With a little over a week to go before Halloween, I am still confused as to how exactly we came to find ourselves at a point where rain trumps pandemic when it comes to cancelling trick-or-treating. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of rain-soaked grumpy children on a sugar high does not sound appealing to me, but the notion of parading costumed children around during a pandemic does not rank that much higher on the scale of things that seem responsible to be doing as a parent of young children. But here we are. Trick-or-treating (for children) has been endorsed by Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer of Canada, as well as Quebec’s public health director, Horacio Arruda, and Premier François Legault, along with a slew of other local politicians, officials and experts.
Halloween will not be cancelled, or shut down like our restaurants, bars or anything close to entertaining for adults. Rather it will be reimagined for the times we are now living, which is to say adapted to COVID-19 safety measures and precautions. Call me sarcastic, but I can’t help but picture children being thwacked by adults not accustomed to holding hockey sticks who are now being asked to use them as candy dispensers, or the potential injuries from poorly aimed projectile candy bars being deposited into bags through two-metre long tubes. It’s all a bit ridiculous, but maybe what we all need is a bit of silliness right now. A chance to actually open our doors to people in a return to a bit of normalcy on what would otherwise be considered the least normal night of the year.
Let’s continue to insist we are doing this for the kids. But I think there is a deeper meaning to the absolute insistence that Halloween go on this year, even though the number of glowing porch lights and pint-sized ghosts, goblins and likely a few zombie doctors will be significantly reduced due to fears of spreading the virus. As a community, we simply need to re-connect and Halloween offers the perfect opportunity to break down some of the social barriers imposed by the pandemic. We’re already wearing masks, so why not. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain. Happy Halloween!
Sarah Rennie