Halloween is one of those age old holdovers from centuries past, like the song "Ring Around the Rosie," which started being sung during the Black Death of the 1300's. Why, you may ask? Because the pustules of the disease looked like a ring around a rose-colored spot.
There's much discussion about the origins of Halloween. For instance, Halloween is old English for All Hallows Eve, the Feast of All Hallows being the Feast of All Saints, which is still celebrated on November 1st. And the Eve-ning before being October 31st. Ah, yes, there is some Celtic pre-Christian background, and who knows what else, behind the ghosts and monsters and vampires.
The key insight on why Halloween has survived is, I think, this: there's something fundamentally healthy about making fun of those things we are most afraid of. As soon as we bring humor into our most fearful moments, that's when we capture some semblance of control over those very scary things, like death, and blood and gore and things that go bump in the night.
So, this Halloween, enjoy the fun! And let's not be so pious that we forget to have fun.
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