Many of today's holidays and traditions have originated from things we cannot celebrate today. The passover seder explicitly mentions the killing of the first-born Egyptian children as one of the 10 plagues. I'm sure one can find more examples if one tries. But we don't put this kind of meaning into these traditions and rituals anymore. It is completely up to us what meaning we associate with them. In this way we change the traditions as we continue to observe them, which I think is the whole point.
I don't think anyone feels threatened by the trick-or-treat requests today. |