Make Halloween sweet without candy.

Byline: Arun Narayan Toke For The Register-Guard

When can you get free candy? Lots of it? Of course, on Halloween. It is notorious for candy sales and consumption.

You might say: Oh well, it's just one day - let the kids have as much as they want. But isn't the stash of candy that kids collect on Halloween enough for a whole week, perhaps even a month? And what about the leftover candy that you as parents bought but was not given out? Where does it go?

Let's face it: We eat just plain too much candy and sweets. Not just on Halloween, but throughout the year: cakes, cookies, ice cream cones, pies, jams - you name it.

Public health officials warn that one in three U.S. children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless many more people start eating less and exercising more. Obesity, encouraged by "candy holidays," is the foremost cause of this deadly disease. The odds are worse for black and Hispanic children, with nearly half of them likely to develop the disease. Some 45 million to 50 million Americans could have diabetes by 2050, almost three times today's figure of 17 million.

But I want to focus on the Halloween candy giveaway. To most of us, Halloween is a fun family tradition. Along with pumpkin carving, it might be helping carve out a need for a long-term medical attention for our children - from tooth decay, obesity and hyperactivity to skin conditions, eczema and diabetes. The refined sugar found in most Halloween candy (which is also full of potentially harmful artificial ingredients) is believed to contribute to many of these medical problems.

Don't you think there is something fundamentally wrong with how much candy is bought and given away on Halloween? You go to a friend's home, or even to a perfect stranger's door, say "trick or treat" and walk away with a handful of candy! Is there any meaningful opportunity for developing friendships and community in this common Halloween scene?

In India, where I grew up, we also had many festivals and lots of sweets. But there is a fundamental difference in the two traditions. Let me explain:

For the spring festival of Holi, you visit your neighbors, friends and extended family with colored powder in your hands or a bag and apply it generously to their faces and color their clothes beyond recognition.

What do you get in return? Much more than the same. After you all have had fun painting each other's faces and clothes, you are invited in and offered homemade sweets and snacks as well as hot tea or a cool beverage.

When you are done, you take your newly decorated friend to someone else's home and the scene is repeated, again and again. By midafternoon, when you have had enough, you come home and get cleaned up, put on better clothes and enjoy the rest of the day with friends and family.

Then there is another major festival, Dashera, when we dress nicely and go to visit neighbors, extended family and friends. We offer the elders a few special leaves, called Sonapatta or "gold leaves," as a token of our friendship and respect. In return, the elders give us snacks and sweets specially made for all the youngsters.

So, what is the difference? There is none of that sending away with candy from the door. You go in, have a seat and a make meaningful conversation. There is tea, snacks and sweets that you partake of right there before you move on to the next home - say a dozen or so, where you know the people to some degree.

And what you are offered is not packaged but on a platter. You enjoy the snacks while catching up on what's new with each other and talking about studies, family and such. And, of course, we don't have the same store-bought candies everywhere, and we don't have them for days or weeks after.

Now that we live in an intentional neighborhood in Eugene where we know almost everyone, we are starting another tradition: a Halloween potluck! This will be our neighborhood's second Halloween potluck. Early in the evening, we will get together and have finger food snacks, then a potluck supper with items that kids love - pizza, pasta, tofu dogs, etc., that will give the kids in the neighborhood a good base of grains and protein, veggies and fruits before they go on to the hard-to-resist trick-or-treat trek.

Since we know our neighbors, we trust them to offer homemade, wholesome cookies and other sweets that have good, healthy ingredients. Who needs the name-brand, foil-wrapped, mass-produced, store-bought, chocolate-covered, sugar-laden candy that is bad for everyone's teeth and health? I know some dentist friends who offer the trick-or-treaters new tooth brushes instead of candy. Some give away pencils, pens and other useful things.

What are you going to do? Happy Halloween and beyond!

Arun Narayan Toke is editor of Skipping Stones, a multicultural magazine for children published in Eugene.