By Simon Gonzalez
Our first home was in rural Texas, a couple of miles outside the tiny town of Joshua. Then we had a house isolated in the North Carolina mountains, set below a narrow dirt road with a steep driveway.
Now, for the first time in nearly 30 years, my wife and I dwell in suburbia, in a lovely home on a cul-de-sac.
The neighbors are friendly and not too loud. Nobody mows their yard at 7 a.m. on a Saturday. It’s a good place to run, bike and walk the dogs. We like it.
But for the first time in nearly 30 years, we’re forced to deal with — Halloween.
In all of our married life we’ve never had trick-or-treaters. Because we didn’t live in a traditional neighborhood, we were never faced with the decision of taking our own kids trick-or-treating. Most years we’d take them to a fall festival at church.
It had to be a church, and it had to be a “fall festival,” because as good American evangelicals we couldn’t actually acknowledge the existence of Halloween, that most evil of holidays.
Halloween is, to be sure, a very strange brew. Its roots extend to pagan times. Then it became a Christian festival. Now it’s morphed into a mishmash of candy eating, an excuse to wear a costume and party, a celebration of everything pumpkin, and a boon for retailers.
It began as an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, held on Nov. 1 to mark the change from summer and harvest time — life — and the beginning of the long, cold winter — death. The Celts reportedly believed the worlds between the living and the dead collided on the night of Oct. 31, and people would wear costumes to disguise themselves from ghosts.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated Nov. 1 as All Saints Day, a time to hallow, or honor, the faithful who had died. The day before became known as All Hallows Eve, later shortened to Halloween.
The choice of the first day of November was likely not just a coincidence. The pagan festival was being replaced by a church-sanctioned celebration, complete with bonfires, parades and costumes.
Over the years, immigrants brought the Old World traditions to the New World. One theory holds that the English practice of the poor begging for food and being given “soul cakes” evolved into trick-or-treating.
I had a general understanding of the pagan roots, the church’s historic attempts to redeem the holiday, the further attempts by evangelicals uncomfortable with the evil origins to provide alternative fall festivals, and trunk-or-treating as a safe substitute for trick-or-treating.
But I hadn’t given it a lot of thought until the first Halloween decorations went up in the neighborhood at the beginning of the month.
That was a little surprising. When did Halloween yard decorations, as the kids might say, become a thing? When did people start celebrating this strange holiday a month early?
Turns out that Halloween has become a huge deal. The National Retail Federation reports spending is expected to exceed $8 billion this year, a record high. Some 171 million Americans will celebrate in some manner, forking out about $83 apiece to do so.
About $3 billion of that will be spent on sweets. One-fourth of all candy sold in the country for the year is purchased for Halloween. The rest is spent on costumes, decorations and parties.
The history and crazy statistics don’t address our suburban dilemma, though. Soon the day will be upon us. We might actually have kids ringing the doorbell, making their extortionist demands, threatening us with a trick if we don’t give them some candy.
I suppose we could avoid the issue by closing the curtains and turning off the lights. Or, better yet, my wife and I can truly enter into the spirit of the season and frighten the kids who come to the door by wearing our own scary costumes. We’ll dress as Trump and Hillary.
