The Times They Have Changed

The Transition #3

Part One: The Transition
Part Two: The Sacred Fetish of Academic Freedom

Halloween was a time to remember the dead and, by extension, to honour one’s ancestors. Marking the onset of the oncoming winter, it preceded the Christian feast of All Souls’ Day but featured elements of Celtic folk religion and was linked to the Gaelic festival of Samhain celebrated in Ireland and Scotland.

After Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the New World it was, like many things adapted by ingenious Americans, repackaged, rebranded and re-exported across the Atlantic in a new guise. As popular as one might expect of a festival where children are given huge amounts of sweets, it also became a time for young adults to party, and by the end of the 20^th century Halloween night came to have an overtly outrageous theme, with partygoers dressed in increasingly racy and tasteless costumes. Sweets for children, thrills for teenagers.

It was also a somewhat controversial festival. In the US, Christian pressure groups once complained about the influence of Halloween, a disturbingly pagan event with a potentially damaging influence on society. It might even be demonic, some of the more excitable ones claimed. In the 1980s, if someone expressed concern about Halloween, one could confidently bet that they were probably of a conservative worldview before even reading what they had to say about it.