TRICK OR TREAT?
This and that with Dr Sandy Kalyan
Adhir and Mits Kalyan on Halloween. They dressed up as Jack and Sally from the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Image: SUPPLIED
ONE IN four people experience a mental health issue like depression, anxiety or eating disorders. Mental Health is the second largest pandemic in the world, yet seeing a therapist to help resolve issues still carries a huge stigma.
Therapy is simply a conversation with a trained health care professional.
A psychologist usually undertakes a seven year study to qualify and has to be registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa in order to practice.
Psychologists are bound by a very strict code of ethics and all interactions between the therapist and patient are strictly confidential. If you are experiencing a mental health issue, and unsure about your approach, feel free to write to me at [email protected].
TRICK or treat!
This was the chant by groups of kids at the gate of my son’s home in Los Angeles on October 31, around 5pm. The occasion was the annual holiday of Halloween. It’s a big celebration in America.
I naturally assumed that this celebration is a traditional event of the United States.
However, I learnt, much to my surprise, that this tradition was actually brought to America by Irish immigrants.
This holiday was originally intended to mark the end of summer (and the harvest) and possibly famine.
There was also a belief that the dead could walk the earth as ghosts; therefore people dressed up in costumes as protection, so that the ghosts would not know their true identity as they walked from house to house to ask for food.
And that bad spirits would not catch them.
Besides dressing up in costumes, bonfires were also lit to scare the ghosts away and pumpkins were hollowed out with holes for eyes and mouths, and a candle lit inside.
A scary sight indeed. This is probably the reason why most of the decorations consist of skulls and skeletons.
People decorate their homes and front yards at least a week before the festival with all manner of fun things- from pumpkins and skeletons to creepy crawlies like spiders, scary, talking, flashing one-eyed monsters, lights and all sorts of weird and wonderful ornaments.
Kids actually go to markets to pick out their pumpkins and decorate them.
When the sun goes down, the kids gather in groups in their fun costumes with buckets in hand and go from house to house calling out “trick or treat.”
It is usual for the adults to have tables set out in front and hand out sweets and chocolates as treats to the kids.
If anyone decides not to hand out any treats, the kids may spray them with a water bottle or burst a balloon.
That’s the trick or prank.
Good clean, harmless fun.
My son and his in-laws manned the table at his house, giving out candy and I swear they had far more fun giving out the candy than the kids receiving it!
My son dressed up as Jack and my granddaughter as Sally from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Every child and their parents dressed up in great and colourful costumes.
From Willy Wonka, to Captain Hook, to Elsa and so on.
Each with their own funny and whacky interpretation.
My grandkids, their cousins and many friends had great fun going trick or treating and came back with buckets overflowing with assorted candy.
Enough to last many days, cause intense sugar highs and upset tummies!
Fortunately, (for the parents), while the kids settled down to play or watch scary movies, parents sorted the buckets out and made sure that most of the sweets were saved as treats for many days to come and not all eaten at once.
I also spotted several moms hiding the candy from the kids, looking at labels, checking for caffeine, sugar and any additive content and quietly removing it before they were any wiser. I was most struck by the respectfulness of the children who came round to trick or treat. They took only one chocolate.
No grabbing, pushing or shouting. Every single child said thank you. I casually mentioned to my son that I didn’t think that there were so many kids in his suburb and he told me that a lot of the kids were actually from different parts of the city, accompanied by their parents, to join in the celebration of Halloween.
A truly unifying celebration of a holiday which lets both adults and kids alike, be kids. I must add that I was totally amazed that the decorations are still standing four days later! No one has pinched them. What do you think is the trick in this treat?