With, as for the money spinner that is Christmas, the build-up getting earlier each year:
What is the story behind Halloween and why do children trick or treat? (video, telegraph.co.uk).
With adults treating it as little more than a green-lighted opportunity to dress up (Pick of the Week 17th Oct. 2013), spend money, overeat and excessively drink too.
“The origin of the festival is disputed, and there are both pagan and Christian practices that have evolved into what Halloween is like today. Some believe it originates from the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain [pronounced SOW-in], meaning ‘Summer’s End’ which celebrated the end of harvest season.
“Gaels [the ethnolinguistic group native to northwestern Europe, as in the Irish, Scots, and Manx] believed that it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through, come back to life on the day and damage their crops. Places were set at the dinner table to appease and welcome the spirits.
“Gaels would also offer food and drink, and light bonfires to ward off the evil spirits. The origins of trick or treating and dressing up were in the 16th century in Ireland, Scotland and Wales where people went door-to-door in costume asking for food in exchange for a poem or song.”
With thankfully few parents keen to have their young-un’s knocking on strangers doors in the dark nowadays, and any “song” likely restricted to a single line invariably of “trick or treat, what you got?” followed by a thoroughly unimpressed look when simply candy or sweets are handed over.
“The Christian origin of the holiday is that it falls on the days before the feast of All Hallows, which was set in the eighth century to attempt to stamp out pagan celebrations. Christians would honour saints and pray for souls who have not yet reached heaven.”
Theologians realising it being a better stance to usurp a celebration of overeating and drinking for the newly converted than to try and sanctimoniously stamp it out.
“Celts dressed up in white with blackened faces during the festival of Samhain to trick the evil spirits that they believed would be roaming the earth before All Saints’ Day on November 1st. By the 11th century, this had been adapted by the Church into a tradition called ‘souling’, which is seen as being the origin of trick-or-treating. Children go door-to-door, asking for soul cakes in exchange for praying for the souls of friends and relatives. … In the 19th century, souling gave way to guising or mumming, when children would offer songs, poetry and jokes—instead of prayer—in exchange for fruit or money.”
And later eggs thrown at doors and windows should you not have anything to give or simply ignored the knock or doorbell:
“Guising gave way to threatening pranks in exchange for sweets. After a brief lull during the sugar rations in World War Two, Halloween became a widespread holiday that revolved around children, with newly built suburbs providing a safe place for children to roam free. Costumes became more adventurous—in Victorian ages, they were influenced by gothic themes in literature, and dressed as bats and ghosts or what seemed exotic, such as an Egyptian pharoah. Later, costumes became influenced by pop culture, and became more sexualised in the 1970s.”
With devilishly sexy nurses, various sorts of un-caring bear, Cthulhuesque squids (Pick of the Week 24th Oct. 2013), Breaking Bad Ebola hazmat suits (Pick of the Week 21st Oct. 2014), bound and gagged Kim Kardashian robbery victim outfit (Latest Picks 11th Oct. 2016), and scary creation of self-fiction President Orange Don (Latest Picks 22nd Oct. 2016) joining the party lineup.
What will be your costume for this year, what’s trending?
From the pop cultural stable it seems the recent film releases of DC’s Wonder Woman, Pennywise the clown from Stephen King’s It, and HBO’s audience hanging on every word and plot twist Game of Thrones are strong running: 120 top trending costumes for Halloween 2017 (bestproducts.com).
Updated 12th September 2017
And demonstrating again that it’s only China profiting from Orange Don’s populist #MAGA administration:
Floral dress and nude pumps not included! Online retailers are selling blonde Ivanka Trump wigs on eBay just in time for Halloween (dailymail.co.uk).
“The wig in question likely wasn’t manufactured specifically for Ivanka Trump cosplayers, but has rather been ingeniously re-marketed with her name. … Interestingly, most of the online sellers offering the wig with Ivanka’s name attached are based in China, where there had reportedly been an uptick in women requesting plastic surgery to look more like Ivanka.”
With Ivanka probably more popular in China than at home in the USA (aol.com, Jan. 2017), there being Chinese online fan clubs worshipping “Goddess Ivanka” (thisisnocave.blogspot.co.uk, updated 30th Apr. 2017) which, take your pick, is either a troubling situation of Asians seeming still wishing to be like their Western Imperialism in Asia “betters”, or simply Chinese advertising knowing that “exotic” sells to home audience, much in the same way “exotic” Asian ladies and tentacle Hentai porn appeal to Western audience.
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