Do you remember dressing up in costume for a Halloween parade in elementary school and then having a party after? How would you feel if your school cancelled it?
That is what’s happening at Sporting Hill Elementary School in Pennsylvania. They cancelled the wearing of their Halloween costumes due to safety problems. Inglewood Elementary, outside of Philadelphia cancelled their Halloween “party” because some kids with peanut allergies might eat something that is peanut-based during the parade.
As reported by Pix 11, Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, NJ will not be recognizing Halloween this year because there are many students who cannot participate due to religious beliefs and those students feel left out. Although Halloween is a non-secular holiday, it has some roots in Christianity. In lieu of Halloween, the Maplewood school will be having a fall festival.
According to the History Channel, Halloween was an ancient Celtic Festival dating back 2,000 years to the area now call Ireland. Halloween in the US, was limited in colonial times but became became more popular in the mid-nineteenth century due to the influx of Irish immigrants. Halloween has been infused in the American culture for far too long now to cancel it for good.
In a survey conducted at Colonia High School, 4 out of 100 people do not celebrate Halloween. I feel that even though there are a slim number of kids that do not celebrate it, it should not affect the ones who do celebrate it. They should still get the fun day of seeing their friend’s costumes, walking in the parade, and having a party in the class. I know when I was I elementary school I really looked forward to this and so did my fellow classmates.
As an option, how about school officials take the children that do not celebrate it and give them other fun activities to do instead of the parade, like have them draw or color. They can play games and just hang out with their friends. Just because they don’t celebrate Halloween does not mean that you have to keep them away from the celebration 100% that would make them feel even more excluded then they already do.
