Visiting multiple households and accepting sweets is not exactly Covid-Safe, so should Halloween still continue in 2020?
Every year many children go trick or treating, and this has become a national tradition, far from the original beginnings of Samhain, the original Gaelic festival, which has been mostly lost in modern Britain; with bonfires and rituals replaced with sweets and costumes.
However, the circumstances of 2020 have put the nation into an unprecedented position, is it worth putting people's lives on the line for a children's holiday? Trick or treating involves going around multiple households and accepting sweets, so not only is there mixing of household bubbles, but direct contact though chocolates and other confectionaries.
As the rates of corona virus increase, and more local areas are put into localised tiers, the nation is trying to curb this influx of cases. Halloween also no longer holds religious purposes for most groups and therefore is a day for frivolous celebration, and arguably not worth the risk.
However, many people argue that this is exactly why we should be taking part in Halloween, for a sense of normality. I interviewed Natasha Cheeseman who said, "Corona aside it is a bit weird that every other day of the year children are told to avoid strangers but Halloween is somehow the exception."
So, should Halloween be cancelled just from a safety perspective not only from Covid, but for children who visit random stranger's houses? Halloween is also extremely wasteful with mostly plastic decorations which are often only used once, and a large wastage of sweets, resulting in large amounts of waste, all for one night.
The government has addressed this by classing classic Halloween activities into levels of risk. Low risk includes virtual costume contests and house decorations, medium risk socially-distanced trick or treating, and high-risk normal activities such as parties or traditional trick or treating. Although the low risk options are trying to still recognise the holiday, do people still want to buy costumes to sit at home alone, or within their households?
These are still just suggestions and the guidance is relatively vague, which mostly leaves it up to the individuals if they want to personally cancel Halloween, or if they will take the risk. Now more than ever before the nation needs to assess whether this tradition is a holiday which has to be celebrated, or if we could cancel it for the safety of the nation.
