Halloween season kicks off at theme parks, stores
I noticed down in the comments attached to this story a few people have a problem with starting Halloween before October. They echo the constant complaint in the US of Christmas seemingly coming earlier and earlier each year. I remember one Halloween evening when I was on my way to a party and didn't have a costume. I stopped at Target to check what they had left, hoping for a simple skeleton mask or something at a hefty discount and all they had were ballerina tutus and a new Christmas display. I agree Christmas season needs to be confined to the post-Thanksgiving weeks, but I understand the 4Q reasoning retailers and their brand suppliers use to justify lengthening the holiday spending period.
On the other hand, give me more Halloween. While Christmas has its religious and spiritual meaning and over-commercialization corrupts that, our modern Halloween is pure fun. Yes, I know it once had religious significance as well. For me, Halloween is a Ray Bradburyian dance in the cemetery. We all know we're going to die, at least those of us not surnamed Kardashian do. Mortal thoughts can terrify. Halloween with its tombs, mummies, vampires, ghosts, its yowling black cats and dead leaves, its dry fields and dryer bones stalking the night, takes this finality and celebrates it. It's a graveyard fling with our harvest plenty as the world dies around us.
This past weekend I bought our first holiday-packaged goodies-- which I meant to photograph and show you, but someone couldn't keep her hands off and shredded the bag-- and we saw stores decorated with paper pumpkins and the like. Baskin-Robbins didn't have its new Halloween flavors yet (although the line length made me assume so before I checked the menu board), but the article promises some good ones this year. A mixed apple and grape sherbet? Yes, please, regular double in a cup. I might be convinced to challenge the triple. Freshness Burger will probably dress up for Halloween, too, with creepy cobwebs and lurid wall-hangers, cartoon cats and witches. Krispy Kreme has some seasonal goodies I can't wait to try. Conversation schools will have Halloween parties and force their foreign teachers to dress up. I will watch Halloween and read horror novels and short story collections starting...
Well, now.
I'm all for it. I can't get enough Halloween. I'm no cynic.
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