The world is scary enough – do we really need Halloween? Yes, we do

There is always something good to be found in events that bring us together, writes David Barnett

Perhaps the things that scare us at Halloween can help us navigate the messy, senseless terrors of life (Getty Images)

The world is a scary place and life can be messy. In light of that, Halloween can seem strange. We will dress as the dead, as killers, as monsters. We will celebrate the terrible, the unthinkable, the unhinged. We will watch movies where where mad murderers stalk the night, where evil rises from the grave.

The shop shelves groan with plastic fangs dripping in painted gore, with mass-produced machetes stained in shades of bloody red, with rubber claws, black-taloned to rip out a heart.

Confected blood and gore, a gleeful embracing of death and dust and destruction. Do we really need this?