Costume drama

IN THE shadowy mists of Celtic prehistory many hundreds of years ago, Halloween was a religious holiday. It is now an innocent rite of childhood, and the Underwood Elementary School in Newton should have the good sense to maintain the tradition of an annual Halloween celebration.

Instead, the principal, David Castelline, decided to cancel the festivities at the request of several parents who would otherwise not have sent their children to school Monday because the celebrations offended their religious sensibilities. ''I felt the goal was really important to make it a respectful and open and welcoming place for all members of our community," Castelline said of his school.

Halloween is not very respectful, but is welcoming to any child who likes to dress up in a costume and become someone or something else. It is one of the vivid shared experiences of growing up, fondly remembered for apple dunking, candy collecting, and innocent tricks. Even at the lower grades, schools are becoming places of hard work and grim determination. Halloween should be a time when learning is leavened by a costumed extravaganza.

Yesterday, no one was revealing the precise nature of the religious objection that caused this controversy. It could not have involved putting the children in costume. Only the teachers dress up at the Underwood. Elsewhere in the country some fundamentalist Christians have raised objections to what they see as witchcraft behind the holiday. ''It is really based upon the worship of Satan," said a woman in Florida a couple of years ago, when the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that fundamental Christian churches in the area were holding special parties on Oct. 31 to discourage trick-or-treating.

Some believers in paganism do make much of Halloween, recalling the ancient Celtic belief that spirits roamed the land on that night. And maybe the practice of wearing masks grows out of a primitive belief that people could avoid being snatched by the evil ones if they disguised themselves as just another devil.

In the ninth century the Catholic Church, rather than fighting the trend, linked the pagan celebration to the Feast of All Saints, hence the name All Hallows' (saints') Eve. Emphasizing the higher realms of spirituality is one option for any parent concerned about the less elevated elements of Halloween.

And if parents don't want to have their children go trick-or-treating in a devil's or ghost's costume, they can try what Castelline did at the Underwood Halloween celebration last year: Dress up as the not very angelic, but hardly demonic, Johnny Damon.