I was most unimpressed when my wife told me last week that our two children would be dressing up to go trick-or-treating for Halloween.
Beyond gorging on sugary sweets, I have just never seen any reason to celebrate this foreign festival.
Yet another American custom to infiltrate Australia. And I don’t have much of a sweet tooth anyway.
After all, what business does an agnostic Jewish-Australian family have celebrating Halloween? So I boycotted in protest.
Having recently moved to Caulfield – the very cream cheese of Melbourne’s Jewish bagel belt – I anticipated having to contain my smugness at the thought of my children returning empty-handed from knocking on the doors of other boycotters like me.
But as I made my way home from work on Wednesday night I was surprised by the number of households that were embracing the Halloween spirit. They had strung up props as an invitation to neighbourhood kids to knock on their doors. Perhaps it was even a little heartwarming.
When I got home, my wife’s friend who lives nearby was dabbing green paint on our daughters’ faces with black moles sprouting hair to go with their witch costumes.
I couldn’t help but admit to myself they were the cutest witches I’d ever seen. Their enthusiasm to get out into the street was infectious.
Read the article by Benjamin Preiss in The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age.