Posted on 10/26/2009 12:05:28 PM PDT by meandog
Halloween trends are telling.
Just ask Robert Thompson, a pop-culture expert and the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
Here's an interesting trend: Halloween has fast become the second-most-decorated holiday. Jack-o-lanterns and goblins and lighted trees are all over the place now.
Halloween spending has risen to nearly $5 billion annually -- not bad for a non-gift-giving, non-government-sanctioned holiday.
And more adults than ever are dressing up.
"The post-World War II years were the golden age of Halloween for kids," says Thompson, "a trend that continued into the 1980s. But in the last 20 years, Halloween has been reclaimed by adults."
Which makes perfect sense. Through most of history, Halloween was for adults.
The origins of Halloween date back to pagan times. During harvest celebrations, the Celts dressed up in costumes to ward off ghosts and demons.
As Christianity spread, the Catholics introduced All Saints' Day (All Souls' Day). The holy evening before All Saints' Day -- All Hallow's Eve -- embraced many of the Celtic traditions.
But I think there is another reason why more adults are embracing the Halloween spirit: It's one of the last bastions of free expression in America.
"It's the one day where almost anything goes," says Thompson. "Adults can be a wise guy or do something outrageous they'd never do normally."
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
I dress up as a liberal...that’s mega scary.
It's true that more schools are banning Halloween celebrations -- one school in Seattle did so in part due to its offensiveness to Wiccans. If schools have a party at all they call it "Autumn Day" or "Harvest Day." Costumes are forbidden.
It's true that some costumes are considered taboo. The "illegal alien" costume -- it comes with a space alien mask and orange jumpsuit -- has been pulled from shelves.
Do I have to suppose "space aliens" offended?
How do you dress as a liberal? Wear Birkenstocks and don’t shower?
In other words, the adults of today were the kids who grew up in the "prime" years of kids' Halloween. Eternal adolescence continues.
which one?
Costumed parties used to be something that adults could participate in year round.
“How do you dress as a liberal? Wear Birkenstocks and don’t shower?”
Well that or cross dress.
Don’t forget the cardboard cutout to put over your car of a dented unwashed Volvo nearly covered in liberal bumper stickers.
I’ll tell you why halloween isn’t such a big deal for kids anymore. Now days kids are spoiled rotten and they get candy every day. So a day when kids get lots of candy is like...big deal, who cares? not to mention kids never walk anywhere anymore. Halloween requires lots and lots of walking.
But we have too little money for health care, it's a "crisis".
That's not adult - it is pathetic.
I thought that was most city councils' attitude to gay pride month.
Public sex and mocking of Christianity in front of a church? Hey, "we'll" even find a beer company to sponsor it.
The Halloween costumery of yesteryear tended more to the cartoonish or non-frightening; now it is more to the dreadful and surreal.
To all the modern Wiccans who are offended by wicked witch outfits: please take your place in the sound-off queue with us Christians. As far as I know, though they are not common, minister, bishop, etc. costumes are not verboten.
Barack bit his tongue again.
good’n....gots to gets me one of those!
I dress up to scare liberals.
At our condo’s Halloween party I wear the Army uniform I deployed in, and carry a fake pistol. One of the libs is bound to say either “Is that thing loaded!!?” or, “Are you proud you served in Bush’s wars of aggression?”
I reply “Yes!” to both.
;^)
This year I’ll have three or four of my lady friends wearing burkas while I chase them dressed as Pacman.
They don’t walk anymore. They ride.
Halloween has been ruined, imo.
Of course, your kids are more likely to disappear these days if you let them walk around alone.
Back when I was a kid, we walked for hours until late in the night trick or treating with few worries. We threw a few eggs and soaped a few windows, no one got hurt or arrested or disappeared.
Here is a figurine of Sam.
You should do some research on the Venetian Carnivale. The idea of a day of masks, mainly for adults, where social norms are set aside temporarily, is centuries old. Of course, setting aside social norms was generally considered to consist of not worrying about whether someone was nobility, and to making passes at the opposite sex in public.
I've noticed that life here in my little Missouri town isn't *too* far off from the fictional town in the movie : Hallowe'en is becoming a bigger and bigger deal (just as the article pointed out). There are more houses decorated for Hallowe'en-and decorated earlier and more elaborately-every year. We don't have a Hallowe'en parade here ( more's the pity) but if the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is to be believed, Hallowe'en parades were common in the early part of the 20th century-trick or treating door to door was a later development, AND parades are a longstanding tradition in cities like San Francisco, so who knows? Maybe Trick R Treat will inspire a rebirth of the earlier tradition of parading, now that many parents are wary of their children going door to door. Better that than "trunk or treat" parties.
Right, I get it. Totally amoral and juvenile. The stuff that topples empires.
While I enjoyed the movie, I really was expecting more. The previews I saw for it played it to be an actual horror film. It ended up being a comedy.
I have a feeling you will greatly enjoy it.
http://www.buycostumes.com/Illegal-Alien-Adult-Costume/60504/ProductDetail.aspx#
guaranteed to drive moonbats batty!
When I was in school, anyone over 10 was “too old” for costumes.
As Christianity spread, the Catholics introduced All Saints' Day (All Souls' Day). The holy evening before All Saints' Day -- All Hallow's Eve -- embraced many of the Celtic traditions.
What a-historical rubbish!
Looking back with nostalgia on your days in the Youth International Party?
Oh, those fun days from the sixties when we toilet-papered houses.
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