Every year, as October runs out, something strange happens
in ordinary neighborhoods. Porches that stayed plain for eleven months suddenly
glow orange. Children who would never open a stranger’s door march up driveways
in capes and plastic masks. Grown adults spend real money on fake cobwebs. A
carved pumpkin with a candle inside sits on a doorstep like a small, grinning
guard.
It is easy to treat all this as harmless fun, a night of
candy and costumes. But Halloween is one of the oldest survivi...
