Are frogs, toads & wizened oldies really so spooky?

Is Halloween (or Hallowe'en as it used to be) outdated? 

Do we really want to encourage our children to shudder at endangered creatures - at our precious frogs, toads and newts? Even spiders have their place in the world, and that's hard for me to acknowledge, as a spider-dreader. Even vermin deserves human respect, however we may need to control it. Animals are animals, whatever their features and habits, whatever threats they may pose. And let's remember, we use rats and mice for invaluable scientific experiments for the sake of human health and welfare. Why? Because, in certain ways, they resemble us. We're linked, as we are with everything. Science has taught us things we didn't know in Medieval times; don't we need to teach our offspring accordingly?

As for witches and wizards? Take away the quaint old 'magic' concept, and they're poor, wrinkled old dears like I'll soon be, and if we want the next generation to respect wildlife, we cross our fingers that they'll respect us oldies even more when time comes to call on their care! Even the dark, murky weather that we associate with Hallowe'en is precious. Indeed, autumn is the favourite season of many of us, and has even acquired the status of a girl's name.

Autumn may cast shadows and blow chill winds, but it also offers golden light through golden leaves: autumn holds us in a fragile, ephemeral aura like no other.

So let's be sure to pass on to our children the wonderful side of autumn, as well as the weird, over Hallowe'en, and to lead ways in celebrating, rather than scorning, the fragile and fascinating, the venerable and vulnerable, the slanting, slipping shades of our world!