Utahns think Halloween's a treat

Halloween is unevenly practiced in America — celebrated by Roman Catholics in the Northeast but frowned on by evangelical Christians in the South, according to a Scripps Howard News Service survey.

In Utah, which has the country's highest proportion of its population age 5 through 13, Halloween is wildly popular, with haunted houses, corn mazes and pumpkin patches galore.

Utahns say most children will be trick-or-treating this year.

Trick-or-treating is especially welcomed in heavily Roman Catholic neighborhoods in the Northeast, home of the Irish immigrants who introduced their ancient festival to the New World 150 years ago.

Halloween is least welcomed, or even observed, in Southern states, where evangelical Christians are becoming increasingly worried about growing secularism and the resurgence of paganism in popular culture.

A survey of 1,005 adult residents of the United States conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University found remarkable variation in attitudes about Halloween and even in the numbers of trick-or-treaters who were received last year.

"It's an old holiday. Halloween is particularly popular in places where people have been doing it for years and that's the Northeast," said University at Albany sociologist Richard Lachmann.

An average of 43 trick-or-treaters were welcomed last year by Roman Catholics living in the Northeast. But the average was only 19 trick-or-treaters at the homes of Southern Protestants who describe themselves as spiritually "born again."

"There is not a whole lot that fundamentalists find acceptable about Halloween or even All Saints Day, which, after all, is primarily a Catholic holy day," said Jo Paoletti, an American studies scholar at the University of Maryland. "They are pretty unhappy with all of the pagan symbols that accompany Halloween."

Heather Dalton, a resident of Herriman, said, "We'll definitely have trick-or-treaters. We're excited about that." She and husband Dustin will take their 1-year-old daughter, dressed as a ladybug, trick-or-treating for the first time this year. "I love Halloween. It's fun. It's a good time to be artistic — you can go totally extreme."

"We'll go to a party and Halloween carnival at our school," said Utah college freshmen Mandy Swainston. The holiday is no doubt good and wholesome, she said. "Kids get into their costumes and have fun with it."

Fellow freshman Janae Struder agreed, "I think it's a great holiday," she said. "It's a chance to escape normal life for a night."

Not all Utahns are as enthusiastic. Piotr and Kasia Rzepecki moved to Salt Lake City from Poland. Although they think the holiday is fun, they will not be celebrating.