Halloween, Our Children, and the Monsters Hidden in the Dark — Part Three

But what does any of this have to do with Halloween and children?

On Halloween night, children go to the darkened houses in their neighbourhood, where the residents are dressed in frightening costumes and have filled their homes with frightening dolls and decorations. The children must voluntarily approach these houses and frightening beings, and the reward for a successful encounter is the sweets and chocolates they receive and collect.

This overcoming of fear and voluntary confrontation with the deepest fears of childhood can be understood as a kind of initiation into children’s inner capacity and courage for confronting the darkness of the world. It is something like the brave hero who goes to fight the dragon and, after defeating it, obtains the gold the dragon has hidden. The encounter between hero and dragon is one of the most ancient mythic stories in the world and one of the central stories of the hero’s journey.

In the Halloween tradition of Trick or Treat, children learn to confront their fear of monsters and darkness voluntarily. The voluntary character of the encounter is especially valuable because modern psychological studies of the treatment of severe anxiety and phobias share a common principle: the importance of gradual and voluntary exposure to what the patient fears. My own close experience of this voluntary encounter changed my understanding of Halloween, making it an important and formative experience for children.

Finally, the next time our child tells us they are afraid of the dark and of monsters, perhaps we can be honest with them and with ourselves rather than saying there is nothing frightening about darkness and that monsters do not exist. Perhaps next year we might even go with them to meet the monsters on Halloween night, and after prevailing in that nocturnal encounter with darkness and the unknown, return home with hands full of sweets gathered as spoils and celebrate together the courage to face darkness voluntarily.

Aydin Areta
31 October 2018