The Problem with Cancelling Halloween

Recently, several schools or school districts in Seattle, East Lansing Michigan, and Princeton New Jersey canceled Halloween celebrations, citing “equity” and concerns about “marginalized” students. The Princeton school, facing backlash from parents, temporarily rescinded this decision, though leaving it open to review in future years. The drive to create more inclusive holiday celebrations is a positive one, but is canceling majority culture celebrations the best way to do this?

Interestingly, at least for the Seattle school, the move to cancel Halloween celebrations doesn’t seem to have been prompted by any specific complaints from families. The school merely said it was “committed to supplanting the Pumpkin Parade with more inclusive and educational opportunities during the school day.” That sounds like fun. If no one was complaining, why would the school make a decision that was so likely to provoke a backlash?

Some of this may come from good intentions, even if they're ill-advised. To be sure, some kids may come from families whose religious traditions don’t allow the celebration of Halloween, others may not have the financial means to buy costumes, and other children may be frightened of scary costumes or offended by divisive ones.

Yet, each of these issues, in my view, have fairly straightforward, constructive fixes. Children whose families wish to abstain from celebrating Halloween should certainly be able to opt-out. Their kids should be given alternative activities which are fun and exciting, even just some supervised extra recess time which is healthy and fun (punishing them with more “education” isn’t necessary—give the kids a break).

Schools could hold bake sales or other funding drives to help poorer families secure costumes (which could also be used for trick-or-treat). Families can be given some reasonable suggestions for costumes to stay away from that may offend. I’m generally wary of the potential for this to go overboard, but as a compromise solution in public schools, this can work. As for young kids getting scared, I’m honestly less inclined to shield them. We tend to treat kids like spun glass; instead, teachers can be ready to make this a lesson for younger kids that sometimes scary things aren’t as scary as they first seem.

As much as possible, I argue that kids from other cultures should be welcomed and encouraged to participate in Halloween. Cultural transmission of holidays is a good and fun way for cultures to assimilate with each other within the U.S.—hence why we have Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, Kwanzaa, etc. (Columbus Day, initially a pride of Italian Americans, has become more controversial in recent years). Holidays bring people together. Rather than canceling Halloween, schools could work to celebrate ethnic or cultural minority holidays such as Chinese New Year, Diwali, Ramadan, etc. This would allow kids of different backgrounds to learn about each other in a fun environment. I argue that we should have more holidays in schools, not fewer.

This decision could also be related to a general ideological shift among some on the political left (where many schoolteachers tend to lean) to dismantle many things having to do with American traditions. But I argue that the other side of this is taking people’s holidays away, even in public settings, tends to cause resentment, not togetherness. If you want to increase ethnic strain and resentment a great way to do it is to take away one culture’s traditions from public spaces. This likely also contributes to the various “War on…” (Christmas, Halloween, Columbus Day) narratives that have gained purchase with some portion of the population. If one group thinks another is being paranoid, it helps not to give them evidence to support their paranoia.

Ultimately, I see the canceling of Halloween in public schools as a mistake. There is so far no evidence these kinds of decisions advance “equity.” What they mostly advance, I argue, is anger and divisiveness.