The Commercialization of Halloween, Part Three: A Mini-Essay

     This mass commercialization of Halloween, however, has also found its detractors, chiefly among the religious segments of society. Religious decries against Halloween can be seen as early as the nineteenth century, with Arthur Cleveland Coxes’ 1846 text denouncing its paganistic practices: “Instead of the profane rites by which it has been desecrated, I have supposed it observed in Christian homes, by fire-side tales and recollections of the departed, and conversations about the state of Intermediate Response.”[1] While the sentiments of Coxes have been a longstanding and inseparable factor in the United States’ observance of Halloween, they have grown more vocal as capitalism propels the holiday further into mainstream society, with many Protestant Evangelical churches, the Seventh-Day Adventists among them, boycotting it and launching counter events, from fall festivals to trunk-or-treat parties, that strip the holiday of its perceived pagan elements and interject strong Christian morals (interestingly, members of the Buddhist and Jewish faiths, because they view Halloween as a purely secular celebration, do not share the same negative reactions).[2] The sharpest and most controversial response, in turn, comes in the form of the Hell House, a spiritually based haunted house manufactured by the Pentecostal Abundant Life Christian Center in Arvada, Colorado, and, akin to the haunted-house-for-charity model sold by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce in the 1970s, peddled to churches throughout the nation. In sharp contrast to the ghosts and monsters of the traditional haunted house, Hell Houses employ a bevy of realistic scenarios – “hav[ing] abortions, driv[ing] drunk, contract[ing] AIDS, or, in a few churches, wear[ing] trench coats and shoot[ing] fellow students” – that questionably draw on real fears to proselytize Christina-based messages of transgression and redemption.[3]

Works Referenced

Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt. A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 2002.

Coxe, Arthur Cleveland. Halloween: A Romaunt, with Lays, Meditative and Devotional. Hartford, CT: H.S. Parsons, 19845.
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[1] Coxe, 64.
[2] Bannatyne, 243-244.
[3] Bannatyne, 244.

2019's Haunt (Night)

2019: Creepy Carnival

When my brother and I started Haunted Hill, Inc. in the early 2000s, we made an active effort to avoid clowns and zombies, since those concepts, we felt, have been overdone. In 2017, my office selected a circus motif for its annual decorating competition, which forced me to confront one of the themes. Drawing inspiration from turn-of-the-century travelling shows, I focused more on a carnivalesque scheme rather than a circus. To my surprise, the display worked extremely well and possessed very few clowns. In 2019, the haunt’s venue forced me to once again return to the circus theme. Working from my experiences two years prior, I expanded on the carnival attributes. Interestingly, the haunt almost didn’t happen. Colorado (and much of the nation) experienced a cold front that dumped inches of snow the night before and kept temperatures below 40˚F throughout October 31. Having missed 2018’s Halloween due to my parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, I was determined to haunt. Thankfully, so was the venue and we spent much of the morning plowing snow before finally erecting the circus tent and all its spooky entrails. Presented here are images of the haunt in all its nocturnal glory.

2019's Haunt (Day)

2019: Creepy Carnival

  
When my brother and I started Haunted Hill, Inc. in the early 2000s, we made an active effort to avoid clowns and zombies, since those concepts, we felt, have been overdone. In 2017, my office selected a circus motif for its annual decorating competition, which forced me to confront one of the themes. Drawing inspiration from turn-of-the-century travelling shows, I focused more on a carnivalesque scheme rather than a circus. To my surprise, the display worked extremely well and possessed very few clowns. In 2019, the haunt’s venue forced me to once again return to the circus theme. Working from my experiences two years prior, I expanded on the carnival attributes. Interestingly, the haunt almost didn’t happen. Colorado (and much of the nation) experienced a cold front that dumped inches of snow the night before and kept temperatures below 40˚F throughout October 31. Having missed 2018’s Halloween due to my parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, I was determined to haunt. Thankfully, so was the venue and we spent much of the morning plowing snow before finally erecting the circus tent and all its spooky entrails. Presented here are images of the haunt by day (always less atmospheric than their nighttime counterparts, but the best means to reveal detail).

"Ode to Autumn" (A Poem)

Published in 1827, Thomas Hood's "Ode to Autumn," contained in his The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, was influenced by John Keats' poem "To Autumn," which was written seven years prior. Whereas Keats' inspiration paints a happier image of fall (with the lulling motions of cider presses and the melodic songs of hedge crickets), Hood's modification presents a more somber depiction filled with silence and the lingering death of summer.

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing
Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn,
Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn; -
Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright
With tangled gossamer that fell by night,
Pearling his coronet of golden corn.

