I HATE Halloween! I’ve decided that it’s extremely scary and potentially dangerous - not because of spooky costumes or the fear of tricks if my treats fail to measure up – but because someone really could be badly hurt.
Sending children out in costume trick or treating is an unfamiliar tradition to me, but here in Ajijic I’ve joined in. As usual, last week I bought 50 small packets of assorted candies, so when the cries of, “Queremos ‘Alloween”, began just after five o’clock in the afternoon, I was ready for the first group of smiling tots, accompanied by their moms, when I opened the door.
By dusk, however, the groups beating on the door were much larger and older. They clearly felt that the sweets were a right and fundamental civility was unnecessary. Just after seven my ‘treats’ ran out and, somewhat alarmed by some of the youths’ demands for money instead, I decided to stop opening the door.
I couldn’t see how a relatively child-free neighborhood had already managed to produce over 50 children, let alone how yet more kept coming – eventually about two hundred. Curious, I went upstairs to look out and was astounded to discover that the pavements were crowded and the road itself was packed.Large numbers of vehicles, cars and trucks, carrying hordes of children were everywhere. Some were parked, loading or discharging youngsters, while others were driving down the road, alone or two abreast, completely oblivious to traffic laws and other oncoming vehicles.
Three large people carriers drove past with their sliding doors wide open. Children were stuffed into the back seats, sitting on each other’s laps and clinging on to the door frames as they bumped along. Later, I counted six eight or nine year-olds sitting in a roof rack, hanging on for dear life while their car jolted across the cobbles.
As I struggled to believe my eyes, another car stopped to discharge children. In the dark, and without looking to right or left, they started to dash across the road to the house opposite right into the path of a large open-topped truck traveling in the opposite direction. While my heart shot into my mouth, it screeched to an abrupt halt, missing a pair of young girls by inches. The forty-odd youngsters packed inside toppled over like skittles. Picked up and dusted off by the driver, they too were disgorged into the melee.
Numbers grew. So did the noise. Local dogs barked incessantly and constant cries of “Queremos ‘Alloween,” clashed with shouted instructions from parents, impatient vehicle horns, loud music from car speakers and the echoes of multiple fists hammering on metal or wooden gates. As one vehicle departed for pastures new, another arrived.
Suddenly, I became aware of an approaching group of older youths who were aggressively shouting the Halloween slogan and quite obviously frightening the smaller children. They stopped outside and suddenly there was a loud bang. This was greeted by raucous laughter, followed in quick succession by two more bangs. A car driver yelled something at the group and they moved off down the street. Eventually, at around ten the last of the vehicles left and peace returned.
Next morning I cleaned up the three eggs that had been pitched at my front door. The garden was all trampled but will recover. A young tree has had two branches broken off and some of the border bricks and two light bulbs are missing.
It was an unpleasant experience and, while Halloween has been gradually getting worse here each year – broken door bells, stolen planters, light bulbs etc., this was completely unreasonable. I spoke to the chief of our fraccionamiento. He said that there were reports of thrown eggs and tomatoes elsewhere that night.
He agreed that. “Bussing kids in,” let alone in huge numbers, was taking tradition way too far, adding that I should have called the police. I asked him to raise the issue with the municipality to see if anything could be done to spread the numbers out across the area next year, before a child gets seriously injured, or worse, while simply trying to have fun.