IN reply to CT Riley writing about Halloween (HAS, Nov 7), I do not know what ancient pagans made of the festival (possibly neither does he) but there’s no doubt that the modern version is a celebration of evil.

How else could you describe dressing up as ghouls, witches, zombies, vampires etc?

I don’t mean that the kids who engage in these high jinks are evil, of course not – but neither do I think they realise the danger they are putting themselves in.

That was one purpose of my previous letter – to warn them (or rather their parents, who have no excuse for not knowing better).

The second was to remind people of the reality of supernatural evil; I think it extremely unhelpful, superficial, and naïve, of Mr Riley to make light of a subject that is fraught with menace and psychic horror.

Tony Kelly, Crook