Dancing With the Jack-O-Lanterns

Halloween- Demonic Rite or Harmless Fun?

I just went to a memorial service for my good friend Walt Gavenda. Walt was in my writer’s group, and had an interesting book published in 2002, A Guide to Haunted West Virginia. The fact that they held his service on Halloween would have tickled him to no end. Walt gave many talks on ghosts and the supernatural at local libraries.

My grandfather, who from the vivid description of him by my mother, pretty much belonged in what used to be referred to as a loony bin, was also buried on Halloween. And that seems to have been just as fitting for him as it was for Walt, albeit for different reasons. He never lectured or wrote about the supernatural, but was eccentric enough for people to joke about it at the time. As we prepare to enjoy a holiday celebrated in films like Arsenic and Old Lace and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, let me defend Halloween and put it in some context.

Halloween was really, really popular back when I was a kid, in the misty era of the 1960s. I don’t remember my parents, or any adult, chaperoning us around as we went from one almost always strange house to the next, in the dark, and asked for candy. I guess it’s a good thing there weren’t child predators back then, or perhaps they were more circumspect. Talk about gift wrapping an opportunity. All they had to do was lure an unsuspecting child inside and then….

Now, on the surface of it, perhaps it was irresponsible for parents to let their small children forage about in the dark for candy from mostly strangers. But it was a different world, America 1.0 was. In the summer, we would ride our bikes around all day, miles from home. I didn’t even wear shoes. Any enterprising pedophile could have grabbed me and had me across four state lines before my parents even knew I was gone. I never met a “bad stranger” as a kid. So I suppose it was easier being a parent then, and safer in general, what with there being so few pedophiles and all.

When my kids were little, in the 1990s and early 2000s, trick or treating was still popular, but we accompanied the kids around the neighborhood. I wouldn’t have missed those experiences for the world. It broke my heart when they were too big for it. So since then, the holiday doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. And it’s not popular now. Or at least not as popular. We really don’t get any trick or treaters now in our large community. Many go to shopping malls, or to churches. And lots of Christians object to the entire thing on religious grounds. I guess I can see why.

Now I never understood the whole “trick” aspect of Halloween. I knew kids who soaped up people’s windows and doors, or tee-peed their houses. That didn’t seem like fun to me. Sure, I wanted candy (remember, I resembled Eric Cartman), but that not only seemed wrong, but a lot of work. But, plenty of those kids who tee-peed houses later had children of their own. So I guess it’s not surprising you still hear about it. But “treats?” Who could be opposed to them? Is Satan in charge of the candy supply?

I always thought the Halloween decorations were really cool- all that orange is very festive. I was a big fan of classic horror films as a youth. Aurora used to sell these wonderful models of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, etc., and kids like me loved to build them. Well, I did my best, followed the complex directions meticulously, made sure I painted each part before gluing them, but still they usually wouldn’t stay together for long. But just imagine a six or seven year old kid today reading instructions written at an adult level, and following them without any adult guidance.

Monsters were all the rage in the 1960s. Forest Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland catered to this craze. Television shows like The Munsters and The Addams Family fascinated little kids like me, and remain in syndication all over the world. I devoured anything with Alfred Hitchcock’s name on it. The Three Investigators’ series of books. His short story compilations like Haunted Houseful. Later, I would accumulate a huge collection of his adult short story compilations, some of which were made into episodes of his long running television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I was always drawn to dark themes in culture, whether in literature or onscreen. I’d watch or read pretty much anything revolving around a haunted house, or ghosts in general. I loved Casper cartoons and comic books. My grandmother kindled this fondness for the supernatural in me, and the fact she looked a lot like the witch from Hansel and Gretel made the effect even more powerful. I loved Edgar Allan Poe, both his writings and his tragic biography- no one lived the life of a starving poet more dramatically than he did. Later, I discovered the spine-tingling tales of H.P. Lovecraft.

But I never once considered myself a fan of the Devil, just because I preferred these kinds of occult-tinged themes. I don’t think you become a Satanist by wearing a Frankenstein mask on Halloween. Now, I do question things like the enduring pregnant nun Halloween outfit. Why would that be so popular? Some would call that blasphemous, but at the very least it’s viciously anti-Catholic. Most children dress up as harmless things like princesses (my daughter certainly did), superheroes (my son certainly did), or other non-monster type of characters.

As a teenager, I loved Alice Cooper. In retrospect, songs like Dead Babies and Halo of Flies seem pretty gross, but at that age I thought all those themes were cool. While I never liked Black Sabbath, plenty of my friends did. Again, what does the name connotate? Maybe the band members were Satan worshipers, but most kids listening to it were just trying to impress their peers. Led Zeppelin may be another thing; Jimmy Page was an overt admirer of Aleister Crowley. Crowley was a demonic soul if ever there was one. Rumors say he participated in child sacrifices.

