Since not everyone celebrates Halloween, nobody will celebrate Halloween at Lincoln Elementary School in Evanston, a Chicago suburb, reports Christen A. Johnson in the Chicago Tribune. “No party, no costumes, no candy.”
“As part of our school and district-wide commitment to equity, we are focused on building community and creating inclusive, welcoming environments for all,” said Principal Michelle Cooney in a statement. Not all students celebrate Halloween and there are “inequities” in the school celebration, she told parents. Instead, the school will host a fall celebration on Nov. 1.
Some parents are angry, including a Bosnian Muslim couple whose second-grader son is planning be Miles Morales, the Afro-Latino Spider-Man created in 2011. Nejra Bajric came to the U.S. in 1995 with her family and enrolled in a Chicago public elementary school. Halloween was “one of the greatest things,” she told Johnson.
Her parents worked two jobs, sometimes gone from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., she recalled, and celebrating Halloween at school was often the only taste she got of the holiday.
. . . “Halloween was my way of being like the other kids. Other students from other countries (at Lincoln), they get to feel like the other kids and participate in a cultural holiday.”
. . . “They’re trying so hard to make everything inclusive that they’re excluding a lot of students,” she said.
Some Chicago-area school districts have ended or cut back on Halloween festivities, Johnson writes.
In addition to concerns about different cultural and religious beliefs, some educators worry about children whose parents can’t afford or create costumes, and students with severe food allergies or kids with autism.
When my daughter was in elementary school, parents were asked to avoid “violent” costumes. Perhaps today’s educators fear cultural appropriation. (How many Halloween party-goers this year will dress as Justin Trudeau?) In my day, nearly everyone made their own costumes — I loved the Ravinia School costume parade — but I guess the easy-to-do “hoboes” and “gypsies” of our era would be verboten now.
Still, if schools are afraid to celebrate American culture in October, what will they do in November? Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving either.
Halloween is based on a Druid festival, writes Taylor Markarian in Readers’ Digest. The Catholic Church co-opted some of the traditions for All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day on Nov. 1 and 2 to “further the transition from paganism to Catholicism.”
Irish immigrants made Halloween popular in the U.S. in the late 19th century, she writes. “By the 1930s, Halloween became almost completely secularized, while All Saints’ Day became more of a religious holiday. To this day, some devout people are strictly against celebrating the holiday as anything other than a religious day.”
In Mexico, people celebrate Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, on Nov. 1 and 2. This time, the Catholic Church co-opted Aztec traditions. People visit their relatives’ graves, leaving food offerings, dress up as skeletons and party, Markarian writes. “The point is to honor the dead and welcome their spirits back to Earth during this time, not to be fearful of them.”
Here’s advice to teachers on how to include Day of the Dead activities in school without crossing the line on celebrating religious holidays.
Mattel has released a Day of the Dead Barbie, which some accuse of “cultural appropriation.”