Technolandy

Day 38 (of 2025/26) #Hallowe’ek – 3 Positives & 3 Negatives

Hallowe’ek is another reminder of how systemic discrimination often hides in plain sight within our schools. We tend to dismiss its roots in organized religion, framing it instead as a secular celebration — “just kids gathering candy.” But let’s be honest… for decades, many of us have gone to some neighbourhoods and quietly avoided others. I also see this ‘holiday’ is an example of lived hypocrisy… 

Negative 1: Cultural Appropriation and Stereotyping

Many costumes draw on cultural symbols, attire, or identities that are not meant to be “played” or imitated.

• Impact: Costumes borrowing from Indigenous regalia, “Oriental” imagery, or other cultural/religious dress reduce lived identities to caricatures.
• Systemic layer: When schools allow or overlook such costumes, they implicitly validate cultural appropriation — reinforcing colonial and racial hierarchies that privilege dominant (often white, Western) expressions while marginalizing others.

Positive 1: Builds Community and Belonging

When planned inclusively, Halloween can foster a shared sense of fun and connection among students, staff, and families.

• Why it matters: Spirit days, costume parades, or creative classroom activities can strengthen relationships and help learners feel seen beyond academic contexts.
• Equity lens: With inclusive guidelines (e.g., book character day, creative costume day), it becomes less about competition or conformity and more about joyful participation and collective identity. It also opens the door to talk about cultural appreciation vs. appropriation.

Negative 2: Economic Inequity and Class Bias

Costumes, parties, and themed events often assume families have disposable income for new costumes, treats, and decorations.

• Impact: Students from lower-income families may feel excluded or embarrassed for “not participating.”
• Systemic layer: This reproduces class-based inequities—especially when “spirit” or “participation” points are tied to material access.
  (I always promote home-made costumes—cardboard forever!—but the pull of commercial culture is hard to resist.)

Positive 2: Encourages Creativity and Self-Expression

Halloween invites learners to imagine, create, and take risks in how they present themselves and tell stories.

• Why it matters: Costumes and stories engage design thinking, narrative construction, and empathy—helping students see the world through another’s eyes.
• Learning connection: It aligns beautifully with arts education, literacy, and project-based learning when students design, describe, or even code their costumes and stories.

Negative 3: Gender and Identity Norms

Traditional costume expectations often reinforce binary gender roles and heteronormative stereotypes.

• Impact: Students exploring gender identity or expression may feel unsafe or constrained by the “boys dress scary / girls dress … cute” pattern.
• Systemic layer: When schools don’t challenge these assumptions or offer inclusive alternatives, they perpetuate gender bias and cisnormativity—limiting belonging for LGBTQ2IA+ learners.

Positive 3: Promotes Cultural Literacy and Critical Thinking

Rather than avoiding the origins of Halloween, schools can use it to explore cultural evolution, symbolism, and global traditions.

• Why it matters: Tracing its roots—from Samhain (Celtic) to All Hallows’ Eve (Christian) to Día de los Muertos(Latin American)—helps learners appreciate how traditions blend, change, and coexist in multicultural societies.
• Equity lens: When taught critically, Halloween becomes a case study in cultural exchange vs. appropriation, deepening inclusive and reflective citizenship.

Bias Hiding in Plain Sight: Religiously Excluding – on purpose? By design? As a side-effect??

When schools treat Halloween participation as a “default,” they unintentionally marginalize families who abstain for faith reasons. Their children can be left out of group activities, class parties, or even assessments tied to “school spirit.”

• Systemic layer: This reflects a dominant cultural bias that normalizes secular or Westernized celebrations while positioning religious abstention as “other.” Schools that fail to provide meaningful, non-punitive alternatives can inadvertently privilege certain worldviews over others.

Halloween can be both a blast and a bias check.

It’s a time when creativity, community, and joy come alive — and when we see how privilege, culture, and access quietly shape who feels included. Two things can be true: it’s fun and it’s flawed. The point isn’t to cancel it — it’s to notice, name, and nudge it toward something more equitable. This event was a classic example of syncretism — blending existing cultural practices with Christian observances to ease conversion and create continuity… so, within this hypocrisy – is this still a Christian Observance embedded in the school calendar… or is it a new syncretism where it is becoming more of a secular event with more mis-understandings about it’s origin story… OR is it fading away with less social-neighbourhood wandeinings for candy (no longer prayers) and more house parties… going to be interesting seeing which direction this goes… especially with the increased prices of chocolate post-2024… 

Great time to do an equity scan – to see who is included… and who is not (which means they are being excluded…)