The death of a holiday
Monica Monteiro
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Opinion
Americans now spend more than five billion dollars a year celebrating Halloween. While that number may not seem like much when compared to what consumers dole out for Christmas or Hanukah, it's certainly not a figure to just shrug off. Those five billion in sales means that Halloween is the second highest grossing holiday and in fact, one quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is bought specifically for use on October 31st.
The roots of the modern traditions we observe annually on the final night of October are grounded in the mass flood of immigration to the United States in the 1800s, but trick-or-treating didn't become a popular practice until the 1930s. Each decade since, we've seen this spooky holiday growing in significance. Consumers are spending more and more money on lavish costumes, high-tech decorations, and on the ever-expanding array of candy brands that monopolize drug stores and retail superstores alike this time of year. By 2008, the National Retail Federation estimated that shoppers were spending an average of $66.54 per household celebrating Halloween. This year, however, spending was down more than 15% as Americans cut back a bit to spend $56.31 on the holiday, on average, this year.
Yet, it seems to me that it's not that we're buying less so much as it's what we're buying is changing. When I went looking for a costume this year I couldn't believe how many options there were for adults. There actually seemed to be a bigger selection for the over 18 crowd than for young children. That really surprised me because isn't Halloween supposed to be, first and foremost, something for the kids? I won't in any way suggest that it's not all right for adults to partake in the festivities - I mean, I sure do - but still, doesn't it seem like the spirit behind Halloween is shifting?
I remember that when I was a kid it seemed everyone in my neighborhood was walking the streets looking for candy on Halloween. There are more than 300 homes on my road and I wouldn't have paused to guess that more than 250 of those families were both handing out candy and going door-to-door looking for some in return. In short, it was great! But slowly, every year since I stopped going trick-or-treating myself, I've noticed that there are less and less people out on the streets or ringing my doorbell. We used to give out more than 15 bags of candy on any given Halloween night, but this year we had a total of ten kids show up on our porch. My grandmother didn't have a single visitor; she never had many to begin with, but never before has she ended the night with the same amount of candy she'd started with - well, besides sneaking a piece or two herself. I don't know if these are isolated incidents, but it seems to me that Halloween is dying - at least as we know it.
The roots of the modern traditions we observe annually on the final night of October are grounded in the mass flood of immigration to the United States in the 1800s, but trick-or-treating didn't become a popular practice until the 1930s. Each decade since, we've seen this spooky holiday growing in significance. Consumers are spending more and more money on lavish costumes, high-tech decorations, and on the ever-expanding array of candy brands that monopolize drug stores and retail superstores alike this time of year. By 2008, the National Retail Federation estimated that shoppers were spending an average of $66.54 per household celebrating Halloween. This year, however, spending was down more than 15% as Americans cut back a bit to spend $56.31 on the holiday, on average, this year.
Yet, it seems to me that it's not that we're buying less so much as it's what we're buying is changing. When I went looking for a costume this year I couldn't believe how many options there were for adults. There actually seemed to be a bigger selection for the over 18 crowd than for young children. That really surprised me because isn't Halloween supposed to be, first and foremost, something for the kids? I won't in any way suggest that it's not all right for adults to partake in the festivities - I mean, I sure do - but still, doesn't it seem like the spirit behind Halloween is shifting?
I remember that when I was a kid it seemed everyone in my neighborhood was walking the streets looking for candy on Halloween. There are more than 300 homes on my road and I wouldn't have paused to guess that more than 250 of those families were both handing out candy and going door-to-door looking for some in return. In short, it was great! But slowly, every year since I stopped going trick-or-treating myself, I've noticed that there are less and less people out on the streets or ringing my doorbell. We used to give out more than 15 bags of candy on any given Halloween night, but this year we had a total of ten kids show up on our porch. My grandmother didn't have a single visitor; she never had many to begin with, but never before has she ended the night with the same amount of candy she'd started with - well, besides sneaking a piece or two herself. I don't know if these are isolated incidents, but it seems to me that Halloween is dying - at least as we know it.
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