When did Halloween become such a big deal?

It's always a big deal you candy hater.

Because it is a good excuse for adults to dress up and get drunk.

Gays love to have an excuse to wear slutty outfits and party, Halloween parties have been a big night for a while.

American adults are becoming increasingly infantile and desperate for attention.

On a related question - How late does everyone give out candy?

I’m old (48) and I’m seeing on-line some people are saying 9:00 P.M. and I’m a big HELL NO to that.

6-8 OK?

Yes R6, then just turn off your porch light.

I graduated from university and I have zero recollection of Halloween being a big deal despite all the partying I did. It seemed like some time after that adults got way way more into it than ever before. Now it seems like a must do social event.

I worked for a shithole company that made us dress up and attend a pizza lunch every year. A bunch of people were super into it. Most just groaned. But you had to groan secretly because you’d be called out by the “let’s have fun at work” police if you didn’t dive in head first and act like it was all sorts of fun. Maybe too many of them only had work for a social outlet, not sure. But it was like the costume gestapo making sure everyone was attending in costume , decorating their cubicles and acting like it wasn’t just like the last time they made us.

That should have said “graduated university 12 years ago” ^

I have almost as many Halloween decorations as Christmas. Don't dress up though..

Forced fun at work usually kills the vibe.

I guess it goes along with the perpetual childhood of the under 30s of today with their Disney/Marvel addiction, refusal to grow up, leave home and vote!

When ya mother gave out her pussy as a trick.

Childish adults having children. I’ll say people born late 80’s and every generation after.

Halloween has always been a big deal. As children, we loved it for the candy we received trick or treating. As teens and adults, we love dressing up and allowing ourselves to get in touch with our weird, creative and kooky style.

Cunts who can’t grow up. It’s a holiday for kids nothing more.

Some of you are miserable SOBs. Fuck.

I'm watching the legendary NYC Halloween Parade from home again this year.

With the company forced fun Halloween party it was actually the 45 and up crowd that was the most militant about it.

If they just let it flow it might have been something fun but who wants peer pressure to figure out a fucking Costume as a grown adult.

I hate Halloween. Piss off you grifting little kids. Get your parents to buy your candy instead of extorting it from your neighbors. Adults who go all out (decorating, dressing up) are stuck in permanent adolescence.

Plus, you know, the devil worship. Don't fuck with the supernatural, you morons.

Hi fossil - op

Because everyone wants to be a drag queen.

R22 I beat them too it

I always felt it was for kids too, but it’s been huge for a long time now. They start selling decorations in the summer for it now. I never remember that happening.

R24 welcome to the 21st century. Hope you enjoy yourself while you visit

I get less kids each year and I have a bag of Butterfinger left. Yummy goodness.

In the 1960s on Long Island, we put some Halloween decorations on the door and in the front windows of the house in mid-October. That was it. On Halloween, kids put on costumes and went out in the neighborhood to get candy after school. It was all over by dinner time. We definitely didn’t have any of the after-dark mischief of the Meet Me in St. Louis kids.

Now, most of the kids come around from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. My neighbors across the street have a ton of animatronic decorations, so they get the bulk of visitors.

We carved pumpkins with my dad. That was the extent of it. I think one year we hung a skeleton from the door.

When I was a child Halloween was strictly for children. Adults *MIGHT* have a Halloween costume party but it wasn't that common. They did not dress up tp answer the door and certainly did not wear costumes to work.

Halloween decorations meant ONE pumpkin. You might find a house with two pumpkins... that's how you knew 'they must be millionaires and have money to burn instead of working their asses off like the rest of us'

Your mom would get you a cheap pirate costume at the drug store consisting of a face mask and flimsy one piece suit designed to go over your clothes and it always split along the seams because they didn't sell and in husky-boy sizes and 'Godamnit that was biggest one they had!'

Your sister would start crying because her cheap princess costume was also split along the seams even though she hadn't put it on yet and she wasn't a husky-boy. Your dad would mutter 'Jesus Fuckin' Christ' and look at you and your mother would whisper 'Don't start, Frank' while using safety pins to put your sister's costume back together.

