To the editor:
While Halloween is a great, fun night in North America in which kids get to dress up in costume and go out tricking or treating for candy, I urge residents to be aware that not every household, for one reason or another, celebrates this festive occasion.
Halloween 2008 happened to fall on a Friday, and Friday nights means the Sabbath to Jewish families. It is customary not to ring a Jewish person's doorbell on the Sabbath. If a stranger is unaware that a particular home belongs to a Jew, they will notice a clue on the inside of the door frame of the front door, the Mezzuzzah, a Jewish prayer generally housed in a small case, indicating that Jews live within.
As you can imagine, it was most disruptive to our Sabbath dinner last year to have to keep getting up from the table to answer the door. But most annoying was the fact that parents allowed their children to keep ringing the doorbell until the door was opened. Surely one or two rings is sufficient to realize that this is a house that was not participating and should have been passed over. This together with the fact that our front garden was completely unadorned with Halloween decorations and that there were no lights turned on outside should have made our non-participation most evident.
This year, Halloween falls on a Saturday and while the Sabbath may already be over by the time kids come trick or treating, my family is still one that does not celebrate Halloween. But religion aside, there are lots of reasons that people choose not to participate in this festivity and I am writing this on behalf of all of us. I urge all The Mirror readers to be sensitive enough to realize that when households refrain from turning on outside lights and keep their front gardens clear of Halloween decorations, they are not joining in the celebration and that the revellers should respectfully pass by these particular houses.
Gilda Schraibman