From Gary Wisz’s good piece at RM: “All Hallows Eve, preceding All Souls Day, was a remembrance, not only of the dead who died in the faith, but of the “happy” fact that they died not in vain but in Christ, that Christ’s Kingdom is victorious, and that we need not fear Satan and his lies anymore. One would never know this from churches that sequester their young behind church hall doors to bob for apples and pin the tail on the donkey on October 31, as though waiting for an evil wind to pass. But costumes are not celebrating anything other than that we’re not afraid anymore of the dark or the things that slink in it. In fact, we can even dress like those things to show that their dominion is vanquished and laugh at them. Why, even our children can! The notion of a child dressed as a ghoul ringing a doorbell and saying, “Trick or treat” (as though to give the householder the option) is actually pretty comic, but the response is also quite a Christian gesture: “Treat.” Those parading in celebration of vanquished darkness, by mockingly dressing like it, mockingly pose a threat (“Trick”) but are given something (“Treat”) ”