Halloween

 Until I was 11 years old, Halloween was an unremarkable event. Living in the countryside, miles from our nearest neighbors, there were no trick-or-treaters knocking at the door. We carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds, which was pleasant enough, but hardly memorable.

Then we moved to the city.

Suddenly, Halloween became a spectacle of costumes, candy, and excitement. Hordes of children of every age, dressed in homemade outfits, raced through the darkened streets carrying pillowcases that gradually filled with sugary treasure, candied apples, popcorn balls.

By my teenage years, the holiday had become less about candy and more about mischief. Bands of boys armed with eggs and rolls of toilet paper roamed the neighborhood looking for pumpkins to smash, trees to decorate, and occasionally cars and houses to pelt. Looking back, it was not our finest tradition. Hooligans,

Fast forward sixty years, and Halloween has changed once again.

Our grandchildren's experience is vastly different from mine. The costumes are elaborate, expensive, and usually store-bought. This year, our grandson has chosen to be Alexander Hamilton after memorizing every song from the Broadway musical. Our granddaughter looks adorable in a white kitty costume, shipped all the way from China. Meanwhile, our teenage grandson in Maine will dress as an axolotl, an unusual amphibian native to Mexico. I had to look it up.

The decorations have also become more extravagant. Homes are transformed into spooky displays filled with skeletons, werewolves, and eerie figures equipped with lights, sound effects, and motion sensors. The candy haul can be astonishing, if carefully rationed by parents, enough to last for months.

According to AI-generated estimates, about 74 percent of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year, spending an average of $115 per person. Total spending is expected to reach $13.5 billion, a remarkable increase from $3.3 billion in 2005. Strangely, adults are projected to spend more on costumes than children, and nearly $1 billion will be devoted to costumes for pets. Candy alone accounts for approximately $4.1 billion in spending, with Americans purchasing some 750 million pounds of it.

The whole phenomenon is a little hard to comprehend.

Bizarre.