Where are the songs of Summer? - With the sun,
Oping the dusky eyelids of the south,
Till shade and silence waken up as one,
And Morning sings with a warm odorous mouth.
Where are the merry birds? - Away, away,
On panting wings through the inclement skies,
Lest owls should prey
Undazzled at noonday,
And tear with horny beak their lustrous eyes.

Where are the blooms of Summer? - In the west,
Blushing their last to the last sunny hours,
When the mild Eve by sudden Night is prest
Like tearful Proserpine, snatch'd from her flow'rs
To a most gloomy breast.
Where is the pride of Summer,—the green prime, - The many, many leaves all twinkling? - Three
On the moss'd elm; three on the naked lime
Trembling, - and one upon the old oak-tree!
Where is the Dryad's immortality? -
Gone into mournful cypress and dark yew,
Or wearing the long gloomy Winter through
In the smooth holly's green eternity.

The squirrel gloats on his accomplish'd hoard,
The ants have brimm'd their garners with ripe grain,
And honey bees have stored
The sweets of Summer in their luscious cells;
The swallows all have wing'd across the main;
But here the Autumn melancholy dwells,
And sighs her tearful spells
Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain.
Alone, alone,
Upon a mossy stone,
She sits and reckons up the dead and gone
With the last leaves for a love-rosary,
Whilst all the wither'd world looks drearily,
Like a dim picture of the drownèd past
In the hush'd mind's mysterious far away,
Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last
Into that distance, gray upon the gray.

O go and sit with her, and be o'ershaded
Under the languid downfall of her hair:
She wears a coronal of flowers faded
Upon her forehead, and a face of care; -
There is enough of wither'd everywhere
To make her bower,—and enough of gloom;
There is enough of sadness to invite,
If only for the rose that died, whose doom
Is Beauty's, - she that with the living bloom
Of conscious cheeks most beautifies the light:
There is enough of sorrowing, and quite
Enough of bitter fruits the earth doth bear, - Enough of chilly droppings for her bowl;
Enough of fear and shadowy despair,
To frame her cloudy prison for the soul![1]

Works Referenced

Hood, Thomas. "Ode to Autumn." The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, With Some Account of the Author. Vol. 1 Boston, MA: Ticknor and Fields, 1868. 265-267.
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[1] Hood, 265-267.

Cauldron Candy Bowl

$5 - $10 (based on 2018 prices)

Makes one bowl

In 2018, I participated in my office’s secret pal gift exchange, where we anonymously sent monthly gifts to a colleague. For October’s present (see November’s and December’s presents here), I decided to create a decoupaged cauldron. Although I used my version as a candy pail, this prop can easily be modified to serve a variety of purposes. For example, a water-proof sealer in step four will allow for the prop to be paired with a mist maker or the length of the rope handle in step six can be lengthened to several feet to allow the prop to be hung from a tree with a fake flame nestled inside.

• One eight-inch-diameter plastic cauldron
• Six pieces of 8” x 11.5” copy paper with potion labels printed on them
• At least four tablespoons of black tea (e.g. Darjeeling, Earl Gary, English Breakfast, etc.)
• One pan large enough to soak the paper
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• One to two yards of seven-millimeter jute rope
  

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the cauldron. If there is any sticker residue, use rubbing alcohol to remove it (soak a paper towel in the solution, let it sit over the area for a few minutes, and wipe away the remaining glue). After cleaning the cauldron, roughen its surface with coarse sandpaper to help the decoupage medium adhere.

2. Boil enough water to completely submerge the copy paper and pour it into the pan. Add the tea. The longer you allow the tea to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of tea will produce a richer stain. I found that a combination of English and Irish Breakfast brewed for over ten minutes produces a nice, deep brown. Submerge the paper into the tea mixture and soak it until it reaches the color you desire. I soaked mine for eight hours and scattered the loose-leaf tea over the top of the paper to add spots. Remove the paper from the water and allow it to dry.

3. After the paper has dried, cut out the labels, leaving a small boarder around their edges, and cover the entire exterior and interior surfaces of the cauldron with the items. This process works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. Depending on the size of your cauldron, you may need more labels than the eighty-four produced by the six sheets.

4. Once the decoupage medium has dried, apply an additional coat or two to serve as a sealer. As with step three, ensure your coverage is even and thin to achieve a smooth final surface.

5. Glue rope around the edges of the cauldron to serve as an ornamental accent. You can also repeat the process with the cauldron’s feet, wrapping the each one in the rope and gluing it in place.

6. Remove the cauldron’s handle, cut a piece of rope sixteen inches in length, and us it to make an alternate handle for the cauldron. Depending on how low you want the cauldron to hang, you can adjust the length of the rope.

7. The prop can be embellished in a variety of ways to correspond with your haunt’s theme. For instance, you can glue swarms of spiders along the side, age the cauldron with a dusting of black and brown spray paint, or drizzle green paint down the sides to make it appear as though potion has boiled over.