Some people gave out apples and raisins that mom always through out because 'you never know when someone would put LSD in them".] One year a neighbor handed candy to the children and cold beer to the parent, and for the next 20 years never tired of telling people that gave out beer to the parents on Hallow'een while everyone else clenched their jaws and thought 'One time, Maynard! You did that one time'

30 or 40 years ago.

In other words, last week in Datalounge Time

R21 = loser Disney queen cunt

In NYC, Kids don't trick or treat just apartments or brownstones. They hit neighborhood businesses. One year a local newspaper-candystore was decimated by kids who just helped themselves to all the candy on the shelves and their parents thought it was just darling. The next year, the store was closed from October 30 to November 1. .

I still remember Halloween night as a kid, trick or treating in my neighborhood. Once, I drew a map so I could reach every house in the most efficient way.

My Mom and Dad went to Halloween parties when I was a kid. Several married couples went to these parties together. My parents did not drink, but they still had a great time.

We had a costume parade in elementary school. It was coordinated so there was a continuous line coming through the homeroom doors. The first graders started the parade and after the kids below your grade passed through your room, you joined the line to walk in the parade yourself.

Our fraternity had amazing costume parties; we all were very creative in costume making. One year, there were 64 students who came to the party as a box of Crayola crayons. Each had a cone of a Crayola color on his/her head and a yellow-painted cardboard box surrounded them. They had to walk in unison in the same direction all night. I don't know how they managed bathroom visits, that was seamless as well.

It was all fun and games. Why distance yourself from those memories?

People decorate their houses so the kids enjoy walking past them. They perpetuate the spirit of the holiday.

I have one question. When and why did purple become a Halloween color? We knew of orange, brown and black back then.

It's a very old tradition:

the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “SAH-win”), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts

R33, purple from the childish adult movie “Nightmare before Christmas.”

When I was a bodybuilder, I went to my friends' party wearing a chain-link chest harness and a cock ring. I did it as a joke, everyone there knew me. I brought clothes to change into but they insisted I stay the way I was. So, it was my first experience being nude for an extended time in front of other people. I admit I liked it.

I think it was in the past 20 years, when cable TV like THE FOOD NETWORK and HGTV channels started pushing the holiday to cook / bake and decorate and throw a party. Especially Martha Stewart in the early 2000s - she saw it as a way to sell more of her crap at KMart (decorations, costumes, outdoor lights, cookware and bakeware) and sell more of her magazines devoted to the holiday.

Before then it was 'The Great Pumpkin' and celebrated by kids.

R33. I don’t think anyone is saying what you have here: About “why distance yourself from those memories”

When Bonni the office frau cunt orders us all to dress up it’s not quite the same memories that are formed.

Only a few trick or treaters this year. I think most families go to Trunk or Treats now. My elderly neighbor texted me she wasnt giving out candy this year. There were only a few lights on our street. Times are changing

Respond by wearing R36's costume to work.

You can defend yourself. "Well, you asked!"

It's not such a big deal anymore. Nowadays, I only manage to abduct and imprison only one or two kids in my basement, whereas in years past, it was more like five or six.

Halloween is for kids and white trash adults.

I’m a millennial (33) and absolutely do not remember Halloween being a big deal when I was a kid (in NYC)… I maybe went trick-or-treating twice in my life.

Deteriorating brain functioning and infantilization of U.S. adults.

I’ve always loved Halloween. I don’t know many adults who dress up. All the kids I knew trick or treated until they were about 12 and nearly everyone dressed up except for Jehovah Witness.

I’ve always kind of looked at in the same way as it was originally intended. After Halloween we plunge into darkness for a few months. If feel like the end of the year.

So many fat homo incels from shithole red states in this thread......

Perhaps it’s bigger in certain parts of the country.

The same reason why we have Rated R super hero movies and adult-themed comic books and video games and gay days at Disney.

My generation (millennials) still enjoys having fun and are still kids at heart.

And it’s all grown up with us. Why give it up? Why be too old for Batman and Halloween and Disney and video games and etc?

What’s grown up fun? The opera and cigar bars?

