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Tuesday, November 4th, 2003
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2:07p - Halloween... the holiday that wasn't
So it's a few days into November, and the stores have already been long-since picked over of their remaining Halloween merchandise. Not that there was much of it to begin with.
This year, the good Halloween products were few and far between. Target had a few aisles of Christmas decorations out on display as early as mid-August. Wal-Mart has almost completely moved away from Halloween, opting instead to carry "Autumn" merchandise, which has a longer shelf life (why stop selling something in October when you can keep it on the shelves through Thanksgiving?). Even those creepy Halloween retailers that open for three months every year barely had anything worth noting. Or buying.
Meanwhile, Halloween TV has become a wasteland. Once upon a time, you could depend on Halloween night -- heck, the whole month -- for scary movies galore. What did we get this year? "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" marathons, the same old 1930s "Dracula," and "Frankenstein" movies, "Scare Tactics" on SciFi ... and not much else.
And let's not mention the trick-or-treaters... because there weren't any to mention. What happened to the days when marauding packs of candy-hungry kids in hand-made costumes would patrol the darkened neighborhoods, letting each other know which houses had the best loot, shining flashlights in each others' faces, screaming as they scared each other, and running home to change costumes and go out again?
Where did Halloween go? Are we really so scared of each other that we can't be safely afraid for one day a year? Can't we teach our kids that fear is natural and can be overcome? Is the one holiday that is truly about imagination destined to die in a politically correct world?
It wasn't much of a Halloween this year. I fear that it won't be much of one next year, or ever again.
And the world is not a better place for its loss.
(comment on this)
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