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
31 Comments
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.
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 🙂
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!