Halloween

Well, Halloween has come around again, and it seems to be a much bigger thing these days here in England, no doubt because the bean-counters in the corporate world have woken up to the fact that it is an easy way to separate people from their hard-earned money.

This wasn't always the case, at least on this side of the Atlantic. When I was growing up, Halloween was an established part of the calendar, but there was little of the hysteria, peer pressure and general media saturation coverage which we are bombarded with nowadays. The shops were certainly not overflowing with Halloween-related "merchandise". Or maybe I lived a sheltered existence, and the "trick or treat" phenomenon was widely established in these parts, and I was blissfully oblivious to it all?

I vaguely remember going to Halloween "parties" as a youngster, but I cannot recall exactly what went on at these events. We may even have played various traditional Halloween games, I'm not entirely sure.  I may even have donned a scary mask or two at various points, I don't know. It all felt like going through the motions....

To what do we attribute the greater seriousness and intensity with which people appear to approach Halloween these days?  Could it be that Halloween represents an oasis of tradition and simplicity in our overly complicated society? I was raised in an organic and analog world, so things like Halloween must have seemed like less of a big deal. We had so many other things to entertain and divert us.

From the vantage point of 2015, I reckon I missed out on a lot of fun.  Even the less "sophisticated" Halloween festivities which my generation enjoyed failed to realize their full potential.  Oh, to have those years all over again...