Halloween from an outsider's perspective

Halloween has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I remember a few costumes from my younger years -- a hobo, punk rocker, Holly Hobby -- but the memories that stand out most clearly are trick-or-treating for hours in a time unmarked by fears of child abduction and the inevitable dentist appointment the next day (evil parenting on my mother's part).

As a mom, I remember my son's first costume (white sweatshirt and sweatpants with "spots" cut out of black felt to make him a cute little Holstein), trick-or-treating in small towns where we knew everyone and gladly taking the discards from the kids' buckets.

It surprised me, then, to hear two visiting journalists in our newsroom discussing an invitation to a Halloween party. The journalists, from Colombia and Algeria, had been invited to a party and the man from Colombia worked to explain to the man from Algeria what Halloween was.

"People dress in funny outfits and the children go to houses in search of candy," was how he put it.

At first I wanted to stand up and say, "No! There's more to it than that! It's a holiday rich in tradition, how can you just dismiss it with a few words?"

Then I thought about it -- what else is it, than a day for people to dress in costume and send their children from door-to-door in search of candy? It's the one day a year we expect neighbors to supply our kids with sweets and, by the same token, we become willing to spend $20 to $50 or more on candy we know we likely won't get to sample ourselves because we're passing it out to the kids who come knocking on our own door.

Sure, there's a long pagan history behind Halloween and, for some, that's an important story to remember.

For most of us, though, Halloween is simply about the chocolate.