When you think about Halloween, you picture two different scenes. Either a comfy, cozy, and chilly day with leaves falling as the sun shines before you celebrate Thanksgiving, or a dark and cloudy day where your Halloween decorations are out as you feel this spooky sense in your stomach before you run around with your friends in your costumes. The real question is: which one is more popular, and why?
The first person I spoke to is business owner and coffee lover Julie Spencer. She told me that, “I think fall should be more comfy/cozy because you finally get rid of all this uncomfortably hot weather and cool down before it gets too cool for winter. And you get good coffee to warm you up a little.”
Not surprising to anybody, coffee has turned into a representation of the fall season. Coffee sales jump up 12% in autumn and “fall” almost 15 percent after winter is over* But not everybody loves the comfy cozy feeling that fall gives them. Some like a little chill in their gut when they wake up.
Band member and freshman Brady Skuba, for example, told me that “I prefer a more scary fall because when you picture fall, you picture Halloween. It’s an underrated holiday that people forget until the season, then they love it.”
Halloween as a tradition is actually dropping. In 2018, 72% of Americans said that they go trick-or-treating or let their kids trick-or-treat. However, since 2020 when it dropped to a low of 58%, that number has dropped to an average of 64%. It seems that people don’t want to trick-or-treat, “boo” neighbors or participate in other activities. The Halloween spirit might be fading.
When I asked school freshman Carson Hill about this idea, he told me “Halloween is just a holding spot between summer break and Thanksgiving.”
So, is it just too early in autumn for that spooky, fall feeling? Or, is Halloween losing its grip on the fall season? While that question is yet to be answered, Hill left me with a saying that many, many people will agree with. “I’m always fine as long as they aren’t playing Christmas music.”
