Halloween Urbanism
First and foremost, Halloween is a Christian holy day, a holiday even. Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, is the evening before All Hallows’, or All Saints’ Day. November 1st is when Christians celebrate the lives of all saints who are living in glory with Christ in Heaven. Halloween is the equivalent to Christmas Eve. The feast day on November 1st itself was founded as a local tradition in Rome by Pope Gregory III in the early 8th century, commemorating the anniversary of a newly built church whose religious orders it housed were tasked with praying for the dead. All Hallows’ Day was made a universal holiday by Pope Gregory IV in the early 9th century. It is an old Christian holiday that celebrates all the souls in Heaven, not some newfangled Celtic pagan holiday that serves the devil somehow, which an unfortunate number of people believe.
One of the principal ways we celebrate the holiday (or at least for kids) is by dressing up in costumes and knocking on strangers’ doors asking for candy. We’ve been doing that specific activity in the United States for over a hundred years and have good reason to believe the practice of trick-or-treating started in Scotland or Ireland about 500 years ago. Originally, you were more likely to witness people of all ages perform a short scene from a play, recite poems or scripture, or some other dramatic act. It’s like the equivalent of going Christmas caroling.
Shockingly, traditions change over time and distance. Today, it is primarily young children who go trick-or-treating, and I can’t say I’ve ever witnessed nor wanted someone to recite poetry or perform a play on my doorstep. However, there is one change in tradition that I find to be for the worse: trunk-or-treating.
It’s not that I find the act itself bad, it’s that it is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Churches and community centers that host trunk-or-treating events are simply adapting to their environment. The problem, as it so often is, is poor urban planning.
What necessitates a trunk-or-treating event? Chiefly, safety. After all, Halloween is the deadliest day of the year. Trick-or-treating is today a child’s activity, and it specifically occurs at or after sundown. Not every residential street even has a sidewalk so our most vulnerable are forced to walk on the road—which has not been blocked off, mind you. So, you have a large number of short people, many of whom are likely wearing black, walking on an active road at night. It is a wonder that trunk-or-treating didn’t take off far sooner.
Really, out of all the problems I’ve written about regarding the shape and feel of our towns, this one can be solved pretty easily. An adequate sidewalk would get you most of the way there. Yet for some reason we as a country seem to love making sidewalks barely wide enough for one person, let alone a parent herding a gaggle of kids. They also mustn’t abruptly end in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. A wide sidewalk (how wide? I don’t know, let’s say six feet), that connects every space in the neighborhood together would do wonders. Throw in some bump-outs to shorten crosswalk length and continuous sidewalks to slow down any potential speeding cars and you’re in a great place. Just these measures alone could turn the deadliest night of the year back into the fun celebration it was meant to be.
What permits trunk-or-treating to even be possible? Strangely, it’s also poor urban planning. Gigantic, flat, empty parking lots are taken over for the night and packed with cars as parents hand out candy from their trunks. What problems does this solve? Well, it’s in an area that is otherwise blocked off to car traffic—because cars are what you’re trying to avoid. There’s no one driving in the lot once the event has begun. Secondly, everyone is near to each other. There’s a high density of people per square foot, making it easy to get from one to the other. I can’t imagine young kids really want to walk for a mile or two just to get to all the houses that happen to be handing out candy. Funnily enough, it’s almost reminiscent of a traditional walkable neighborhood.
Humans love traditions, and we keep adapting them to match the contours of our lives, but there are some changes we don’t have to accept. We don’t have to accept a worse version of trick-or-treating forever. We are agentic, we can affect change where we demand it. Demand that your neighborhood be carefully planned out so that it is inviting, enjoyable to be in, and safe for the most vulnerable among us. We do not—and should not—accept that Halloween simply has always been and always will be the deadliest day of the year, where disproportionate numbers of innocent children are ran over by thoughtless drivers and uncaring government planning bureaucrats.
We should enjoy the holidays, all of them, and we should celebrate with peace of mind.