Sunday, October 28, 2007

Halloween Humbug, Part 2

I posted my first Halloween Humbug last October, and thought I'd do a second one this year, as well.

My trick-or-treating career spanned the years 1962 - 1969, age 4 through 11. Not a bad run, on the whole. I grew up in the suburbs; Tonawanda,NY then Kenmore, NY.

Halloween meant picking out a costume, making construction paper jack-o-lanterns for the school Halloween party and then trick-or-treating on that night of nights.

It was fun and once you were past a certain age, you were allowed to go out without parental escort. Oh, there'd be schoolmates and siblings in the group, but the lack of parental supervision made it really special.
Like everything else, Halloween has been co-opted, amped up and run through the de-funneriser.

Carving pumpkins? Love it!

Cardboard black cat cut-outs? Classic!

$300 front-lawn animated "snow globes?" Uh, no.

$200 sexy french maid adult costumes? Sorry, guys.

Door-to-door trick or treating with happy kids in costumes? Nearly extinct! What we get are groups of sullen teenagers holding out pillows cases. No costumes, no "trick or treat", no fun.
It's HALLOWEEN, dang it!

Now, I remember going to a Halloween Party at the Church of the Advent as one of my last childhood Halloween Hurrahs. The youth group had the basement all done up, there were games, donuts and ciders, the whole nine yards. What they did not have was some sort of "Harvest Festival" euphemism for the thing. It was a HALLOWEEN party!

I love and respect many folks who have taken exception to Halloween as an evil, satanic celebration of "All Hallows' Eve." I may be missing something here, but my "take" on the subject is this. Celebrating Halloween makes you no more a Satanist than celebrating Christmas makes you a Christian.

As a result of the Halloween = Satanism movement, many churches have started having "Harvest Festivals" and "Trunk O' Treat" nights as an alternative. These are basically "Halloween Parties" in every respect but the name. In fact, we'll be taking Mariel to on this Wednesday.

It just seems that the holiday is less "fun" and more "commercialized" every year.

Boo!

Coming soon... Big Announcement (pending results of test taken on Friday!)

8 Comments:

Blogger Lee said...

Aw gee Craig. And here I was, waiting patiently for a photo of you in a "$200 sexy french maid adult costume!"

Big announcement? Oh my. A little playmate for Mariel?

October 29, 2007 3:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yeah, whatever happened to the candy corn throwing knifey?

October 29, 2007 6:07 PM  
Blogger whimsical brainpan said...

Sadly I don't think there is a holiday left for them to comercialize to death.

Can't wait for the news!

October 29, 2007 7:39 PM  
Blogger Charlotta-love said...

I still have fun on halloween! And I'm not wearing any $200 outfit either.

October 29, 2007 10:09 PM  
Blogger RED MOJO said...

This thing makes me crazy as well. Seeing yards festooned with all kinds of orange lights, and inflatable crap! The kids today, will never have what our generation had on that spooky scary exhilarating night.

October 30, 2007 8:38 AM  
Blogger furiousBall said...

In the future, historians will point out that the animated snow globes were the downfall of our society and moral values, mark my words (with pencil please, I often amend).

October 30, 2007 11:40 AM  
Blogger Gale said...

And I agree darnit!

October 30, 2007 9:36 PM  
Blogger CS said...

I'm with you completely on this one. But you forgot the other humbuggish thing about Halloween -all the Christmas decorations in stores which appear at the same time!

November 05, 2007 5:57 AM  

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