Today's American Holiday

Ryan McMaken celebrates "a magnificent American festival" — All Hail Halloween! He writes, "The smell of candles burning inside pumpkins, the sound of crunching leaves beneath our feet, and the chance to dress up and beg for free candy are all a recipe for childhood memories that easily rival the fun of even Christmas."

"While the idea of the jack-o-lantern may come from an Irish version made from turnips, the modern jack-o-lantern, made from pumpkins, which are native to the Americas, is as American as they come." He continues, "And when we think of the elements of Halloween with its dark forests and headless horsemen and gothic freaks and menacing ravens, we are taking a page from the works of writers like Washington Irving and the inimitable Edgar Allen Poe who is the undisputed father of the American horror movie, the ghost story, and the American folklore behind haunted houses and masquerade balls."

Mr. McMaken begins his essay mentioning "the second British writer just this year that [he's] noticed going on a tirade against this venerable American holiday." (Need I mention the American Catholics who do the same every year?) He recalls "the one Halloween [he] spent in Rome where tiny children wandered through the streets (all dressed in identical witch or ghost costumes) and begged shopkeepers and restaurateurs for some kind of treat that [he] couldn’t identify."

"Europeans don’t know a good Halloween any more than they know a decent hot dog," he concludes. The same can be said of Koreans, on both counts. (This will give you an idea of just how wrong this country is on that second count — Korean French-fry coated hot dog.)

I have not yet allowed my children to celebrate Halloween outside the home, not because of any lingering puritanism, but because here in Korea they would not be able to celebrate it properly. I live in university housing where almost everyone had lived in America, and Halloween is one custom the families with kids try to bring back.

I'm sorry, but going from apartment building to apartment building, and taking the elevator to the apartments pre-designated by the mothers' committee as participating households is not trick-or-treating. Before I had kids of my own, the kids used to come to my door, knowing that I was an American, but I never had any candy, so instead stuck a flashlight under my chin to give the kids a good scare. They haven't been back in years.

Now, we celebrate at home, with a jack-o-lantern (the Korean pumpkin, after centuries away from its native American soil, is either too small, too green, too flat, or too tough inside, and spoils too quickly for jack-o-lanternism, but it tastes good), homemade ghost costumes, and scary stories. I hope to give my kids a good American Halloween someday back home.