Opinion
Don’t forget safety while having fun on Halloween
With origins that date back more than 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain to the current trend of dressing like H1N1 (swine) flu to go trick-or-treating, the traditions that have helped shape Halloween span multiple centuries and cultures.
But for children, the highlight of the holiday most likely is trick-or-treating, when they dress up in their scariest, prettiest or bloodiest costumes and go door to door asking for chocolates and sweets.
The idea of wearing costumes to celebrate the day is not a new one. Even the Celts wore costumes — although theirs were typically made from animal heads and skins — during celebrations thousands of years ago.
But costumes now are much more elaborate, whether homemade or bought at a local store, and children often base their costumes on their favorite celebrity or a character from a movie or book. Zombies, ghosts and goblins are also annual favorites.
It should be no surprise that Halloween is a booming business in terms of retail sales — some market researchers have even said they expect 2009 sales for costumes and decor to rise 3 percent to $3.8 billion this year compared to last year — so it’s safe to say that many local people will be participating in some sort of holiday event this weekend.
Trick-or-treat is scheduled in 16 parts of the county Saturday, with the annual event scheduled to fall sometime between 5:30 and 8 p.m. in various communities.
And while it’s easy to get caught up in all the Halloween hype, we must remember that safety is a top priority to keeping trick-or-treaters safe this holiday weekend. With reports suggesting that four times as many children between the ages of 5 and 14 are killed while walking on Halloween when compared to other evenings of the year, it’s easy to see why safety is so important.
So parents should make sure children’s costumes are flame resistant and that their masks don’t obstruct their sight. Reflective tape also helps them be more visible to passing motorists. In addition, kids should only go to well-lit houses when seeking candy, and they should have a flashlight handy to help light the path between homes.
Safety should be practiced by adults, too, and if they aren’t accompanying their children, parents should make sure to know the route their children plan to take while trick-or-treating. Designating a set time to be home also helps cut down on problems.
As Gil Campbell, acting Fairmont police chief, pointed out, safety is especially important on this night of tricks and treats. He said parents should go with their children in order to provide adult supervision when kids are making their rounds through the community.
“Please drive a little slower because children go from house to house with only one thing on their mind — candy,” he said.
And once they get home with all those sugary treats? All candy should be inspected by parents, and anything that isn’t sealed by a manufacturer or appears to be tampered with should be discarded immediately.
After all, a few extra minutes to ensure safety can prevent local children from becoming another statistic. It will also help make Halloween a night of more treats than tricks.
- Opinion
-
-
Student protestors get great civics lesson
Senior projects may be an issue for East Fairmont High School seniors, but we believe a large group of them demonstrated that they were paying attention in civics class.
-
North Marion girls impressive in defending championship
The North Marion girls’ basketball team this past season was quite predictable.
It was probably only a few minutes after the Huskies won the 2009 Class AAA championship in the state high school tournament in Charleston that the first fan predicted that “we’ll win it again next year.”
-
Elders deserve more relief via in-home care funding
In February, the Gazette reported that more than 900 fragile West Virginia elders had qualified for in-home care, but were getting no help because the Manchin administration says there is no money left for that program.
-
Mine officials’ swift action may have saved lives
While it was hard to watch Patriot Coal Corp.’s Federal No. 2 Mine halt production a few times over the past month, we have to believe that swift action on the part of mine, union and federal officials may have saved lives.
Stopping mining at the operation means placing a financial burden on the miners who work there, we understand, but conditions were such that an explosion like the one that took the lives of 12 miners just four years ago in Sago was possible.
-
Voters: Scrap it and rewrite it
A few weeks.
A lot can happen in a few weeks. Just think, a few weeks ago, we were all lamenting the snow and poor road conditions. Now we’ve had enough spring-like weather over the past couple of days that the only snow left is the clumps in parking lots from the plows. And even those are melting faster than a Dairy Creme Corner ice cream cone on a hot July day.
-
Area women’s basketball programs have come long way
For many years, women’s basketball just seemed to many observers to be just something for young girls and women to do prior to the “real games” being played by boys and men. It took a long time before women’s games were even covered by the media — and that includes radio and television as well as newspapers.
Fortunately, opinions have changed over the years.
-
City must practice responsible fiscal policy
The employees of the City of Fairmont have a reason to celebrate.
For the first time in three years, since a water crisis crippled the city and its finances in the early months of 2007, employees will get one-time pay increases worth about $750.
-
Laws needed to regulate development of resources
The Marcellus shale formations, which extend throughout the Eastern United States, remain a largely untapped reserve of natural gas. And that makes it a prime target for energy development.
But local legislators want a little regulation when it comes to the extraction of the natural resource. Drillers tap millions of gallons of water from streams and rivers so as to bore into the rock formations that trap the state’s abundant reserves of natural gas.
-
Broadband access vital to state’s future
The Mountain State is receiving $126.3 million in federal stimulus funding for a proposed statewide broadband infrastructure project.
-
Here’s to dodging those potholes
There’s always this span of time when the snow melts and the beauty of the landscape suffers for it. Bare trees once frosted with snow are just bare again. The streets and sidewalks are covered with cinders and dust.
The brighter the sun shines, the uglier it looks.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Student protestors get great civics lesson
