HALLOWEEN
This grisly celebration has come and gone, without any noticeable effects in our area, but I notice that police presence throughout the country, especially in deprived areas, was doubled for the occasion, and that many people, especially the elderly or those living alone in such places, were on record as saying that they feared to go out on this evening, and didn't feel all that secure in their own homes.
There is no doubt that this festival, an important part of the pagan year until it was hi-jacked by Christians, has become merely an excuse for high-pressure salesmanship to youngsters, and violence among the empty-headed. The rot set in with the infiltration into Britain of the rather nasty American habit of trick-or-treat, which while it started as a fairly good-humoured encounter between adults and neighbouring children soon deteriorated into a kind of highway robbery, and mixed with the British enthusiasm for brawling has become in many areas merely an excuse for violence. No sane adolescent should go treating, as they do, with eggs, flour, and iron bars.
As for the commercialisation of the festival, it was summed up for me by a big display advertisement in our local Tesco, proclaiming 'Halloween - Dress up as Frankenstein!' - the accompanying costume for sale consisting of a skeleton suit and skull mask. You'd be hard put to it to find so much mis-information in so small a space elsewhere.
And not one child in a hundred will know the meaning of 'hallow' (or '-een', even).

So what do you mean to do about it?

What do you mean,'do'?

Well, you've had your moan - what can be done to improve things?

I don't know. I'm just grumbling. In any case, no-one is likely to read this post.

You're probably right about that.