"Trick or treat!" A common Halloween holiday expression, but the message it delivers is far from "Have a happy Halloween". Few Halloween traditions actually promote actions deemed acceptable by modern society. Halloween, unlike any other day of the year, encourages young children to throw common etiquette and reason aside and trade it for an untamed, animalistic free-for-all, where greed and poor judgment rule. The lessons taught to children by this holiday are an unacceptable practice in the modern civilized world. .
Think about what children are taught to say on Halloween night. The phrase "Trick or treat" encompasses the idea of threatening neighbors with promises of "tricks" if their demands for "treats" are not met. It is preposterous to think that it is encouraged to teach a child that they can get what they want by blackmailing adults. This fosters the schoolyard bully mentality of "do it, or else!" Under normal circumstances this type of behavior would not be tolerated, but on Halloween we ignore its faults and look the other way. The fact that no action is taken to correct this misconduct subconsciously teaches children that this behavior is acceptable. (Weak argument, you contradict yourself a few times you say that no action is taken to correct the attitude and thus it is deemed acceptable, but in subsequent sentences you say that the behaviour normally would not be tolerated. I dunno that this how I read it) .
Furthermore, the inappropriateness of the conversation at the door is not restricted to only the threat of force. Very rarely do children ask for candy using the word "please", the colloquial saying before asking for anything. Moreover, the greed for additional candy becomes so overwhelming that in their haste to get to the next door, children either forget or choose not to use another colloquial phrase "thank you". Almost everyone knows it is common etiquette to use "please" and "thank you" when requesting for someone to provide you with something.
