You probably have them in your neighborhood: certain families with a gaggle of kids who really get into Halloween. Lots of witches, ghosts and goblins and likely a not-so-grave yard of R.I.P. puns–“Ima Goner,” “Yule B. Next, “Myra Mains”–and epitaphs–“Here Lies Clyde Whose Life Was Full, Until He Tried To Milk A Bull.” The bada-bing cemetery.
Plus, there’s often appropriate sound effects, possibly including the best-ever one-hit wonder: “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Picket and the Crypt-kickers. And quite possibly adults in costume, wine glasses cupped to avoid a bad example. Dr. Paul Bearer lives on.
I love it.
Having said that, there’s one element–a staple in some haunted landscapes–we need to rethink. No, abandon. Those ghoulish, all-too-realistic, heads on pikes.
I passed one the other day while walking to the gym. I didn’t think traditional “scary stuff” filler as I did last year. Or Medieval shout-out. I thought ISIS and barbaric, demonic evil. I doubt I’m the only passerby who thought that. There are enough ubiquitous reminders of jihadist horror in the world. Let’s not include our own neighborhood Halloween scene.
Let’s remember the spirit of the night. Ask Busch Gardens. Howl-O-Scream is minus depictions of severed heads this year for a reason. Out of sensitivity to its visitors. We should do no less for our neighbors.
I can handle hustling, costume-less teens with pillow cases who don’t embody the spirit of Halloween, and, as a result, they don’t get the Snickers. That’s an annual subplot. But what we surely don’t need are gratuitous reminders of gruesome reality. I doubt I’m the only one who’s thinking this way in the run-up to Oct. 31–and more grisly battlefield scenarios in Syria and Iraq.
So, if you’re reading this, please take one for the team. Your kids might not get it, but your neighbors will.