our names on that list, and have never had to deal with Halloween in any way -- save to have to walk by the tacky decorations put up by the super's wife.
Naturally, parents will always worry about what their kids are eating. And it is a curious and challenging feature of our species, that our children's tastes are usually so different from ours as adults. In principle, Kayser and Jones are right: this once-a-year event is nothing to get upset about. But some parents will ask, how "once-a-year" is it, really? What does a holiday of which a major element is distributing and eating junk food, not dissimilar from food that is available all year long, teach children about healthy diets and food production? Certainly no lesson derived from eating junk food at Halloween is likely to be at all deep; but still, the experience may reinforce a pattern.
And then there is the chocolate industry. How much does the purchase of cheap chocolate candy as Halloween treats contribute to West African cocoa plantations whose workers are slaves and whose crop is spattered by the same blood that pollutes the region's diamonds? We need to learn about that.
On uncostumed visitors: They are not playing the game, and therefore deserve no treat. Costumed trick-or-treaters, whether they realize it or not, are impersonating the dead, on their way to descending into the Underworld. The point of giving them treats is to appease them, and get them to leave without doing harm. But as for the uncostumed types who demand a treat, even to give them a lettuce leaf would be too good.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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kmp Posted 2:45 am
30 Oct 2007
I do love Halloween; it might have more to do with the time of year, as Fall is my favorite season, or the food, as I love pumpkin, cranberries, cinnamon, clove & ginger, all the autumny foods & flavors. But I have also always loved dressing up, as something scary or clever or just goofy, and I wish that kids would come to our door. We are out in the boonies, so we don't get any trick-or-treaters.
As for healthy treats, I am in agreement that it is once-a-year; I, who normally eat quite healthfully, have a bizarre affection for candy corn, one that I tend to indulge... once a year. If you simply can't stomach giving out industrial crap, both http://www.agreatergift.org and http://www.globalexchange.org have fair trade and/or organic individual chocolates for sale. You could always go the peanuts-in-the-shell route or stop by your local whole foods/co-op and see what ideas they might have on display. Gummy bears & jelly beans are a bit less unhealthy, I always think, as there are no nasty fats, just sugar.
As for my Halloween celebration, I am planning on climbing tomorrow; I'm trying right now to figure out how to attach bat wings to either side of my helmet. :)
Kaela
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Carl Flatow Posted 11:07 pm
30 Oct 2007
"Consider giving out small squares of dark chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa, little boxes of organic raisins, organic granola bars, organic fruit wraps, or snack-size bags of air-popped popcorn."
See here for more:
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/TIP02599
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These comments represent the opinions of Carl Flatow.
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