There is a lot to love about Halloween. What other time of year do people open up their homes to strangers just to give something away? The smell of roasting pumpkin seeds and images of fairy princesses and dinosaurs roaming the neighborhood are powerfully happy, but nowadays there is a mostly scary story behind the way we are celebrating. Our traditions have been largely stolen by big business who have some truly frightening skeletons in their closet. How to conjure up some real magic? Reclaim the holiday and bring some of the happy back to Halloween. Here are some ways to do it:
- Buy organic pumpkins…even for your Jack-o-Lanterns.
- Give Fair-trade and organic candy, home-made treats (gasp), or non-edible treats…get creative
- Host a costume swap, Create a costume from finds at a local thrift or second-hand store, or use things you have around the house. If you must buy new, support a small ethical company
- Use non-toxic make-up
- Use decorations that can be re-used year to year, recycled, or composted. Use soy based or beeswax candles or LED lights.
- Have the kids carry a re-usable, washable, cloth bag or pillow-case to gather treats
- Use washable plates, cutlery and napkins for your parties. If you must use disposable, make it compostable and actually compost it.
Why? and How?
Organic Pumpkins:
Twilight Greenaway wrote a funny piece for grist.com where she describes her inner dialogue about buying pumpkins:
“Voice of hedonism: Buying lots of pumpkins and cutting them up so they’ll eventually rot in front of your house is your right as an American. Plus, it’s fun!
Voice of conscience: But they’re food. And you are really careful about food. All the winter squash in your kitchen came from local farmers. So why should you get a free pass just because you’re planning to waste these ones?
Voice of hedonism: Look, they have big ol’ giant ones, classy white ones, and teenie tiny ones. Clearly you need one of each!
Voice of conscience: You’re right. Is anybody looking?”
I have definitely been there…but here is the thing: Pumpkins are big business and we are always voting with our dollars. Even if we are not going to eat them, those pumpkins grown conventionally used up a whole lot of toxic chemicals and when we buy them we support those practices. When you buy organic you are voting for better health for farmers and farm workers, less polluted streams and rivers, healthier soil and cleaner air. So buy organic and support the local farmers who are doing it right.
Handing out Happy treats
There is nothing good or happy about candy that is made for our American children off the scarred backs of children overseas, but the awful truth is that almost every snack-size candy bar available in stores this Halloween is tainted with child slavery. The connection between the major candy bar manufacturers (which includes Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and the U.S. division of Cadbury) and child slavery has been one of the world’s best-kept secrets until fairly recently. So far government has not been able to do much. In 2001, after Congressman Eliot Engel (D) NY learned of these terrible practices, he slipped in an addendum to the FDA bill about to hit the Congressional floor requiring chocolate companies to mark their bars “No Slavery Here” if that was the case. When the candy lobby got wind of it, they hired George Mitchell and Bob Dole as their lobbying henchmen to thwart the bill before it went to the Senate. They were successful. Instead of any new laws they got The Harkin-Engel Protocol an unenforceable promise from candy makers that they would voluntarily clean up the supply chain of the worst forms of child labor with remediation to be done by 2005. How has that worked out? Not so well. According to Chris Bayer, a Tulane University researcher studying the problem, “We have seen very little implementation of the actual commitments. Industry did not live up to the Harkin-Engel Protocol.” So if the politicians do not have the backbone to pass a law, we must once again vote with our dollars. In the past few years a few excellent documentaries including CNN’s “Chocolate’s Child Slaves” and “The Dark Side of Chocolate” have helped to educate consumers about the issue. As a result, many consumers are being choosier about what they buy. Perhaps this is why earlier this month Hershey pledged to end child slave labor in its cocoa production by 2020. ( 7 more years of child slaves is acceptable!?) This is quite possibly another empty promise for the sake of marketing, but Hershey does seem to be feeling some market pressure. Our voting dollars at work. So if you are not buying tiny Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups what can you get? Quite a few local stores sell fair trade and organic Halloween candy now. Check the IV Co-op, Whole Foods and Lazy Acres. You can also buy them online here.
You could also just make some homemade treats. I love Lenore Skenazy’s idea to “Occupy Halloween.” She writes about the homemade treat phenomenon on her bog post:
“Start with the fact that there has NEVER been a case of children poisoned by a stranger’s candy on Halloween. That’s according to University of Delaware sociologist Joel Best, who has studied the urban myth since 1985. Nonetheless, the advice we ALWAYS hear is to “check your child’s candy for tampering,” and treat homemade goodies like radioactive waste. All of which is based on the belief that we are quite likely surrounded by psychopathic child killers (who hold it in till Oct. 31st).
But that idea isn’t just wrong, it’s corrosive. Start thinking of your nice neighbors as potential killers ONE day a year and how are you supposed to trust them the REST of the year?”
Going back to homemade treats is one small step to reclaim our communities and move away from the fearful society we have become. I like the idea of including a little note explaining that your treat was made with wholesome ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup here) and a lot of love.
If you want to stay away from the sugar craze entirely, you can choose to get creative with non-edible treats. Here is a list of green treat ideas to get you started.
Costumes
When you buy that cheap costume at the big box store you are supporting all kinds of bad…inorganic cotton that uses 25% of the worlds insecticides and 10% of its pesticides, petro-chemical fabrics that will never biodegrade, terrible conditions in polluting factories…you get the picture. Here are some other options: Join the National Costume Swap or host your own. Check out thrift stores like Alpha Thrift or one of the local children’s second-hand stores like Polar Bear or My Sweet Pineapple for costumes or clothing that can be made into a costume. Get creative and use things from around your house. You might just come up with a traffic stopping idea like this ;) and recycle your cardboard while you are at it! If you need to buy new, be sure to support a good company. Sarah’s Silks is a “Green America Approved Business” and a fun source for dress-ups. Sites like ETSY also have a lot of eco-offerings.
Make-up
Make-up can make your costume rock, but it can also be full of toxic chemicals. You clearly don’t want to be using lead filled lipstick, especially if you using it on a child. It is always a good idea to check the ingredients of any cosmetics before you use them. Environmental Working Group has a fantastic data base to check the safety of cosmetics. For the DIY types, here are some recipes for homemade Halloween make-up.
For decorations, parties, and more, Green Halloween.org has lots of “eek-o-friendly” suggestions.
Holidays are a great time to reconnect to each other and our own core values. We have to be brave enough to shine the light on those skeletons in the closet and then choose to cast our spell for love, creativity and a healthy planet for all. What’s in your spell book?
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