LITTLE GREEN SPACE ~ BY PENNY BUNTING
- peakadvertiser
- Oct 14
- 4 min read
The autumn festival of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient celebration of Samhain. This was believed to be the time that the souls of the dead returned home – so people lit bonfires and wore scary costumes to keep spirits away.
In the eighth century, the first day of November was designated All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day, by Pope Gregory III. It's likely this move was an attempt to shift the focus away from the pagan festivities of Samhain, creating a Christian feast day to celebrate the lives of the saints.
But many of the old Samhain traditions remained, and still exist today – from dressing up, to decorating our houses, to lighting candles and bonfires.
Today, however, one of the scariest things about Halloween might well be the waste generated by this popular autumn festival. Some Halloween celebrations can also have a negative impact on the environment and wildlife.
Take dressing-up clothes, for example. Around seven million Halloween costumes are thrown away each year in the UK alone. Add to this plastic sweet wrappers, decorations, and uneaten pumpkins, and that's a frightening amount of (largely avoidable) waste.
Luckily there are easy steps we can all take to make sure Halloween is more sustainable and nature friendly – while not missing out on any fun! Here are a few ideas.
Eat pumpkin!
According to environmental charity Hubbub, around 15.8 million pumpkins are discarded each year without being eaten.
When carving your Halloween pumpkins, save the flesh and seeds for eating. You can make all sorts of tasty pumpkin dishes, from savoury soups to sweet pies – just be sure to check that your pumpkin is in good condition to cook with, i.e. fresh and free from mould.
One of the easiest ways to enjoy this versatile vegetable is to roast it. Cut pumpkin flesh into cubes, toss in a little olive oil, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until cooked. Roasted pumpkin can be served as a side dish, or added to soup, risotto or pies.
Roasted pumpkin seeds are a tasty, healthy snack. Wash and dry the seeds, and spread them on a lined baking tray. Spray with cooking oil and sprinkle with salt – you can also add spices such as ground cumin or smoked paprika for extra flavour – then bake at 140°C for 15 minutes.
Go plastic free
Avoid plastic decorations and choose natural, compostable decorations instead. Or choose decorations made out of wood or ceramics. Quality, hand-crafted decorations are more durable than plastic ones, and can be enjoyed year after year.
In particular, avoid hanging fake spiderwebs on hedges and trees. Artificial web decorations are often made from polyester or other artificial fibres. They can trap and injure garden wildlife, including birds, insects and small mammals. And fake webs aren't recyclable – so when thrown away they can end up in landfill for many years.
Take care with fireworks
Increasingly, Halloween celebrations are merging with Bonfire Night – meaning fireworks often start at the end of October and continue well into November.
Anyone with a pet will know how distressing loud fireworks can be for animals. But it's not just cats and dogs that suffer – fireworks can frighten horses, farm animals and wild animals. Larger animals can injure themselves when frightened, as they panic and try to escape from the noise. And studies have shown that birds sometimes abandon their nests when disturbed by fireworks.
Fireworks also leave debris that often isn't cleared away. This can become a choking hazard for some wildlife.
To minimise your impact on animals, consider attending an organised event rather than setting off fireworks at home. If you want to have your own display, low-noise fireworks are available – and be sure to locate debris and dispose of it properly.
The RSPB also suggests setting up displays away from any areas which might be home to wildlife – for instance bird and bat roosting sites, or a nearby nature reserve. Birds, in particular, can lose vital energy conserved for winter if they’re disturbed by fireworks – so avoid close proximity to nest boxes and vegetation, such as trees and hedges, that may be providing shelter to birds.
Check bonfires
If you're building a bonfire for Halloween or Bonfire Night, it's important to be mindful of wildlife.
A pile of sticks and dry leaves is the perfect hibernation habitat for hedgehogs, toads, frogs and newts – and bonfires are often built up over several days before burning, giving animals time to shelter unseen amongst the piled-up branches. So it's best to build a bonfire on the same day that you intend to light it.
Even better, though, is to give the bonfire a miss altogether. If you have natural garden debris to dispose of, try piling it up in a corner of the garden, then leaving it be. Heaps of branches, twigs and other plant material provide a fantastic habitat for toads and invertebrates, as well as hedgehogs.
Dispose of pumpkins responsibly
Don't leave Halloween pumpkins to rot in your garden, or dump them in the countryside. Eating pumpkins can make hedgehogs, birds and other animals poorly.
Pumpkins contain much more fibre than many wild foods, and can cause upset stomachs. This is a particular problem for hedgehogs that have built up fat reserves before hibernation – and if they do get sick, they could become badly dehydrated.
Invertebrates form the bulk of hedgehogs’ diets – and when there is plenty of this natural food around, they may not be tempted by a discarded pumpkin. But when food is scarce, they could eat too much of it.
And pumpkin really becomes a problem when it starts to go mouldy – which can happen quickly when they’re left outside, especially in poor weather. Birds enjoy pumpkins – including the seeds – but eating mouldy pumpkin could make them ill. So if feeding pumpkin to wild birds, put it out of reach of hedgehogs – for example on a bird table – and remove at the first sign of mould.
You can dispose of pumpkins in your compost bin or council food waste bin. Or cut it into pieces and bury it in your garden under 20cm soil, where it can be eaten by worms and enrich the soil.
Penny Bunting
