The thin place and All Hallows Eve

When did it become so….tacky?

The Halloween of my youth was a rather simple affair. Carved pumpkins, homemade costumes, trick or treating in our neighborhood.

Now there are entire stores stocked with manufactured costumes and an endless variety of plastic decorations. Every time I step out my front door, I am cackled at by a dreadful motion activated witch compliments of the woman upstairs (who also happens to be my landlord, so no use complaining).

The neighborhood I live in, a place of century old homes and tidy yards, has been transformed as well. Fake tombstones, ratty strands of cobwebs, life size skeletons sitting on chairs, some dressed in actual clothing, others drinking a beer or holding an empty wine glass. Plastic, all of it. Including the styrofoam pumpkins–no carving necessary.

Halloween is big business now, with the National Retail Federation estimating that Americans will shell out $8.8 billion dollars on costumes, decorations and candy this year. Yes, I did say billion.

It’s a staggering statistic. Imagine all the good that could be done with that money were it devoted to–just saying–cancer research.

Kill joy, aren’t I. It is absolutely true that I err on the side of pragmatism. Also, as someone who is in that liminal place, I find the focus on the morbid rather fascinating. I suppose that making death into a joke of sorts can take away some of the sting. However, my relationship to dying is both more intimate and more respectful. Ghoulish decorations are a reminder that for most people, death is in the distance. Something to be dealt with later.

So anyway. Wouldn’t it be great if next year everyone agreed to make their own costume? Forgo the hideous decorations. Carve a real pumpkin. And donate all the money saved to something worthwhile. Something for the living. Like cancer research 🙂

xo