The Horrible – and adorable – insanity of Halloween
Halloween is always one of my favorite Simply Amusing newsletters to write, because there is so much good material to work with. I have never understood why it is perfectly acceptable for wholesome, peace loving, families to celebrate the blood, guts, and violence of Halloween. For reasons that totally baffle me, during the month of October it becomes perfectly acceptable to proudly display gruesome images of anything dead, scary, or evil. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, that people actually go out of their way toa flaunt images of terror that would otherwise be considered worthy of the death penalty.
Now mix that in with the little girls dressed up as ballerinas, babies wearing irresistible pumpkin costumes, and boys who are excited to be superheroes. Then send them all out together into the neighborhood streets – the ax murderers and the princesses – to knock on doors and ask total strangers for a piece of candy. I’d like to say that this is a total exaggeration and that I’m just making this stuff up, but the reality is, it’s all true.
More Confusion
Again, Halloween is a time that truly baffles me. Three other things that add to my October confusion are: the scarecrows, the pumpkins, and the candy corn. I can maybe understand the pumpkin and the scarecrow because they are at least somewhat appropriate to the season. Pumpkin harvest is in the fall so we need to keep the scarecrows employed. I suppose it is their job to help ensure that we have a big enough crop for all of those millions of pumpkin pies that Americans consume on Thanksgiving day.
But what about the candy corn? How did that become, not only associated with, but almost the generic symbol of Halloween. In what way is a tri-colored lump of corn kernel shaped sugar, connected to Halloween? The only thing I can think of is that maybe some brilliant marketing expert, employed by the sugar cane farmers, created candy corn as a way to compete with the pumpkin growers, but who knows.
And if you thought I was done with our list of insanity associated with Halloween then you were mistaken. Can someone please explain to me why we carve Jack-o-lanterns? It seem like a big waste to me, because we don’t even eat the darn things. We just hollow them out, poke a few holes that are supposed to represent a face, and then put in a candle to see them glow. Then a few days later we scrape up the soggy, moldy mess and toss all of our hard work in the trash. I know, maybe that brilliant candy corn marketing guy was the same guy who came up with the idea of carving pumpkins.
Yet, as soon as the month of October is over, the insanity quickly fades away. Down with the scary monsters, and up go the twinkling lights of peace and joy. And do you know the craziest thing of all about this whole mess? I have already purchased my pumpkins, and already eaten half of the candy that is meant for the horrible, and the adorable, trick or treater’s that I welcome to my door. I guess that means I’ll be going as a hypocrite this year.
Original Corny Jokes
Written by Susan Sherbert
What do you do when you make a mistake carving a pumpkin?
Take it to a pumpkin PATCH?
———————-
Why did the witch buy a vaccuum?
Because her broom STICKS
Simply Amusing 
This is a great post! Its so true how ironic the entire holiday of Halloween is! Its kind of like Christmas in a way because multiple celebrations are compiled into one with no connecting links between each tradition (Birth of Jesus vs Santa Claus).
Yet this is America and we are a conglomerate of many types of people so it is not too surprising that these random tid bits of fall make their way into Halloween celebrations.
Either way, I think the most important aspect of Halloween is that despite all the gore, evil, and scare it does bring people together. Families, friends, children, people of all ages, are able to come together and make memories – and that is most important of all.
Brie, you are right, it’s all aboout family togetherness. I had a family visiting from Scotland one year and they experienced An American Halloween – even the parents dressed up. I’m sure that they will have those memories for a life time. Happy memories tonight.
For someone who advocates grown-ups bringing fun into their lives, I was a bit surprised by this post. Halloween is definitely a time when grown-ups pursue fun and imagination [smiley].
Halloween has significantly shifted over the last decade to become an adult holiday, at least as much as one for kids. I don’t know how much that coincides with the rise in popularity of the supernatural in pop culture or not. But I love it.
The death rate doesn’t go up, contrary to popular belief no child has ever died from malicious halloween candy, and people don’t head to their therapists to recover from Halloween-trauma, to so the fake blood, skeletons and undead creatures don’t have ill-affects.
People have always been entertained by horror, it’s the dark side of wonder, and a safe place to release some of the tensions of real-life fears (that we otherwise have almost no outlet for…). While it can go too far – someone is always going too far with anything you can name – most people have fun with it: fun with costumes, fun with decorations, and, as you say, they have a lot of fun with each other.
Too bad the fun of it eludes you! My sympathies [smiley].
I’d say candy corn comes out of the multi-colored displays of maize that are so iconic of the hardest time, and though we associate that with Thanksgiving now, Halloween comes right of old harvest celebrations, so it’s not surprising there would still be signs of it.
Amber,
I agree to a point because there is a lot of fun attached to Halloween. I just have a “personal” thing against violence- I don’t understand dark comedy because good guys wear white and bad guys die. I suppose I didn’t grow up with violent video games. Yet as long as the celebration is only one day a year, we should all enjoy it.
And thanks for info about the Candy corny.
Okay, I hear what you’re saying. Being concerned about the current trend in fiction to feature bad guys as the heroes and revel in torture and violence makes total sense. It is disturbing.
I don’t specifically associate that with Halloween, though, as slasher horror movies are released any and every time of year, and how many violent and grisly murders are committed on television shows every single week.
So I’m not trying to negate your point, just add to the discussion.