Hallowe’en is not a hallowed evening

Each year we see Hallowe’en decorations and merchandise in shops and even restaurants and hotels something similar to the garlands and lighting for Christmas, usually in orange and black and looking as ghoulish as possible.

“Hallowe’en” means “hallowed (or holy) evening” (even = e’en) as it preceded All Saints Day on November 1st, but there is little hallowed about it these days.

Just recently a supermarket was taken to task for stocking a zombie’s head with a half-eaten rat hanging out of its mouth, which mothers complained was upsetting their young children.

Is such horror really good for our infants?

As a chef, I also think it is a great waste for a decadent society to grow huge crops of pumpkins just for devilish decorations, when so many other poor countries can hardly raise enough crops to feed their people. Most of these pumpkins are not even used for food. Pubs and bars advertise Hallowe’en drinks like a “pint of blood” etc - when the drinking of blood is forbidden both in Jewish and Christian teaching. When people use the word ‘wicked’ to describe something that is good, it shows that society is actually preferring evil over good, at least during the week of Hallowe’en.

Colin Nevin

Rathgill Park

Bangor,

Co. Down.