As our sugar crazed kids go
out to support the $2 Billion dollar generated-in-one-week-Halloween-industry it might be a good time to explore Halloween and its origins. For starters, the historical significance of Halloween’s marriage to candy has only
recently surfaced since the 1970’s. For decades Christmas and Easter dominated
the candy industry’s traditional events.
Prior to
this early exploitation and commercialism of
Holloween well before 800 A.D. Halloween had its origins entrenched into Celtic culture with Roman
influence helping shape the holiday as we now know it. The beauty of America is that we have a mosaic of cultures further enriching its significance into culture and rituals. Notably, Latino culture had shared el dia de los muertos with America bringing the tradition of ancestors and honoring the dead into the the American psyche in a way that Halloween could not. 
So, as we
are becoming more engaged with healthy living, healthy eating, and a socially meaningful awareness of Halloween how do we as
parents address the second largest grossing holiday which aggressively promotes
candies
as it impacts our children. It might be
good practice to set limits throughout the year with candies and all household
rules so that when the bags of candies come flooding into the room we manage the candy overload. It might also be good practice to explore the cultural diversity, relevance, and significance of Halloween with children so that it is more thank just a Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger experience.
For adults to recognize the pros and cons of candy Samira Kawash’s book Candy: A Century of Panic or and Pleasure discusses the complexed love hate and
historical relationship candy as confections as food as sugar has over us. And excerpt from NPR's weekend edition might be worth listening to.
Furthermore, the history of
our obsession with candy, or confections, sometimes gives insight to its simple pleasures and possibly
how negative connotations have evolved in the functionality of candy. So whatever your thoughts are on "Candy" or Cultures or Cavities what we know is all kids LOVE Holloween!
Read more about Dr. Strayhorn's practice and philosophy...
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