Something that's made me very happy this year is the fact that the entire Halloween community and then some seems to be in agreement that the "official" start of what the layman refers to as "spooky season" is July 5th.
Naturally, Summer Summers of Summerville and her insufferable squad of swamp ass advocates are up in arms about it. Here's a comment from a post I made acknowledging the "midnight on July 4th" kickoff:
My response was simply that I choose to do what makes me happy regardless of the calendar date. Summer Summers' rep clearly had no good answer for that that wouldn't have made her sound like a compete (swamp)asshole, and so the conversation came to an end, with a few comments from fellow "pumpkinheads" along the way. I'm not dwelling on this one Negative Nancy by any stretch of the imagination, but this and other comments I've been hearing have made me want to talk about why a July 5th kickoff to the layman's spooky season actually makes perfect sense.
First of all, there are no other major holidays between now and Halloween. Yes, Labor Day exists, but it's not something that people decorate for. (And if they do they just keep their July 4th stuff up anyway.) It's not that huge of a deal in the grand scheme of things, especially from a retail perspective. Yes, some stores do Back To School, but not all. The craft and home decor stores would have nothing to fill their seasonal aisles with if they didn't start dipping into Halloween and fall. At this point, people have their summer stuff. Many places are already starting to clearance it off.
Second, think of how little retail time Halloween would actually get if stores didn't start putting it out until the Summerville Foundation For The Preservation Of Swamp Ass deemed it acceptable. Not until after Labor Day? When September is when most of the major retail chains start thinking Christmas?! We'd have Halloween actively on the shelves for what, two weeks?! I'll never condone it, but we have to face facts: Major retail chains are always going to favor Christmas and try to get the jump on it. I'm not sure if it's like this everywhere, but my Target waits until the end of September/very beginning of October to stock their Halloween most years, and before it's fully packed out, it's being shoved into a corner to make way for Christmas. If it wasn't for the stores that start stocking in summer, Halloween would just barely exist as a retail holiday.
For many years now, it's been accepted that the Christmas season starts immediately on November 1st. (Though technically Christmas starts its year invasion long before that.) No time is allotted to mourn Halloween. Thanksgiving is barely acknowledged at all. Halloweens ends for the layman, Mariah Carey makes her annual TikTok post, and boom, we're all expected to get holly jolly. This is something Halloween people continually have to deal with and are expected to accept. Sometimes even the spookiest accounts get right into Christmas, and while it pains me, I don't comment. I think to myself I'm glad they're happy. Or Lucky them, being able to move on so quickly from Post-Halloween Depression, and then continue scrolling until I find something I like. While I'll admit it may feel like it at times, no one is forcing me out of spooky mode because November hit. Just as no one is forcing Summer Summers of Summerville and her cronies out of summer mode. Unfortunately there are still two and a half months of summer ahead of us, and no amount of hanging ghosts, posable skeletons, or pumpkin spice lattes at your local coffee shop are going to change the weather. The first sign of a pumpkin in a local home decor store doesn't mean you're suddenly banned from the beach until 2024, just as the first sign of a Christmas tree doesn't mean you have to toss the pumpkin you worked so hard to carve in the garbage. If you're not ready for Halloween-time, you don't have to be. But if you are ready, if you wait all year for this, if it's what gets you through your days, the end of July 4th is incredibly significant, because it finally feels tangible again.
There's a beauty and a freedom to not living life by a calendar, that I wish more people understood. To me, Halloween is a lifestyle and a chosen decor aesthetic. Something that simply can't be limited to a few months out of the year. I don't know who I'd be without it, nor do I wish to find out. And there's an excitement that comes with knowing that the rest of the world is about to get on my level again.
And logistically, it makes perfect sense.
Stay spooky my friends, and enjoy this season to the fullest. No matter what the naysayers think, it's here. And it is to be treasured.
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