Mormons do weird things. Just ask the internet. We are a peculiar people, most especially to those unfamiliar with our faith. Most of the time we don’t think the things we’re doing are weird because we understand why we’re doing them. Communal passing of tiny little bread trays and itty water cups fit for a toddler’s tea party? Not weird because we get what it symbolizes. Full torso undies, even on the Fourth of July? Odd, unless you understand what they represent. Paying money to leave home and have doors slammed in your face, putting on a funky jumpsuit and getting pushed underwater in front of your family and friends, as well as pretty much everything that goes on inside the temple: all would seem strange to anyone without the understanding of why we do them. We’re a practical people who strive to make actions meaningful and reflect frequently upon those meanings.

Until October rolls around. Then we get to do all sorts of wacky things, for no other reason than the fact that everyone else seems to being doing them too. And candy.

Find a large vegetable, carve face-shaped holes in it and fill it with fire. Proudly display it on your porch. Why? Who knows, but its presence means candy is imminent.

Find any manner of decor that somehow represents death, the occult, or terrifying scenarios and place them in and around your dwelling. Extra points if you’ve made them glitter. Palliate the fear these images induce with gratuitous amounts of candy.

Dress as anything other than what you actually are and go from house to house spouting the password that somehow elicits neighbor and stranger alike to spontaneously fill your open bag with candy.

Yes, I’ve always been confused by the way Mormons celebrate Halloween. When I was growing up we actually put a spook alley in our church building each year. Sure, it was usually nothing more horrifying than peeled grapes and wet spaghetti, perhaps a glimpse of fake blood here and there, but the idea never made sense. Why would we do something to intentionally induce fear in God’s house? The Bible (2 Timothy to be precise) tells us that God has not given us the spirit of fear. Maybe the idea doesn’t apply if there is a Cake Walk involved?

Most of the Halloween traditions we participate in are derived from traditions that actually did at one point mean something. Death symbols such as skeletons and ghosts come from the fact that it was believed that on the night before All Hallows Day, the spirits of the dead could come back to earth to haunt the living. Jack-o-lanterns (originally carved from turnips) were used to ward off evil spirits. Dressing in costume was used to confuse evil spirits. Saying “trick-or-treat” originally meant “give me food or I’ll destroy your property,” which could then be blamed on an evil spirit.

For a people so steeped in seeing the meaning behind our actions, we’re sure quick to turn the blind eye on this one.

But, I suppose you can add me to the shoulder-shrugging bunch. Kids love to dress up, and carving pumpkins is always time spent together as a family. I can endure a little haunting for one of those caramel-apple suckers.

Let’s just hope no one starts giving out chocolate in sacrament meeting, or we might all just forget why we’re there in the first place.