Halloween. It’s one of my wife’s favorite holidays. This is truly something I cannot understand. And she, like many Americans, absolutely loves scary movies as well. Her tastes range from cheesy zombie flicks to classics like Nightmare on Elm Street part XLVIII: The Geriatric Ward of Terror. It says a lot about our culture that awful horror films like these manage to remain so popular. I have never been a fan. Nor have ever I been an advocate of dressing up in a costume and parading around town pretending to be something that I’m not. Sounds an awful lot like our current presidential race to me.
Anyway, the fascination for the end of October remains and with two small children, there seems to be no escaping the hype. Cody is almost four and trick or treating is definitely in the cards for me this year. I may even be forced against my will to dress the part. Lord I hope not. Shannon’s enthusiasm can be quite infectious and I may turn out walking the neighborhood streets in full Ninja attire. It wouldn’t be the first time.
A good costume is not something to be taken lightly. It is truly an outward expression of your inner self. For me, humor and sarcasm play an obvious role. As for my boy, he already has his mind set on being Spider Man Cody. He is already practicing his web slinging and wall climbing and its only early August. I can’t wait. My little girl, Taylor, will be ten months old and will be going as either a ghost or a jack-o-lantern. I picked up both onesies (if you have kids you know what these are) at Wally World for three bucks each. As for Shannon, I recommended she go as a witch to save us from buying a costume. She was not amused.
After much debate, I began thinking about why I disliked Halloween so much in the first place. We went back and forth, neither of us able to convince the other to change their position. So I did some research to find out more about this strange celebration. Here are a few neat tidbits about what I discovered.
- More than 93% of children, under the age of 12, will go out trick-or-treating. I could have told you that without the help of Google. Might as well start them off young believing they can get something for nothing.
- 90% of parents admit to sneaking goodies from their kids’ Halloween trick-or-treat bags. Again, another great lesson for the little ones. Take or be taken. Isn’t that the eleventh commandment?
- The first Halloween card was made in the early 1920’s. These days, over 28 million Halloween cards are sent each year. U.S. consumers spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings. I have never given or received one of these in my life. And I really don’t understand the relevance. Getting a card that says, “Happy evil-is-roaming-the-earth-taking-deserving-souls to-the-depths-of-Hell day” seems a tiny bit odd. Maybe it’s just me.
- Over 10% of pet owners dress their pets in Halloween costumes. At least these fanatical pet owners are consistent. I especially love when they swap roles and the pet is walking the owner. Seems more natural that way.
- Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees. In fairness to the Roman gods, I’m afraid Pamona got ripped off. Goddess of the fruit trees? That’s a pretty useless and narrow thing to be a god of if you ask me. Maybe we can lobby to get garden vegetables added to her sphere of godliness.
- Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas being the first. Jesus must be so proud to know he’s still number one.
In my quest for the truth about Halloween, I also discovered this interesting piece of folklore. Apparently, the carving of jack-o’-lanterns originated from the tradition of carving the faces of lost souls into hollowed out pumpkins and turnips. A candle was placed inside the carvings making the faces glow. The Halloween lanterns were placed on doorsteps to ward off evil spirits. Sound like a great plan to me. The perimeter of my house this year will look like the world’s biggest bonfire pumpkin patch. I’m not taking any chances.
I have now done my due diligence. But I am still in disagreement with Shannon about this evil day of the year. However, I am going to take it in stride and do the fun stuff with the kids. We will still dress up in costumes and take the kids out trick or treating. I just want Cody and Taylor to know that when they grow up that in this case, daddy was right and mommy was wrong. I better be careful. Or else she might use her witchy-woman powers to turn me into a frog.
