{"id":20101,"date":"2020-10-26T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T16:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20101"},"modified":"2020-10-26T13:24:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T20:24:41","slug":"open-space-halloween-2020-should-be-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/10\/26\/open-space-halloween-2020-should-be-cancelled\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Halloween 2020 should be cancelled"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leaves have fallen, the Thanksgiving dinner has been consumed, and tiny chocolate bars litter the aisles of grocery stores all over town. It\u2019s finally spooky season!<\/p>\n

The best holiday of the year is coming up fast, and I\u2019ve been working tirelessly on my annual \u201cI put way too much effort into this\u201d costume. I love putting together an outfit, eating pumpkin scones, and drowning in candy on the big day. Halloween is and always has been my favourite holiday; my friends, who have to listen to me getting excited about it when it\u2019s literally months away, can attest to this.<\/p>\n

But, despite everything I\u2019ve just said, I think that Halloween should be cancelled this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Only COVID-19 is scarier than the usual Halloween frights (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It breaks my heart to say it\u2014it really does\u2014but Halloween isn’t something that\u2019s COVID-19 safe. It doesn\u2019t always feel like it, but we are in the middle of a pandemic. Why would anyone think it\u2019s a good idea to go visit the houses of complete strangers? Not only do you have to go up to people\u2019s houses and breathe the same air as them, but also odds are that you\u2019ll have to touch a doorbell or 60 throughout the night. Even if you don\u2019t go trick or treating, there\u2019s still a higher risk of catching or spreading germs. Even Halloween parties and other spooky events are going to be risky this year.<\/p>\n

I know lots of news sites are saying things like \u201cpeople can wash their hands before going out, and carry hand sanitizer,\u201d but there will still be people who won\u2019t listen. There\u2019s always going to be a Karen who refuses to wear a mask around others or parents who are still convinced that COVID-19 is a complete hoax. People will forget or not bother to take any safety measures for others; unfortunately, it\u2019s because of these people that COVID-19 has stuck around this long in the first place.<\/p>\n

Like I said, Halloween is my absolute favourite holiday; I wouldn\u2019t want to miss it for anything. But if we really want a COVID-19-free Halloween next year, we need to cancel it this year. If you have kids you wanted to take trick or treating, consider buying a box of their favourite treats and having an at-home celebration instead. If you\u2019re going to a Halloween party, make sure the group is small and healthy before you arrive\u2026 or think twice about going at all.<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s not quite as festive as it was in previous years, but you can still have a fun night with the people you love. This year looks different in pretty much every aspect of life, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t still have fun on Halloween. So go ahead and celebrate spooky day, but, for the fate of next year\u2019s Halloween, much of this year\u2019s celebrations\u2014trick or treating, big parties\u2014needs to be cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The leaves have fallen, the Thanksgiving dinner has been consumed, and tiny chocolate bars litter the aisles of grocery stores all over town. It\u2019s finally spooky season! The best holiday of the year is coming up fast, and I\u2019ve been working tirelessly on my annual \u201cI put way too much effort into this\u201d costume. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20102,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20101\/revisions\/20102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}