By Martha Morgan
– Remember when we used to make our own Halloween costumes and then made our kids’? And when little ghosts and goblins came to our door carrying old pillowcases they hoped to fill with loot instead of orange bags or plastic pumpkins?
If you do, you are definitely out of touch with Halloween today.
Nowadays little girls want store-bought Disney princess costumes and little boys want to be superheroes.
Halloween has turned into a $6-billion spending spree per year in the U. S. and $1.5-billion in Canada. Since the U.S. has almost 10 times the population of Canada, does that mean that we actually spend more per capita?
Of course this includes decorations and candy. Forget about a pumpkin in the window. If you want to one-up your neighbour you have to turn your front lawn into a cemetery complete with leaning tombstones, ghosts, and spiderwebs.
Not surprisingly, B.C. leads Canada in Halloween spending. That figures. They’re the only province that can invest in princess costumes for the annual trick-or-treat without having to worry about covering up the finery with a parka in case it snows.
Even dogs “like to feel glamorous” according to the owner of an exclusive shop that sells silk, leather, and velvet costumes featuring semi-precious stones, starting at $200 U.S. Personally, I think those dogs would be happier sniffing lamp-posts or chasing rabbits than imitating humans.
Many countries in the world have some kind of ritual at the end of October or early November to commemorate the dead and honour their ancestors, but they are generally of a solemn nature.
It’s only in Canada and the U.S. that Halloween is celebrated with such flamboyance. This is gradually changing though. TV, after all, is universal, and kids all over the world are catching on to the free candy aspect of this delightful occasion.
Surely it won’t be long before global merchants latch on to the free spending aspect as well.
