Dear LPG,

You could say that I am getting bac on my soap box again but I think I have good reason….

It is Halloween again and to me that means that time when the television programmers find the spookiest films and programmes to put on the telly.    I live alone and as the nights draw in, the television is the only thing that keeps me positive during the longer evenings and the weeks during the run up-to the end of October seem to be full of trailers for the most ghoulish of programming on the channels which keep away from the really disturbing stuff during the rest of the year.

Yet while I can hardly find anything to watch to get me through the evening, it never ceases to amaze me that the celebration of what started out as quite a sinister reason for commemoration appears to have evolved into such a light hearted state of affairs.  Even though Halloween has become less popular this side of the Atlantic Ocean in the past few years from what I can see, I have to say that it bothers me to hear all the laughter and noise and to see so many children out knocking at doors and asking for sweets while often dressed in some really alarmingly sinister costumes, not because I have an aversion to seeing them happy, but because they have no idea of what they are celebrating.  I have never really found it necessary to celebrate myself. 

It appears that the greeting for this event is ‘Happy Halloween’, but I have to question the many quite macabre things that can be found in the shops which are designed to get parents to part with their money.  Quite young children seem to get most involved and I am sure that many of them can only see as far as the sweets, treats, parties and the jolly running around of the children at a time which was originally meant to commemorate the warding off of evil spirits.   I would have thought that involved being quite frightening and I cannot see what is so joyous or vaguely happy about that myself. 

It is as if the children celebrate without knowing what they are actually honouring.