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How did Halloween get to be so popular worldwide?

Fun, candy, night time activity (possibly stay up late, at least when I was a kid), monsters, ghosts, Tricks, treats, laughter, friends.....

What's not to "catch on?"
 
I haven't seen Halloween in the last decade or so.

It's disappeared from what it was when I was a boy.

It really doesn't exist anymore where I live.

When "trunk or treat" became popular, and walking from house to house in the dark became unpopular, I knew Halloween was essentially dead and buried.
 
I don't recognise Halloween from what it was in my youth. It's been corrupted by you Americans.

Trick or treat? **** the **** off with that ****.
 
Not that big here really, comparatively

Another stupid christian thing nicked off the pagans
 
Halloween is fun! You get to make your house look haunted and/or full of torture devices! You get to dress up. You get to have parties with friends. Kids get candy.

I mean it would be weirder if such a thing didn't catch on.
 
It being fun is not a reason a thing gets adopted across the world. There are lots of fun things that happen in other countries that Americans don't adopt.

The Indian Festival of Colour (Holi), while lots of fun and a feature of many Indian movies and TV shows, it has not been widely adopted in non-Hindi speaking areas.

As I am fond of pointing out - and Americans are apparently reluctant to believe - American popular culture is exported in massive amounts to the rest of the world. The English-speaking world in particular, but also to non-English speaking countries. American popular culture, and therefore the American pastimes of baseball and Halloween, are ubiquitous everywhere you might wish to go. Wherever you are in the world, if there is a television there, you will be able to find American content on it.

So something that is fun, like Halloween, appears on our TV screens on a regular basis, unlike something like Holi, which is also fun, but which is not American.
 
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that the vast majority of Halloween costumes and paraphernalia is manufactured in China. That gives them a pretty wide exposure to it.
 
Trebuchet said:
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that the vast majority of Halloween costumes and paraphernalia is manufactured in China. That gives them a pretty wide exposure to it.
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And why are they manufactured there?

Because America outsourced them there.
 
People decorate their houses now for Halloween almost as much as they do for Christmas. I'd say it's about like Christmas from 20 years ago, and closing.
 
My wife worked in retail as a manager or head cashier at several chain stores.

She occasionally worked on Christmas Day (from 8 till 3)

She NEVER worked on Halloween night!

:)
 
LTC8K6 said:
I haven't seen Halloween in the last decade or so.

It's disappeared from what it was when I was a boy.

It really doesn't exist anymore where I live.

When "trunk or treat" became popular, and walking from house to house in the dark became unpopular, I knew Halloween was essentially dead and buried.
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Put PUMPKINS OUT .. lots of lights, give away LOTS of cool candy!

... It took me 5 years but Halloween is BIG on my street every year !:)
 
Beerina said:
People decorate their houses now for Halloween almost as much as they do for Christmas. I'd say it's about like Christmas from 20 years ago, and closing.
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Yes, I have noticed that trend. And even here in the city, the trend seems to be instead of going house-to-house, having a party at a school or community center. But I guess many people do both. I am glad we get to celebrate it more than one day a year now (especially at bars).

We used to just go out with maybe big brother or sister. Now it's both parents, likely with Conceal and Carry.
 
I guess there's no single simple answer, other than the fact that cultures are all similar in a lot of ways regarding their beliefs, and the original roots of Halloween are fairly primitive in nature, in terms of what it meant to those who were taking part in these celebrations. Winter was a bleak time of little food, little light and a ton of superstitions, and I guess that was universal for people back then.

The Celtic calender, based on the agricultural and pastoral year, began on November 1st, which was celebrated by the feast of Samain. Livestock was slaughtered for Winter food and sheep were mated to provide the food for the following year's stock.

People generally believed that Samain was a time when natural laws were suspended, and ghosts and demons roamed the land. Masks or disguises were worn to fool the spirits into thinking you were merely one of them, and fires were lit to ensure the renewal of life after the earths long sleep.

Basically, the church realized that they could keep these pagan dates and simply change the celebration, hence All Saints' Day. Halloween was essentially brought to the US by the Europeans, and you'd be surprised how far it reached.

Elements of the modern Halloween can be traced to many different places, and the act of trick or treating has roots in "Souling," which took place on All Souls Day. The Mexican Day of the Dead is very similar.

Traditions and legends are similar the world over. We're a suggestible and influential bunch.
 
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Trebuchet said:
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that the vast majority of Halloween costumes and paraphernalia is manufactured in China. That gives them a pretty wide exposure to it.
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It's a pretty small manufacturing sector. I doubt many Chinese are exposed to Halloween just because the costumes and masks are made there. If that was a good reason, then the Chinese would be into every non-food item you see in your retail stores, 'cuz just about everything is made in China, now.

arthwollipot said:
And why are they manufactured there?

Because America outsourced them there.
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Well..... long before everyone began sourcing everything in China the folks in the Halloween "business" sourced their goods in China. The trick to Halloween products is that like someone said above about sewing costumes, they don't have to last but a day or night. Cheaper than cheap is the route to go. If you want a high-end costume of Louis XIV, for Madonna's next "Bal Masque", go to a costumer. There are still some. But the stuff they sell in America through the month of October is pretty much disposable crap.

I know all this because I'm buddies with the King of Halloween from the logistics perspective. Americans will be able to guess who it is, but previous NDAs force me to be coy. I handled their Halloween supply chain. They have fifteen hundred own stores and another 1500 franchises. That's 3000 stores; which are door-to-door Cheap Halloween Crap, as he called it, from Oct 1 to 31. The day after? It all gets thrown away/recycled/donated. As the holiday has gotten more public, there's more and more stuff sold every year.

And, surprisingly, it's not just for the cheap. It's for the inexpensive but efficient factories. There is a tight window of the entire array of ordering and quality testing, manufacturing, and shipping that the factories have to perform in about six weeks. They've had offers of cheaper product from Thailand, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc... but the factories can't produce the high volume with any consistency in production and quality. They've moved all their sourcing back to China.

Sorry for the logistics derail.... it's in my blood.

As to the popularity of the holiday.... the most that kids do over here in Asia is have a coloring page to do in school or maybe a party with cupcakes. Trick or Treating is not a thing. It's an adult holiday, not dissimilar to St. Patty's Day or New Year's Eve or for those who are in those countries, the Mardi Gras/Carnival.
 
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Yeggster said:
Put PUMPKINS OUT .. lots of lights, give away LOTS of cool candy!

... It took me 5 years but Halloween is BIG on my street every year !:)
Click to expand...

No one has knocked on my door on Halloween in a very long time. Once in a while, I'll see a few people out, but it's pretty rare. And those folks are being driven around, not walking like I did.

Mostly I don't see anyone out on Halloween night.

I guess the churches have mostly killed it with the trunk or treat in church parking lots?

They might as well just go to Wal-Mart and buy candy on that evening.

All the fun is gone, even Mischief Night is no fun anymore. No egging or soaping going on at all.

Kids are probably inside surfing the net instead.
 
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