Crowley deeply influenced artists like the Beatles, who stuck his ugly mug next to Mae West on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He “inspired” Iron Maiden, David Bowie, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. LSD guru Timothy Leary, who admitted to being a CIA operative, once said that his job was basically to continue the work of Crowley. Crowley’s credo was “Do what thou wilt,” which actually originated with the Hellfire Club of the eighteenth century, a blasphemous group that included Benjamin Franklin. The Hellfire Club supposedly partied with prostitutes dressed as nuns. Did this inspire the pregnant nun costume?

I imagine that for real Satanists, Halloween is like Christmas. In fact, if you watch enough of these stupid sitcoms, you’ll find that that’s a prevailing theme; for characters like Rosanne, for instance, to proclaim that Halloween is their favorite holiday, and to go all out in terms of costumes, attempting to frighten the children, etc. I wonder what Maria Abramovic and her friends are doing tonight, for instance. Must be spirit cooking up something special. If the rumors of secret cannibal restaurants in Hollywood are true, business must boom on Halloween.

There must be something in the human spirit which draws us to goblins and ghosts. Horror movies have been an essential part of show business since the silent classics of the great Lon Chaney. Look at something like Halloween Ends, which just recently (apparently) concluded a series going back to 1978. From the bloodless suspense of Hitchcock to slasher films like the lengthy list of Friday the 13th films, audiences- especially teenagers- seem drawn to darkness and terror. Just like the big drops on roller coasters- many of us never grow tired of “jump frights” and cheap thrills.

Even when my son was small, there were children who couldn’t go trick or treating, because their parents told them it was “worshiping the Devil.” I felt sorry for one of his best friends, who never had the chance to Trick or Treat. I think he really missed out on an essential part of modern childhood. Now, there are more parents who forego Halloween completely, because of their Christianity. To each their own. I knew parents who didn’t have a Christmas tree in their home, because it came from a Pagan celebration. There are some who even think celebrating birthdays is demonic.

I don’t know, I think Christmas trees are beautiful. Real spruce fir provides a wonderful scent during the holiday season. I think most holidays give us some warm, and innocent experiences. Some people hate Christmas songs. Why? I’ll be listening to them for at least a good month or so. Monster Mash still sounds pretty good to me around Halloween. What is the point of being against holidays? Holidays give us a break from mundane work and bland routines. The fact that most people seem happier on holidays ought to count for something.

I try to fight the dark side and the increasing Satanic influence over our culture, with everything I say and write. When Lon Chaney was the most popular movie star in the world during the 1920s, you didn’t hear about spirit cooking. There were no openly Satanic officers in the Air Force like Michael Aquino. Saul Alinsky had yet to write a best-selling book, which he publicly dedicated to Lucifer. Walter Cronkite hadn’t joked about being proud to sit at the right hand of Satan. Transgender reassignment surgery was just a distant fantasy for aspiring worshipers of the Devil.

I don’t think Bram Stoker was inspired by Satan to write Dracula, still one of the greatest novels in the English language. And one which has never been captured adequately onscreen, I might add. Was Bela Lugosi a Satanist by creating such an iconic and powerful character? But I do think that the real-like mad scientists who have been working with some strain of the deadly 1918 flu for over twenty years, were motivated by some dark force. At the very least, by channeling too much Boris Karloff. At worst, trying to fulfill the horrific goals of the eugenicists.

There is more than enough real horror in our world. In Haiti, they still swear to the reality of zombies. Many of us suspect that our leaders absorb adrenochrome from frightened children, perhaps even bathe in or drink their blood. All that human trafficking doesn’t have to be exclusively for sex. Some celebrated figures now look like vampires. The recently deceased Prince Philip? How about Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? They literally wouldn’t need any makeup to step onto a set where the latest feature about the undead was being filmed. But they come by it naturally, having sung Sympathy for the Devil while someone was killed in front of them at Altamont.

Snuff films have been talked about for years in the alternative media. “Gonzo” journalist Hunter Thompson was only one high profile figure that was rumored to have participated in them. Back in the halcyon days of VCRs, the “Faces of Death” videos were the top sellers. Why would people want to see real dead bodies like that? How is that entertaining? Yet look at any accident scene; gawkers and rubber-neckers, slowing down to a crawl, presumably so they can see some real gore. If psychotherapy really worked, the human race would need it on a regular basis.

And just plain old fashioned politics is full of horror. And conspiracies, corruption, and coverups. Murdering inconvenient witnesses and whistleblowers, who might expose your own crimes? Lining your own pockets with money stolen from those who desperately need it? Framing innocent people, and railroading them into prison? Lying, stealing, and cheating? Breaking virtually all the Commandments? I don’t know, are movie monsters any worse than that?

So with this history of horror within the popular culture, it is rather astounding that so many would now be aghast at the idea of children donning costumes and going out and gathering candy. I don’t think this is evil in the least. Those who celebrate Satan are doing it every day of the year, and not by attending costume parties and trick or treating. I’m concerned about those rituals, the spirit cooking and maybe the cannibalism. The black candles and the upside down crucifixes. The celebration of evil because it’s evil. But not the pumpkins and treats of Halloween.