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| Geoff Graves plays "Kitty Zombie" at Chicago horror events. |
POLL: Should the date change?
While Halloween has become arguably the most commercial party holiday of modern American culture, does it warrant an entire Hallow-weekend? One costume company thinks so.
Spirit Halloween, owners of many Halloween stores that vanish as mysteriously as they materialize in strip malls across America come Nov. 1, has launched a proposal to permanently change the date of All-hallows Eve to the last Saturday in October instead of Oct. 31.
Elementary school spooks and goblins eagerly await Saturday Halloweens, but not everyone in the Chicago Halloween and horror industry hopes this year’s weekend Halloween will be permanent.
Egg Harbor Township, N.J.-based Spirit released a YouTube video in early September of Steven Silverstein, its president, on The Mall in Washington surrounded by costumed supporters, standing on an actual soapbox and spelling out the advantages of a permanent Saturday home for the holiday.
Dubbed "Halloweekend," a press release outlining the movement’s goals along with an online petition appeared Oct. 1 along with a Facebook-based campaign.
Kelly David, Spirit spokeswoman, described the company's movement as an effort to get those who normally can’t participate in on the fun. “It’s never easy to change a holiday. But Halloween is really fun and it’s always easier when it’s on the weekend,” she said.
According to David, no legal action has yet been taken to change the calendar, but the discussion is now open. “We just wanted to start a dialogue and put something fun out there. A lot of the people I’ve seen are really into it and it’s just a way to think outside the box a little bit.” The Facebook group now has over 600 supporters.
Spirit's petition Web site lists family togetherness and economic stimulation as main motivations for the effort. The site also says that Halloween-related sales rise 30 percent when the holiday is on a weekend.
Some Chicago Halloween enthusiasts are skeptical.
“The reason I do this is because I love the holiday, which has a long and rich history and is one of the reasons this proposal is so asinine. You’re talking about a holiday whose traditions go back thousands of years and for some corporate entity to come along and try to change it to improve their sales is b.s.,” said Chad Savage.
“Once Halloween hits, haunted houses are done for the season. Regardless of whether or not they’re still open, no one goes,” said Savage. The last Saturday in October 2008 was the 25th, leaving six days that would have been free of customers for those who run these attractions, Savage noted. “The fact that they’re couching it as 'doing it for the kids' I think is a crock.”
Geoffrey Graves, whose alter ego “Kitty Zombie” is a popular figure among The Zombie Army, described why he loves Halloween in Chicago instead of Los Angeles where he used to live. “They just don’t have the seasons. There, in December it’s just beginning to feel like October. Here, it just feels like Halloween,” said Graves.
According to Graves, while the idea of Kitty Zombie might sound menacing, he’s actually quite popular with the whole family.
Both Savage and Graves make a living off of the horror industry in Chicago and are passionate about the genre, but especially during October. Both also think that changing the date of the holiday would do more harm than good, especially considering the culture of Halloween.
Before evolving into the secular scare-fest we know today, many cultures in Europe treated the end of October as the end of the season of light and the move toward the dark. By the time most of the trees have shed their leaves and the crops have all been harvested, people of medieval Europe began the time of praying for survival in the coming winter.
Pagan traditions from the British Isles blended with Roman harvest festivals and many began to see the end of October, or Samhain (sow-wen) in Celtic, as the time when nature mirrored the blurring line between life and death and predicting the future was easiest, according to The History Channel.
As Christianity spread and the feast days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day were established on the days following Halloween, it became increasingly about contemplating one’s own mortality. Americans took part in the spooky fun from the mid 19th century when waves of European, mainly Irish, immigrants brought forgotten traditions to the United States.
Today, Neo-pagans and Wiccans still celebrate the last day in October as a religious holiday and the last day of their year. But for most, Halloween is a party holiday for children and grown-ups influenced by the family ideals of the baby boomers and many of the original superstitions, such as Jack-o-Lanterns and black cats, have evolved into pop culture symbols.
For the time being, we're all going to have to settle for Saturday Halloweens once every seven years.
