We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones
Stephen King
Halloween today is largely a commercial festival, and a bit of fun for children, but it has dark origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain. At that time, people believed, the barrier between the living and the spirit world was thinnest. Maybe that’s why we choose as fun decorations for this time of year things that would terrify us at any other time. A skeleton in the front garden? Hands poking up from a grave? At this time of year, anything goes!
While the UK is starting to embrace Halloween as a holiday, it is still pretty low-key compared with in the States and really just seen as a bit of fun for children. Family homes do decorate these days, with pumpkins on a windowsill and maybe some giant spiders or even a skeleton in the front garden. But it isn’t the norm for whole towns to do so, as we came across on our recent road trip in California.
All over the state, and beyond, we found Halloween décor. We came across it in the tiniest of villages, like Woody, a scattering of homes and farms in the foothills of the Greenhorn Mountains (population 108 according to Wikipedia). At the other end of the scale, when we finished our trip in Las Vegas there were Halloween skeletons to be found among all the glitz and bling of Downtown’s Fremont Street.
One town in particular, Ferndale, was really embracing the Halloween spirit (pun intended!) I’ve included a few photos from there but will have many more, in colour, next week when I take you on a Monday Walk through the town.
Meanwhile here is a selection from all over the state for this week’s Monochrome Madness challenge set by Dawn with the appropriate theme of Spooky. I’m not sure many of these truly are spooky but a few certainly come close! And as Terri has chosen Eerie as her Sunday Stills theme this week, they should work for her too.
My feature photo was taken in Grass Valley
On a rooftop in Ferndale
Another one from Ferndale
In a garden in Bridgeport
In a shop in Weaverville
Pumpkins for sale in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco
Halloween fairy lights in a restaurant in Weaverville
On a front door in Woody
In a restaurant in Lee Vining
In the same restaurant in Lee Vining (quite possibly the spookiest decoration we saw!)
On top of a pizza restaurant, Fremont Street, Las Vegas
Zombie bus in Las Vegas
(despite his cajolling we didn’t join the tour!)
I visited California in September/October 2024
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Klausbernd
GREAT idea to place the skeleton there and photograph it in B&W.
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
I take credit only for the second of those ideas 😆
equinoxio21
Excellent. I like the “spookiest”… (Didn’t get a chance to see the Day of the Dead here in Mexico… so yours was a great alternative)
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 That ‘spookiest’ restaurant had certainly gone all out!
Amy
These are creative displays, Sarah! A lot of fun.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Amy – yes, very creative if slightly bizarre to my UK eyes 😀
leightontravels
Black and white seems like a natural fit for a Halloween gallery. I have yet to experience a full-on U.S. Halloween neighbourhood or even entire town, which I think I’d really enjoy. I’m with you on that long-beaked bird monster thing… terrifying. Zombie bus tour eh, what did that entail exactly? We enjoyed a low-key Halloween here in Georgia with a horror movie double header (The Innocents (1961) and The Wind (2018) accompanied by sushi, craft beer, Haribo mix, tea and cake.
Sarah Wilkie
I’ll be sharing Ferndale’s full-on approach in the next day or so, although as we were there as decorations were going up it could have been even more extensive by the time Halloween actually arrived! I don’t know what the zombie bus tour would have entailed – the guy was keen to attract people over to find out more but we just shot a couple of photos and carried on walking 🙂
Alison
I find it strange that Halloween is celebrated at all. It’s also celebrated in Australia and we used to have parties in Hong Kong for the kids. For kids it’s just a day to have bags of sweets.
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, when you think about what it really means, the child-focused celebrations are just plain odd! Here too it’s an excuse for sweets but also dressing up and I can see the fun in that so I don’t want to be too grouchy about it 😀
Annie Berger
I hadn’t known about Halloween’s roots before but that small line between life and the spirit world makes sense. I’m not a fan of spooky things so the crow image was over the top for me, Sarah, in terms of spookiness! Halloween was even celebrated here in Tunisia or perhaps it was just another way to make money if I’m being crass. I remember our children, and now our grandchildren, all loving the holiday or perhaps just the chance to get a sugar high!
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, that’s an interesting background to the holiday. I agree the crow is over-the-top, but I had to credit the imagination and dedication that had gone into decorating that whole large room – this and the skeleton in the hat were just in one corner of it! I’m sure that unfortunately it’s largely commercialism that’s driving the spread to other countries, including our own.
Annie Berger
No doubt! I remember being so surprised years ago seeing Black Friday sales in Europe – same concept.
Christie
Quite sad that more and more celebrations became too commercial, but still having some fun enjoying all these decorations.
Great pics!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 I too am torn between enjoying the decorations but not the commercialisation.
grandmisadventures
I do places that get into Halloween as it is a favorite holiday for me. I love all the clever ways that skeletons are displayed. I keep wanting to get a couple of bendable ones and have them in different scenes every day of October, maybe I’ll actually do that next year 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
That would be quite a commitment, changing the scenes every day!
Kirstin Troyer
You had some great choices for the theme. While I’m not a halloween fan, I loved what you did with these.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Kirstin 🙂
Egídio
Those skeletons and their locations are the best!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Edigio – I’ll have a few more of them from Ferndale in my Monday Walks post early next week 😀
the eternal traveller
It was never a thing here until a few years ago, now it’s highly promoted by commercial enterprises and it does seem to be more popular every year. I’m happy to let the children have a bit of fun provided they’re supervised and safe.
