Author Nik: BenedictFisher
Name: Benedict Fisher
Halloween has suffered from more persecution than other public celebrations in the United States. Normally, the persecution comes from the religious communities in the different states. The focus is often the so-called ’satanic’ overtones of the celebration.
Many people associate Halloween with pagan rituals. But the truth is that it’s not pagan. Some historians from the West would say this is true, and that Halloween came from All Hallow Even, the day before All Saint’s Day. All Saint’s Day usually happens on the first day of November.
Unbelievably, Halloween-inspired scripts and stories first made their appearance not in movie theaters but in good, old radio. We owe the first scary and thrilling story for Halloween to the novelist H.G. Wells. If you remember Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds, then you might already know of this novelist.
In the weeks that followed the September 11 attacks in 2001, Americans began to question whether continuing to spend heavily during the Halloween season (and other “spending” seasons) was the right thing to do, especially when there seemed to be so much to do to keep the country safe.
After America was shocked by the September 11 attacks, its people reacted by uniting against foreign threats. Back then, the nation was getting lost in the globalization mix, but resurfaced into world view after the events of September 11.
Halloween is probably the most commercialized celebration in America. When we talk about commercial potential, Halloween comes second to Christmas when it comes to popularity and marketability.
Halloween in modern, western society is a grisly yet anticipated spectacle. It’s a spectacle because different communities, groups and individuals celebrate it differently. Since the nineties, people have relinquished aged beliefs about the supposed ‘Satanism’ of modern Halloween.
Halloween today stemmed from the eighties, when the event gained recognition from a number of gory films and the idea that there’s nothing really wrong with celebrating such a holiday. It wasn’t always that way.
No matter how adults dress up Halloween, many families (especially in North America) believe that it should still be a celebration for the kids. We owe this perhaps to the fact that Halloween is both a celebration of ghouls, ghosts and goblins and a celebration of strong family ties.