The USA marks fall in a big way and the extended celebration of halloween occupies a significant portion of this season.
In the UK autumn/fall is a holding season. It is the blank space between summer holidays and Christmas that is very briefly punctuated with Halloween and a few days later on 5th Nov, Guy Fawkes. This 3 month vacuum of cooling temperatures and darkening days is maddeningly filled with the insidious selling of premature Christmas-iness.
A UK Halloween mostly boils down to one evening. A few pumpkin lanterns. A costume party or two. Taking the kids trick-or-treating to a few neighbourhood homes.
For those not in the know, Guy Fawkes night marks the anniversary of the foiling of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5th Nov 1605. Fawkes was one of the co-conspirators, confessed to the crime and sentenced to death. Interestingly he fell off the hangman’s scaffolding platform and broke his neck before he could be executed. He was still subjected to a bit of post mortem mutilation, just for good measure. The night is celebrated by making an effigy of a man (or Guy), perching him atop a bonfire before setting fire to it, followed by a fireworks display. A bit macabre if you think about it too closely.
In the USA it seems like Fall is the most anticipated and celebrated season of the whole year. Porches are decorated, often in September, with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, straw scarecrows, leaf garlands, lights, ghosts, skeletons, cobwebs, giant spiders, ghouls, and witches. Lawns are bedecked with large illuminated inflatable decorations. TV advertising is for a ‘pumpkin flavoured’ version of everything. Homes are filled with pumpkin themed hand towels, serviettes, wall hangings and scatter cushions. These months are appreciated to the full with people enjoying a respite from often unbearable summer heat before the harsh cold of winter arrives. In the northeast especially the trees put on a spectacular display of reds and browns before they lose their leaves and the whole region basks in the glory of ‘ The Colors’. The hype and expectation of Fall and Halloween fends off the ‘Christmas creep’, and I haven’t even mentioned Thanksgiving yet! I love it. Especially as I hate thinking about Christmas until December has begun.
Halloween itself if a true phenomenon. Costumes are planned months and months in advance. There are costume hire shops that will do the vast majority of their business at this time of year. Parties abound, for grown ups and children alike. Trick or treating is a science of strategy and performance. No pumpkin is safe. Nowhere does Halloween like the USA.
Nick and I will be in New Orleans for Halloween. I suspect it will be bonkers.
Now what shall we wear?