Sarah Wilkie
I agree, but I’m not so happy if they’re allowed to go out knocking on just any door! And it’s a shame when commercialism drives what and how we celebrate rather than tradition.
Marie
We’ve had maybe 15 callers in the past hour – time was there’d be around 80 or more… but nice to see some new families in the area!
I LOVE the first skeleton Sarah – what a great perch he has!!!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Marie, he is rather fun up there! More skeletons on Monday…
Robin Ward
Fun times with skeletons! Cool pics, Sarah:)
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Robin, I’m glad you enjoyed them 😊
Graham Stephen
Happy Halloween / Diwali
🪔🎃🙏🎃🪔
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Graham 🙂
Dawn M. Miller
What a wonderful assortment! Great fun, but I can not imagine the effort it took for that first one. (lol)
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Dawn 🙂 It seemed they’d go to any amount of trouble to decorate in Ferndale!
Heyjude
All this commercial stuff annoys me, but I realise it is a big part of American tradition, I just wish it had stayed there! Kids coming round basically demanding sweets is not something I applaud. And fortunately it doesn’t happen around here. And skeletons and worse, zombies, are not really suitable for children, are they? I did enjoy seeing the pumpkins and decorative corn and less frightening decorations in New England on my visit which was shortly before Halloween, but I am glad we don’t go to that extent of decorating towns like that. Or maybe we do and I just haven’t seen it! (Another GOW)
Sarah Wilkie
We used to get more kids coming round some years ago when the US influence started to get more prominent, but it’s quietened down in recent years as they are more organised and get taken by parents only to houses where their friends live etc. There’s an unspoken ‘rule’ that if you have decorated for Halloween you’re open to visits by trick or treaters, but not otherwise. We’re often away however – this will be our first Halloween at home for several years. And I certainly haven’t come across any English towns which decorate en masse as some US ones seem to do!
thehungrytravellers.blog
It’s grown so much since we were kids, hasn’t it. Halloween meant absolutely nothing in our childhood, I doubt many would even have known the date. The big thing was Bonfire Night. Nowadays, Halloween is huge for my granddaughters, we seem to have inherited a big American swing with this one, long since. Whatever next, huh? An electoral system where the winner is the one which is least disliked? Perish the thought!!
Sarah Wilkie
When I was a kid we did sometimes do apple bobbing at my birthday party as my birthday is close, but that’s a good old English tradition for Halloween. Maybe we’ll start celebrating Thanksgiving next?!!
thehungrytravellers.blog
In which case it must be timely to wish you a happy birthday!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you (it was yesterday!)
Stlvia
Great collection of photos! Have seen more Halloween displays this year than I have in a long time! Maybe it’s because the weather has been so warm and people can get out to put them up! In any case, I love it!!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed these 🙂
Ilze
I’m not surprised to see so many decorations for Halloween, here in Latvia (Europe) we don’t celebrate, few items are showing up in our shops, but no decorations in whole city 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
We didn’t use to do so much for Halloween in the UK either but it has spread from the US and is growing every year it seems.
Ilze
It seems the same here, but isn’t it the Irish who “made” the USA make Halloween?
Sarah Wilkie
Possibly – I know there are links to Celtic festivals
Anne Sandler
Great captures Sarah! Living in a gated senior community, we don’t get trick or treaters. But, some residents still decorate their homes for the holiday. These days, communities gather in a local park or shopping mall lot, have trunk or treat where families load up their car trunks with festive or scary decorations and treats. The young kids are in a safe area and get treats from people the parents know.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anne 🙂 Those community activities sound much better than having kids roam the streets and knock on strangers’ doors!
Anne Sandler
In the good old days, one parent would take the kids out around their neighborhood while the other manned the door. It was safe and fun, but things change and not for the better. I’m glad today parents have come up with this safe alternative.
Terri Webster Schrandt
Wow, I’m not surprised to see so many decorations for Halloween, Sarah, in the US. Halloween and Christmas are so commercial, they’ve become a huge draw for who has the best decor.
My young neighbors next door decorate for Halloween all year long. It’s low key but a month before, they put up everything including huge inflatables. Their yard is full!. Fun but a bit spooky.
You really captured the spookiness and eerieness of the season! B&W bumps ups the spooky factor. That skeletal bird in Lee Vining is spine tingling! Thanks for double dipping!
Sarah Wilkie
I do find it slightly odd that children get involved in this sort of display, the themes are hardly child-friendly if you stop and think about it? That bird was just one figure in a whole room of spooky stuff – a sort of games room and bar to one side of the main restaurant.
Terri Webster Schrandt
I meant to add, if that was at the restaurant Nicely’s.
Sarah Wilkie
It was!! How did you know? We stayed at the motel opposite and Nicely’s was our only real option for dinner, but although simple we liked it 🙂
Terri Webster Schrandt
I’ve been to Lee Vining a few times. Not many restaurants. The hotel you stayed in is one of the better ones.
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, we were very happy with it – we had a view of Mono Lake from our room!
Monkey's Tale
Great Halloween pics. I love Halloween, but am missing it this year, so this helps 🎃 Maggie
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Maggie 🙂 I’ll have more Halloween for you early next week I think!
margaret21
Great photos, and some of these scenes are quite striking I guess. Just … Not My Thing.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Margaret 🙂 As I said on your own post, somehow I didn’t mind all this over in California as it seemed a more established tradition, not one imported from elsewhere. Just wait till you see what I have lined up for a Monday Walk next week!
margaret21
Goodness. Can’t wait!