Halloween
Halloween (or, more properly, "All Hallows Eve") has gradually developed into a commercial phenomenon. Many adults will wear costumes to work but this practice is generally discouraged among lawyers in private practice according to an article in the most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly entitled "Should you don a Halloween costume at work?" The author quotes a lawyer in a small firm as making the rather astute observation that "For clients, going to a lawyer is scary enough!"
Yet Halloween remains, essentially, a fun diversion from the ordinary as detailed in a recent article in the National Post entitled: "The War on Halloween". For example, in Churchill, Man., Halloween coincides with an annual gathering of polar bears in the vicinity of the town waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze. "As such, the community’s 300-or-so trick-or-treaters need to be guarded by a combined force of Mounties, firefighters and conservation officers circling the community in helicopters and heavy trucks."
The National Post piece puts it well: “Halloween is a role reversal holiday,” says Cindy Dell Clark, a Rutgers University anthropologist specializing in childhood culture. "While under the thumb of adults the rest of the year, on Halloween night children get to dress up as grown-ups, talk to strangers, brave frightening icons and consume vast amounts of a substance that’s normally controlled, she said. In the never-ending struggle for power between parents and children, Halloween is a much-needed “relief valve,” says Ms. Clark."
David M. Smith - Click here for more information on David Smith.
