Night of the Dead Living
It’s November 1 and I have an extra hour this morning to contemplate the 5-gallon bucket of unopened candy inside our front door. My wife and I were looking forward to last night, the first Halloween in our new house, where we put aside the awkwardness of apartment Halloweens and enjoy treating the children from our own homestead. Darkness fell, and I wrenched myself away from the Val Lewton classic films playing on TCM to wait by our lighted porch for the parade of costumed children.
No one came. Not one in two hours. No goblins or ghouls, no superheroes or princesses, no shy little ones accompanied by their parents or exuberant packs of kids anxious to see how we would add to their bags of goodies. No one came.
Today I consider the possible explanations — we’re facing a main thoroughfare and close to an intersection, we’re new to the neighborhood and still an unknown element, and (why not blame?) the economy. Maybe the old rituals are casualties of the trends toward private parties, or the co-opting of Halloween festivities by young adults.
In any case, I hope that our experience was an isolated one, and the Halloween we knew as children isn’t dying. For me, it was more than consolation over the end of summer and the return to school, or a fantasy and candy-filled way station before the spectacle of Christmas. It was a chance to roam my neighborhood and meet people I’d had no occasion to see during the rest of the year, despite our proximity. For one night we all put aside our preconceived notions of privacy, security and propriety to approach our neighbors as neighbors, all the while mocking our fears with candy and silly costumes.
How will artfully organized parties compete with that in the future? Technology already allows (or subtly encourages) us to build all of our relationships as comfortable grooves of like-minded, like-interested cliques of mutual reinforcement. Maybe the fundamentalist’s wrong-headed opposition to Halloween celebrations will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Halloween is destined to become an expression of our escalating fears rather than our rejection of them. And that will be more frightening than any little ghoul or old dark house.
Sorry you had no visitors, Ed. That’d be disappointing. Based on our experience in our neighborhood, I think most parents tell their kids to trick or treat only at homes of people they know. I’d have sent my kids your way. It’s cool that you were excited to share.
Maybe by next year, you would become more acquainted with your neighborhood there will be little goblins visiting.
Jewel/Pink Ink
November 4, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hi Jewel,
I hope so, but I’ve been hearing from friends and relatives about a sharp decline in door-to-door traffic. In fact, the only foot traffic I saw was a few teenagers and young adults, presumably on their way to local Halloween parties.
So now my wife is dividing the five gallons of candy between two offices of her company. A pretty mean “trick”, considering they’re in the middle of a diet contest!
Edward Trumbo
November 4, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Last year I had one child come to the door. It didn’t help that I was the only house on the street apparently participating in Halloween. I had a lot of decorations out-lights, pumpkins, spiderwebbing, etc. I think the Halloween of our childhoods is a thing of the past, sadly. Kids are no longer allowed to wear costumes to schools, schools often are not allowed to have “Halloween” parties (they must call them “harvest celebrations” if they do anything at all). Neighborhoods are too fragmented now, there’s no sense of community. Like you, I have a lot of fond memories of Halloween. The whole mystery, and spookiness, the fun of planning costumes and general revelry of the night spent walking blocks with friends — ah, good times
Digital Dame
November 13, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Hi Digital Dame,
We were one of many houses decorated on our block, and by no means the most elaborate of them. But as far as I could tell, none of us received any children. Apparently Halloween for children has become a casualty of our fears, political correctness and religious wars.
Edward Trumbo
November 14, 2009 at 5:10 am