80
NO TRICKS, HALLOWEEN IS A REAL TREAT! ✦ Over the years October 31 has developed globally into one of the calendar’s most popular dates - the day, or more so night, of Halloween.
D
espite its obvious spooky undertones, it is a time when the community unites, children dress in costume to indulge in the pastime of trick-ortreating, fancy dress parties are hosted, jack-o’lanterns are creatively carved from pumpkins, bonfires lit and endless re-runs of classic scary movies such as the aptly titled Halloween are aired on TV and in cinemas. All Hallows’ Eve or “hallowed evening”, as it is otherwise known, has very much become a juggernaut of a
commercial entity, extremely profitable for certain businesses with estimated consumer spending on Halloween-related items expected to reach an all-time high of USD10.14 billion this year, up from $8.05 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. It has certainly come a long way to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today but where, how and why did it start?