Also, I think millennials have less children and are single in their 30’s so there’s more freedom to still party as an adult.

Keep in mind that cosplay and comic book conventions are huge. It’s Halloween all year round for many adults. Then drag took off and became mainstream. How many years ago was it when Bill Maher got in trouble for his Halloween costume?

With the Tylenol scare people were hesitant to let kids collect candy and the TV show Roseanne glorified Halloween as a white trash celebration for adults. I never saw a Halloween episode of any show before Roseanne. Then those party stores started popping up and... synergy.

OP seems a bit sheltered. It's been a holiday for gay adults for as long as I can remember. Adult halloween parties among straight people have been popular for decades too. I'm 55. I went to halloween parties in my 20s and 30s. Lots of artists and creative types enjoy halloween too. I've seem some elaborate costumes on adults with hair, makeup, sewing and crafting skills. Trick or treating is for kids, but Halloween is for everyone, unless you're a complete killjoy.

I'm just glad to see people enjoying something that hasn't been ruined by politics yet. Recently moved to a leafy suburb and had about 50 trick-or-treaters this year. It was fun to give out candy to the families that came by.

“Spooky season”

Haha, I just said “spooky season” because I heard someone say it on TV. It’s spooky season!

“Spooky season!” Say it!!

Where live there are 2,000 kids/adults walking around getting candy. I’m not exaggerating. It’s foul! It has trashed Halloween for me. Luckily I’m out of town and my house is dark. Happy to be away.

Same here, R55. I live in Jersey City and just going home after work, I was amazed by the hordes of people. There was some kind of kids event on the main drag by the Path train, but there were so many people there that I don't think were even from Jersey City. There were thousands (yes, really) of people walking around, going into stores and nail salons of all place, and demanding candy. Yes, I know I sound like an old fart, but it was out of control. The stores on the main drag had to have someone right in front of the entrance doors, giving out candy, or else the people were pushing into the stores, going in and yeah, stealing. I caught on camera a group of about 10 teenagers who trashed the front stoop of my building, and the building next foor. I don't know what happened, but it never used to be like this.

C'mon, it's a fun time of year. "Halloween" to me is more the weeks leading up to the actual day. The leaves change (gorgeous colors this year!), the weather cools (kinda) and creative people get to do their thing. Why the fuck isn't an adult allowed to find joy in the Halloween season? I know more and more people are fame whores and want to be front and center across the platforms, but many people (young and old alike) enjoy Halloween while living in the moment and creating memories for their families.

It’s Gen-X adults who have made it into a huge holiday. Obviously it’s location dependent… but I live in the suburbs, and the decorations and events get more elaborate every year.

Good grief, some of you are some major curmudgeons when it comes to Halloween. If anything, I'll take Halloween over Christmas any time. I'm 46 and live in Ohio, and Fall is the best time of year imo. The trees are gorgeous and full of color, cute squirrels are everywhere, the weather is perfect - crisp cool air, no need for AC or heaters, great for going for walks.

I've always been a huge horror movie fanatic as well, so there's that.

If you want to dismiss a holiday as being infantile, Christmas should be at the very top of the list.

R4 and R12 win.

Halloween is another stupid holiday, just like Cinco de Mayo, a cash grab by bars and restaurants and yet another excuse for people to act like drunken assholes.

It’s over.

Mariah is going crazy again

We have it here in Germany too, following a bit more of the traditional European version, but with children begging for candy.

Well, I wasn't prepared and had to disappoint a few vampire/indian/cowboy kids yesterday :-( They all took it in stride, showing me their HUGE bags of candy.

But next year, I will be prepared.

Fucking dumb-ass adults riding around in golf carts full of kids in the dark last night. They are desperately trying to make our middle-class neighborhood seem like an exclusive, gated community. Fucktards.

It was a big deal when I was a kid 50 years ago. My Dad woud wear a scary mask handing out candy. The neighbor next dorr dressed as a witch and handed out bags of candy art a table in her fornt lawn with a caukdron. Howeverm, it has beconme bigger. I blame Walmnart and Home Depo for seling all the oragen and purple lights. and yard ornaments.

