Like most American celebrations, Halloween has become an excessive marketing gimmick -- the opening gate to a deluge of repugnant consumerism between now and January 1.
I tend to share the attitudes of the Brits on this one.
“Trick or treat? I don’t know about you, but my answer to this question, if I’m honest, would be unprintable in a family newspaper,” the critic A. N. Wilson wrote recently in The Daily Mail. “Let’s say it’s stronger than ‘push off.’ Yet the little beggars will soon be round, banging and ringing at our doors with this irritating refrain.”
[...]
Fifty-eight percent of homeowners in a recent survey by the Norwich Union insurance company said they had hidden in the back of their houses and turned off all the lights on Halloween, pretending that no one was home.
Some are even more openly hostile to the festivities:
“I’ve thought about removing the cover from my doorbell so they electrocute themselves,” one participant wrote.
There's an idea.
Personally I prefer to celebrate the entire fall season with a nice assortment of these oddball squash for a centerpiece.
Happy Halloween.
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