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 The “New” Halloween
What Does It Say About America?...
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 10/31/05
What in the
world has happened to Halloween? When I was a child, it was
a welcome celebration, but a modest one. As grade-schoolers,
we were given a little party in our classrooms, and then permitted
to parade in costume through the halls of the high school to
be admired by our elders. That evening, trick-or-treating was
the order of the day – along with handing out candy to
those who braved the sheet-and-pillow ghost that we gleefully
tossed out of an upstairs window. That was it – and it
was wonderful.
But today,
Halloween has become one of the biggest days on the American
calendar. U.S. consumers will spend $3.29 billion on Halloween
this year, up 4% from $3.12 billion last year, according to
a survey by the National Retail Association and BIGresearch.
And the average consumer celebrating Hallowing will spend $59
on merchandise.
Contributor
Carol Platt Liebau - Senior
Columnist
Carol
Platt Liebau is editorial director and a senior member of tOR and CRO editorial
boards. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator
based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox News
Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel, Cox Cable
and a variety of radio programs throughout the United States.
A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School,
Carol Platt Liebau also served as the first female managing
editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her web log can be found
at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
[go to Liebau index] |
No, Halloween
isn’t what it used to be, and it’s
worth asking why. How has a formerly low-key, unpretentious occasion
become, in effect, the kick-off to the holiday retail season – and
why has a day previously devoted to children become a “drinking” holiday,
to the point where 54% of all alcohol-related traffic deaths
last occurred between October 30 to November 1, according to
Mothers Against Drunk Driving?
In one sense,
it’s easy to understand how Halloween’s
popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. With Christmas celebrations
ever more frequently interpreted by some as an ill-bred form
of Christian triumphalism, Thanksgiving increasingly used as
an occasion in schools to examine the treatment of Native Americans,
Columbus’ reputation under assault from the left (which
has tried to refocus Columbus Day on “indigenous peoples”),
and Memorial and Veterans’ Day condemned in some quarters
for their glorification of the military, Halloween is, happily,
one of the few events left untainted by modern political agendas.
But more
than that, it’s almost the only holiday on the
American calendar that’s not about someone or something
else. Unlike Valentine’s Day, no sweetheart is required.
It celebrates no particular ethnic heritage, like St. Patrick’s
Day does. And Halloween entails none of the religious commitments
presupposed by Easter or Yom Kippur. Nor is it about the birth
of America – or dedicated to anything grander than ourselves
and a good time.
Certainly,
there should always be a time and a place for fun – and
the occasional costume party never comes amiss. But when grownups
routinely begin to usurp what used to be a children’s holiday,
perhaps it’s time for us to ask what that says about our
society in general. Why have adults begun to find it so compelling
to shed the shackles of maturity each year, and to disguise themselves
in increasingly risqué or gruesome get-ups for raucous
parties? How is it that sophisticated (and profitable) haunted
houses have replaced the home-grown varieties that were a part
of many neighborhoods in a simpler time? Is there a particular
allure these days in the supernatural (or the “dark side”)
that figures so prominently in Halloween observations – or
do we really have so little (or so much) to fear that we welcome
the opportunity to enjoy few cheap (or cathartic) thrills?
As we mark
Halloween, between bites of candy or sips of “adult
beverages”, it’s worth wondering: What does the “new” Halloween
say about all of us, and about America? tOR
Columnist
Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst, commentator and tOR / CRO editorial
director based in San Marino, CA. Ms. Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law
Review. Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
copyright
2005
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