Halloween

No trick. No treat. No thanks.

“We just didn’t celebrate Halloween,” says Piedmont sophomore, Becca Scruggs. “My family didn’t agree with the origins of the holiday. They considered it satanic.”

Rev. Ralph Fiorelli, pastor of the Bergenfield Assembly of God Church, is opposed to children trick-or-treating because of safety considerations and because it glorifies Satan.

"It's a day that's set aside for things of darkness...things that are supernatural. In reality, it has nothing to do with God," says Fiorelli.

The idea of Halloween being satanic is not surprising.

The tradition of Halloween dates back to the Irish Celts, who believed the day was when the worlds of the living and the dead became one.

Much has changed since those ancient times. Halloween has become a holiday of trick-or-treating, costume parties, and visits to hayrides and haunted houses.

Pop culture has even turned Halloween into a sexual event as girls’ costumes are becoming less modest and more revealing.

“Halloween is a holiday for college girls to dress promiscuous,” says Adam Perillo, an employee of Party City, a costume shop. “All of a sudden Little Bo Peep has lost her innocence.”

Looking back at what Halloween use to mean, I must confess it is different now.

The holiday use to be about who got the best candy and who had the coolest costume. Now it is about how scared or slutty we can make ourselves.

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it,” says the character Cady in the movie Mean Girls.

When it comes down to it, people have different beliefs and that’s fine. Halloween has unfortunately gone through certain changes, but I still look at it as a time where once a year, a kid can dress up and pretend for a night to be someone ore something else and get free candy. I mean after all, it was always about the candy.