For many of us, Halloween is a time of parties, scary movies and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that come wandering by our front stoops.

It can also be a time of reflection — both on death and our relationship with it, as the Conversation piece also in today’s edition delves into, but also on our own chilly childhood nights spent going door to door while dressed up as our favorite characters, professions, fairy tales or ghosts.

Not everyone gets the chance to have these great memories. For some, Halloween — and the whole spooky season built up around it — is viewed as “the devil’s holiday,” and kids are disallowed from participating in the festivities as a form of moral purity.

The kids, themselves, are rarely asked what their opinion is as their friends and neighbors are hoovering up free candy.

Kids, in general, are too often treated as property — and too rarely as adults-in-training.

But we digress.

We would posit that a safe and happy Halloween is a cornerstone experience in many peoples’ upbringings, and that our society’s relationship with Halloween has changed so dramatically over the last decade or two specifically because so many people have those memories now themselves.

A funny thing about nostalgia is that, in our pursuit of the vibes of our youth, we often end up making the present day a better place.

Don’t get us wrong: endlessly chasing a yesterday which can never truly come again can also be destructive to a person, and corrosive to society if too many people fall down that well.

But saying, “Hey, I had a great childhood experience doing a thing, and I want other people to have that, too,” can be a powerful foundation for making the world a better place.

And really, despite the dark and macabre dressings of Halloween, that’s what the holiday is all about: making our world the best we can before our inevitable ends, at least in this mortal coil.

Seize that moment. Put on the costumes and watch the movies and go to the parties. Enjoy yourself.

And then, on Halloween night itself, make sure to have a bowl of candy — or applies, or potatoes, or Pokemon cards or whatever other treats you can dream up — and make sure a new generation benefits from the experiences we had as kids.

Or, if you’re in the parent bracket, put on the coat, grab the umbrella and take your eager goblin to those welcoming doorsteps.

One day, they’ll thank you.