Bluffton kids are no fools when it comes to Halloween. What they think of its origin.
In a world where the answer to any question is just a search away, Bluffton children decided instead to craft their own version of Halloween’s origins while at the Bluffton Police Department’s second annual Spooktacular on Friday.
While the question of the holiday’s origins may conjure images of the Celtic festival of Samhain or the Roman All Saints Day established under Pope Boniface IV, the marketing-savvy kids of Bluffton are not so easily fooled. For them, the answer is simple — candy.
Olivia Cawthon, 8, and her 5-year-old brother, Jack, were pretty proud of their costumes Friday as they shimmied to the beat of the music blaring from speakers at the Oscar Frazier park where the event was held. Olivia was dressed as the ladybug from the children’s superhero TV show, “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.” It’s her favorite.
Olivia loves dressing up. In fact, for her, it’s the best part about Halloween, she told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette as she continued to jump around in her bright red, polka-dotted costume.
Jack, who was dressed as a dragon, was there for the candy and the orange whistle he got at one of the booths.
Kamilah and Andrea Lobaton, 4 and 8 years old, respectively, decided to go with their own takes on two classic DC Marvel characters, Spider-Girl and the Joker.
The sisters were less interested in the origins of the holiday and more concerned with how much candy they could get to fill their plastic orange buckets by the end of the night. For Kamilah, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are all the rage. Her sister prefers green apple lollipops.
For the pair of siblings, the answer of Halloween’s backstory is clear. There was no round table where monsters deliberated on what day would be the best to host their night of frivolity, no ancient Celtic festival and definitely no All Hallows Eve. That’s just a hoax, they say.
Kendra Wilson, 9, and her brothers, Lorenzo and Giovanni Rivers, 4 and 7 years old, said Halloween isn’t even that ancient. The two older siblings said Halloween got started maybe 20 to 25 years ago. Lorenzo, the youngest, said with the utmost confidence as he bounced around to the music that it started five years ago. Everyone knows that.
Kendra shares the belief with Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” film character, Max Dennison, that Halloween is just a ploy made up by the candy companies to improve their bottom line.
And 8-year-old Chantel Williams, who was dressed as a brown crayon from her favorite book, “The Day the Crayons Quit,” shared the same opinion but added that maybe, just maybe, Halloween is also a time for those who like to scare people.
