Opinion: No foreclosure for haunted houses
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At the risk of seeming to riff on the theme ‘When I was your age,’ I continue to be astounded by the growth of Halloween from a one-day holiday to a ‘season.’
My 20-year-old nephew has been working part-time the past several weeks for a ‘Halloween store’ in Pittsburgh, which sets up in a mall months ahead of Oct. 31. That seems like a wise marketing move. According to the National Retail Federation, the average American this year plans to spend $66.54 on Halloween-related activities, compared to $64.82 a year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 is estimated to reach $5.77 billion -- despite the economic downturn. (Maybe we all should put our money in pumpkin futures.)
In fact, the retail foundation suggests that the Halloween industry might actually benefit from the slump. The headline on its press release reads: ‘Halloween Celebrations Rise as Consumers Look to Escape Everyday Realities.’ That indicates that not too many trick-or-treaters will be wearing Henry Paulson masks, but otherwise 2008 seems like a frightfully good year, and not just for novelty stores and candy manufacturers.
It could also be a good year for haunted houses, which now have their own trade association. The Haunted House Association claims that some ‘haunted events’ are attracting over 300,000 paid guests over the 30 days of the Halloween season. Presumably that figure doesn’t include patronage at ‘Hell houses,’ the fundamentalist Christian version of haunted houses in which kids are scared straight by images of what awaits them in you-know-where.
The linking of Halloween with religion isn’t all that far-fetched. As I learned at my Catholic grammar school, Halloween is also known as All Hallows Eve, the night before the celebration on Nov. 1 of All Saint’s Day. That day is devoted to the commemoration of the the God-fearing departed both famous and obscure. The object, as one scholar puts it, is an ‘immense network of intercession which unites the Catholic in this world with all the saints and indeed with all departed souls.’’
A day later -- Nov. 2 -- is All Souls Day, a more somber feast day on which the church prayed for the souls of the not-faithful-enough departed whose souls were stalled on the way to Heaven. By a decree of Pope Benedict XV, each priest could say three Masses, though only one would be for the souls in Purgatory. Purgatory (which, unlike Limbo, has not been jettisoned by the church) is a kind of Hell Lite but still spookier than anything a kid is likely to encounter in a haunted house.
But even the church didn’t devote a whole month to the combination of All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The secular equivalent now threatens to conquer the calendar between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. As Count Floyd would say, ‘Ooh, that’s scary.’
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan