Halloween and Day of the Dead

I am both a writer and a teacher. And while this idea would not effect this year I think we should let the kids have these two days off from school. Now there is already MEA, or basically schools already have a fall break, however these two holidays, which are semi-secular, are a bit of levity before winter hits. Which if you live in the mid-west or the northern part of the United States, that sort of matters. Now that is where I live, so this really pertains more so to the United States than other locations.

Both of these days have ties to an older holiday, All Saints day, and regardless of how that was a way to co-opt a pagan holiday, there is still precedence to celebrate the harvest. Life is stressful, and the past couple years, and the future does not appear to be less stressful. Kids could use a couple of days to enjoy the fall, dress up, and then remember their ancestors. Halloween and the Day of the Dead are already starting to merge back together. I think it’s time we just finish it. A lot of people, a lot of kids, lost people during covid.

To be fair, it’s not just kids either, a lot of adults still love Halloween specifically. Now, how they celebrate can be debated, but perhaps it would be okay to start treating it a bit like the holiday that keeps trying to steal it. Christmas, which has become a secular holiday, regardless of how that would upset some. Companies like money, and people really go crazy, and spend a lot during it. However, despite the commercialization of Christmas on the macro level, on the micro level it’s still a holiday about family. There is a larger debate there.

The Day of the Dead is about remembering family, where you come from, which I know I am simplifying it. Halloween is to celebrate the harvest, among other things that have been picked up over the years. Why not go further and treat them like we do Christmas. Just close the banks, stores, and schools so people can celebrate with their family.

I don’t know, this is an opinion that has been growing for a while inside my head. Perhaps there are some that view it like I do. But the idea of spending time with your family, dressing up, then going to collect candy during the afternoon, appeals to me. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with so many films depicting that, which would be nostalgia at it’s finest.