The Queen of Hearts, a minion, and Paddington Bear all walk into a bar (read: The Three Sisters), and order a pint of Guinness, a plate of chips, and a Jagerbomb. No, this isn’t a weird dream — it’s Halloweekend. It’s finally that time of year again when you can at least try to romanticise the meadow’s dying trees and lingering 10 am fog in the name of pumpkin carving, scary movies and an entire weekend out on Cowgate — yay? Halloween has now, evidently, cemented itself as a staple in the UK’s holiday calendar, but to what extent is the holiday an over-commercialised American export?
One of the key trends I’m noticing regarding Halloween is the loss of traditional ‘spooky’ costumes, and America is definitely to blame. Long-gone are the days when a socially acceptable costume was a white bedsheet with cut-out eye-holes; it has now been replaced by chucking on whatever green top and cargo shorts you own in the name of being Lara Croft. The gradual erasure of the traditional spectral nature of Halloween (because, beyond the hangover the next morning, what is scarier than a pair of cat ears and a mini skirt?) suggests a shift away from the cultural meaning of Halloween to be just another opportunity to go out, and a changing allegiance to an Americanised version of Halloween.
Such a shift seems to stem from American media, which breeds a heightened sense of consumer culture and American brands attempting to capitalise on the holiday. Such on-screen extravagant Halloween celebrations and non-fightful costumes then get dissipated through the deluge of American media that fills our screens; no one can forget the Mean Girls Halloween party or Charles Boyles’ continuous commitment to dressing up as the likes of Mario Batali and Elvis. This can then, in turn, lead to the UK spending over £776 million on Halloween paraphernalia, which evidences the commercialised nature of the holiday. This has further compromised the traditional cultural values and heritage of Halloween, which originally descends from Irish-Scottish Celtic tradition, in the name of ‘Americanisation.’
Such cultural erasure becomes increasingly evident; celebrations of Halloween often come at the expense of other traditional UK autumnal festivals such as Harvest or Bonfire Night. A recent YouGov survey, in fact, found that within the UK 45 per cent of 18-24 year olds prefer Halloween over Guy Fawkes night. The monopolisation that the US holds on global media and markets has further led to the UK increasingly celebrating the likes of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, two distinctly American holidays.
However, this is to be an expected trend for students and for the most part is simply light-hearted fun, materialising in devil costumes and Hocus Pocus rewatches. There is a growing tendency amongst students to move towards a slightly more Americanised version of Halloween, but given the nature of October as a monotonous and often depressing point in the semester, can you really blame them?
Photo by Evgeniy Smersh on Unsplash.