Halloween has many roots, and while we may never know the true origin of this day, we can all agree that it’s a lot of fun watching children (and sometimes adults) dress up and go door to door with excitement as they trick or treat. Costumes come in all shapes and genres, from Minions and dinosaurs, to vampires and witches, all with one thing in common – you can be whatever you want to be on Halloween. Some dress to bring a smile or laughter, while others dress to invoke horror. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the costume is, or whether it sat on the side of laughter or fear, but there is one part of Halloween that continues to happen, year after year, and clearly aims to solicit fear.

The behaviours that guide people towards hatred are learned

Since I was in my trick or treating years I can remember stories of razor blades in apples, and pins in chocolate bars. This year the warning was to watch out for pill shaped candy which may contain powerful opiate drugs, able to cause serious harm or death to children, even in minuscule doses. Are there people out there that would purposely try to hurt a child on a day where they are meant to have fun and express themselves freely? The truth is, there have always been people like this in this world, and there always will be. Just as we need to protect ourselves against dangerous animals and other natural threats in this world, there are threats created by our fellow human beings, and we need to be aware of those too. This doesn’t mean we should assume all strangers are out to harm us, and that all candy is tampered with – quite the contrary. Almost all people have good intentions, and of the 8 billion people on earth, only a tiny fraction aren’t guided by kindness. Watch two young children play, regardless of where they are from. They are kind, unbiased, and inclusive, and neither of them needed to be taught these traits – they were born with them. The behaviours that guide people towards hatred are learned, and aside from some who could blame mental illness, actions of violence and hatred are choices….and the vast majority of the world’s population chooses kindness.

If most people have good intentions, and are guided by kindness, why do we continue to see stories of tampered candy ending up in the hands of children? Joel Best, from the University of Delaware, has published a great deal about “Halloween sadism” but has failed to find clear evidence of children being seriously harmed by candy they received from strangers. They report cases where family members were the ones to blame for the tampering, others where substances were found in the home of a relative, and many that were found to be hoaxes all along. Best admits that it would be impossible to say, without doubt, that a child has never been seriously hurt or killed by tampered candy, but seems to maintain that the threat is greatly exaggerated.

Neighbours and fellow human beings are sincerely sharing the joy of Halloween

If the risk of tampered candy is so low, why do we (me included) continue to check every piece of candy before we let our children dig in? We do so for the same reason we look both ways before we cross the road. We do so for the same reason we wear a seatbelt, even though the risk of collision is low. We do it for the same reason we keep an eye out for wild animals, even though most are more afraid of us than we are of them. We check the candy because we should always do whatever we can to ensure the survival of ourselves and our kin. This is natural, and you’ll see it among different species all over the animal kingdom. Continue to check your candy, but do so with the mindset that there is an infinitely small chance that there is anything wrong with it. Do so with the mindset that your neighbours and fellow human beings (although strangers) are sincerely sharing the joy of Halloween, and enjoy seeing the mini demons and ghosts going door to door as much as you do. Do so knowing that the spirit of millions upon millions of smiling trick or treaters around the world will never be dampened by the villainous acts of an infinitely small number of evil doers.

Check your candy, but then turn your attention back to all the positive things that come with celebrating Halloween, and don’t give the evil doers another second of your time. Positivity wins in the end. Happy Halloween!