First we import the fake festival and then we import the paranoia...  

So, we've just had Hallowe'en and one local church hosted an "alternative" to Hallowe'en to combat "occult forces" asking kids to dress up as nice things (including fairies for some reason) and nothing scary.

When I was growing up in the Seventies and Eighties I only knew one place where Trick or Treating occured and that was near a US Air Force base, the families there were the instigators.

In the nineties it took off, not because of any religious fervour on the part of anyone but because retailers could make money from it. Put simply, here in the UK it is nothing more than a fake commercial festival.

I'm not talking about Samhain for those who genuinely celebrate it or All Hallows for those that celebrate that.

So we've imported this tacky commercial nonesense and then imported the paranoia as well - via the Evangelical-style churches that have close ties with their US equivalents.

Wouldn't it be better if the worried churches actually aimed their campaign at the real organisers - the shops and the manufacturers - rather than pretending there's an occult conspiracy?