By Anne W. Semmes
What grabs the eye passing by our town’s Halloween decorated houses is the spookiness, the nightmarish figures, the designs. Cobwebs, spiders, ghosts, evocative messages. In many a neighborhood this reporter was stopped in her tracks.
We all surely have had a scary moment on Halloween. Mine was answering the door years ago with my young family and finding before us a figure draped in black with only two small holes for eyes, stretching forward a gnarled hand for our trick or treat. Wordless he/she was taking the treat, then silently disappearing into the night. Never did he/she reveal her/himself.
Many of us who have lived on this earth for over half a century have seen Halloween decorations grow across our neighborhoods. And they are getting spookier and spookier. And the variety of spookiness on sale in shops is jaw-dropping. Who would know Sam Bridge Nursery excelled in this variety!
Then suddenly what came into mind was that great White House – how has its Halloween decoration grown across the years? Amazingly! Its all there on the Internet, cobwebs stretched across the South Portico with black spiders crawling over the cobwebs. Bats hanging over the entrance to the White House, spookiness from one administration to the next.
And there displayed today over the South Portico of the Biden White House is a plethora of golden leaves and pumpkins and a giant Halloween 2022 sign – quite benign of any horror. But inside, there is reportedly something very spooky, “a lifelike old zombie that wanders the halls, drooling and moaning.”
The report is spelled out in something called “The Babylon Bee” that “critics suggest the White House may have gone too far with the gruesome zombie, citing reports of traumatized young girls on White House tours being chased through corridors as the old thing repeatedly asked for just a little taste of delicious hair.”
The report goes on that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has heard of these disturbing reports of “our, um, Halloween decorations,” and that “No visitors are allowed in the White House until our engineers have properly adjusted or replaced the zombie.”
So, has our spooky imagination and love of horror movies grown out of control at Halloween time? Are we over-spooking our kids.
Does a town need to start giving ratings to Halloween decorations? Is it still safe to trick or treat? I’m beginning to miss seeing those smiling pumpkin faces.
Okay, it’s time to get with the program. Halloween did grow from All Hallow’s Eve. And Halloween is all about death! Remembering the dead (including saints, martyrs, and “all the faithful departed”). So, those ancient Celtic harvest festivals were marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter – yes, that “darker half” of the year. “A time when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed,” when the “spirits” or “fairies”, the “supernatural beings” could more easily come into our world.
So, embrace the spirits, the fairies, and the spooks, and all those floating ghosts hung under the trees. It only officially lasts for three days, beginning next Monday. And I’ll just brave the trick or treat!