You're right, OP, it really has gone extra bloody and gruesome. Forget wee witchies and ghosties, it's demons and severed limbs and skeletons hanging by the neck. The Halloween Baking Championship on Food Network is all body parts and murder. I'm such a softie I don't even like the witch smashed into a tree.

Pumpkin spice.

R59, you clearly don’t get thousands of people at your door asking for candy. Nice bubble your living in.

9th august 1983 at 6:15 pm, OP

R58 is correct. The millennial trying to give credit to his generation is characteristically short sighted and probably believes everything popular right now was invented by millennials. I remember throwing a halloween house party in 1994 when I was 25. Everyone came in costume. No one complained Halloween was "for kids." None of it was strange or new to that crowd of Gen Xers in their 20s and early 30s. We all had a blast and I've been to and heard of multiple Halloween events for adults every year in the decades since then. Pretty sure my parents went to a costume party around Halloween with adults their age in the 80s (I was in high school and don't remember the specifics), which would have been all Boomers and Silent gen.

Honestly, half this thread sounds like jealous shut-ins with personality disorders and no social contacts to speak of. Adults wear costumes and go to parties at Halloween. It's not new and it's definitely not as strange as you imagine.

R70 is right on!

"The same reason why we have Rated R super hero movies and adult-themed comic books and video games and gay days at Disney.

My generation (millennials) still enjoys having fun and are still kids at heart.

And it’s all grown up with us. Why give it up? Why be too old for Batman and Halloween and Disney and video games and etc?"

This is called "delayed adolescence". I work with many Millennnials (and some Gen Xers) who agree with this logic. They don't like "adulting". They want to stay in their adolescent years forever and never mature or grow mentally and emotionally. It's very sad.

I found out this morning the reason our neighborhood has been so quiet the past few years is because a few streets over there is a family which owns a catering company, and every Halloween they have a free food truck outside their house. So all the kids and their families tend to stick around that block - kind of like a block party every year. Glad I know now...

And wtf was Halloween such a big deal in Korea of all places? Sheesh.

It was always a thing for gays and lesbians.

R72 there is nothing sad about holding on to things you still love

[R76] But there is something sad when a person doesn't grow up mentally and emotionally, and peaks during his teen years.

R60 Quite being a dick.

R60 You can quit being a dick too.

It provides so many jobs - all the special events work, manufacturing of costumes and candy, etc.

Good grief, get over it already with this crap about "delayed adolescence" Mr./Mrs. arm chair psychiatrist. People can be fully functional mature adults AND still enjoy Halloween. Imagine that!

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas put my dislike of cold weather on the back burner. By the time January and February come around, we have only two months of bone-chilling weather. I can deal with that.

[quote]Roseanne glorified Halloween as a white trash celebration for adults. I never saw a Halloween episode of any show before Roseanne..

Off the top of my head, in the '80s (before ROSEANNE) sitcoms like CHEERS and THE COSBY SHOW had several Halloween episodes. In one, I recall Frasier and Diane dressed up as the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland, and the Huxtables building a haunted house in their large basement.

Incidentally, I was a kid in the '90s in Massachusetts. Halloween was always a big deal. Houses/front yards were decorated to the hilt, and the streets were flooded with kids tick-or-treating. I find it weird/sad to read on here that some Americans didn't experience that.

[quote] Good grief, get over it already with this crap about "delayed adolescence" Mr./Mrs. arm chair psychiatrist. People can be fully functional mature adults AND still enjoy Halloween. Imagine that!

You must be the Gen Xer who sleeps in his Spiderman jammies and Star Wars bed sheets.

Seems like a bigger deal because now everyone can show off their costumes on social media.

"Bewitched" had a Halloween episode for just about every year the show ran (1964-72). One year, she did a promo on the show for UNICEF. The shows were very funny - how could they not be ?

It was the BIG holiday even 2000 years ago when celts sacrificed the village idiot like OP.

Bump

It became a big deal in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg Germany and scared th shit out of Pope Leo X

r87 got only mashmallow peanuts in his trick-or-treat bag. The poor lil' thing.

bill maher joked a few years ago it became straight pride night where women could dress like sluts