![\"got\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/GOT.bmp\")
<\/a>As if we don’t have enough to worry about right now, I’ve discovered whole websites devoted to “Trumpkins”<\/strong> – pumpkins carved out to look like Trump.\u00a0 There are also some of Hillary called “Clinkins” but that doesn’t seem to have the same ring.\u00a0 Frankly, I don’t really know how this whole pumpkin-carving thing started, or even that much about Halloween.\u00a0 My knowledge\u00a0on the subject is limited to costumes and Snickers<\/strong> bars.\u00a0 Lots of Snickers bars.\u00a0 I’ve been giving Halloween some thought\u00a0this year because I’ve seen more advertisements for adult costumes and celebrations than ever before.\u00a0 My assumption was that\u00a0millennials have popularized the holiday by coming out of their parents’ basements<\/strong> to party with others of their generation.\u00a0 That young adults have discarded their pajama bottoms in favor of dressing up as\u00a0Steve Jobs or\u00a0a Game of\u00a0Thrones character, and in the process,\u00a0have stolen Halloween\u00a0from the kids.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0my assumptions were all wrong.\u00a0 So I quit looking at all of the Trumpkins on the internet and did a little research.\u00a0 Turns out that Halloween started<\/em> as an adult celebration and was then highjacked by kids.\u00a0 Specifically, the Baby Boomers.\u00a0 Yes, yet another thing we can chalk up to our overwhelming numbers<\/strong> and our parents desire to make us happy.\u00a0 But let me start at the beginning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Halloween is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain<\/strong>, a celebration that took place on November 1, which was the Celtic new year.\u00a0 People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts.\u00a0\u00a0 And, knowing my Celtic ancestors, I’m guessing that quite a few of the celebrants were lit too.\u00a0 By 43 A. D. the Romans had conquered most of the Celtic territory and thus brought their own religious and cultural celebrations<\/strong> to the region, which resulted in a whole lot of observances – Feast Days, All Martyrs Days, All Saint’s Days, Days to Honor the Dead.\u00a0 You get the idea.\u00a0 In the eighth century Pope Gregory III, no doubt exhausted from\u00a0having to oversee so many\u00a0observances, consolidated the traditional Celtic and Roman holidays to one single day –\u00a0November 1, known as All Saints Day.\u00a0 Pope Gregory III knew how to cut through<\/b> bureaucracy<\/strong> – we could use him around today.\u00a0In any event, the night before became All Hallows Eve, eventually shortened to Halloween.<\/p>\n Fast forward a few hundred years when Halloween came to America<\/strong>.\u00a0 It was not a holiday celebrated by the stuffy, dour \u00a0New England Protestants (again, our ancestors so I can say that) but caught on with newer immigrants to the southern colonies.\u00a0 The first celebrations included \u201cplay parties,\u201d public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other\u2019s fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds<\/strong>.\u00a0 Sounds like they really knew how to par-tay.\u00a0\u00a0In the second half of the 19th century, with the huge influx of immigrants from Ireland, Halloween was introduced to virtually every region of the U.S.\u00a0 Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money<\/strong>, a practice that eventually became today\u2019s \u201ctrick-or-treat\u201d tradition.\u00a0 And thus the tradition continued as a community celebration, primarily for adults, until the latter part of the twentieth century.\u00a0 In the 1950’s, with so ma <\/p>\n Speaking of which, my brother found an interesting article about the sale of Presidential candidate costumes in an election year.\u00a0 Turns out that dating back to Richard Nixon’s presidential run, the candidate’s whose Halloween mask sells the most is far more likely to win the election<\/strong>.\u00a0 This year,\u00a0 the Trump mask is outselling the Clinton mask by 7%.\u00a0 I’m not sure that’s really indicative of this year’s election.\u00a0 I suspect the sales numbers reflect the fact that it’s just more fun to wear a clump of orange hair than a boxy pantsuit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By Suzanne Sparrow Watson As if we don’t have enough to worry about right now, I’ve discovered whole websites devoted to “Trumpkins” – pumpkins carved out to look like Trump.\u00a0 There are also some of Hillary called “Clinkins” but that … read more![\"samain\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Samain.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/del>ny adorable children bursting on the scene, Halloween was given over to children<\/strong>, with the focus on children’s events at school and calculated forays into neighborhoods where they gave out good (e.g. chocolate) vs. bad (suckers) candy.<\/p>\n![\"pumpkin-dog\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/pumpkin-dog-282x300.jpg\")
<\/a>So, why are we seeing such an uptick in adult Halloween celebrations?\u00a0 There are lots of theories and not a lot of definitive answers.\u00a0 I think it’s mostly because people like to have fun<\/strong> and dressing up on Halloween and partying with friends is a good way to forget that your boss is a jerk and your mother-in-law is coming for Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Whatever the reason, according to Forbes, <\/em>Americans now spend $7 BILLION on decorations, costumes, cards, candy and pets.\u00a0 Yes, pets.\u00a0 We spend $1.22B on adult costumes, $1.04B on children’s costumes, and more than $370M on doodads for our dogs and cats<\/strong>.\u00a0 I found that hard to believe but then a quick Google search convinced me that this pet-dressing phenomenon is quite real.\u00a0 While many of the pictures made me smile (there are definitely pet owners who are spending too much time on Pinterest) I noticed that none of the pets looked too happy garbed up as a fairy princess or bumble bee<\/strong>.\u00a0 Offhand I’d say that we’d be much better off donating that $370M to animal shelters.\u00a0 But then again sometimes I’m just a buzzkill.<\/p>\n![\"clinton-pumpkin\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Clinton-pumpkin.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0![\"trumpkin\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Trumpkin-242x300.jpg\")
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