Heads on spikes along a fence. (Photo: Katy Grimes for California Globe)
When Did Halloween Decorations Go Demonic?
Nothing could prepare me for the house with all of the dead dolls as Halloween decorations
By Katy Grimes, October 15, 2024 11:30 am
Most of us know that Halloween originated in an annual Celtic pagan festival called Samhain, which was then “Christianized” by the early Catholic Church approximately 1,200 years ago, and named “Halloween.” The jack-o-lantern is also from the Celts representing the harvest,” which was to be competed every November 1st. Carving the pumpkin was done “in hopes that the good magic will help to preserve the harvested food through the dark half of the year, until the next growing season could replenish the community’s food stocks,” History.com says.
Christianity.com assures us that even if we have a penchant for Halloween traditions, when we celebrate Halloween by passing out candy to children, dressing up, or going trick-or-treating, we are not celebrating evil.
As a child I loved Halloween. The scariest thing about it was when neighbors turned their front porch into a haunted house.
As a parent, Halloween was as fun, and brought back great memories.
But something has happened to the wholesome Halloween traditions that goes far beyond creepy – and it’s not just State Senator Scott Wiener’s Annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving Event with Celebrity Drag Queen Judges.
Wiccans still celebrate the Celtic festival of Samhain.
So does the church of Satan for that matter, which claims that any person who dresses up for Halloween is worshipping the devil. Wishful thinking.
Seasonal catalogues now sell a significant variety of Halloween holiday decorations, most of which are about the witch… and seances, and witches caldrons, and dark magic, and gigantic black spiders, and skeletons, and skulls, and tombstones, and serpents and snakes…
Some of the decorations are cute and clever. Some are creepy. Some are scary. Not many of them are for little children – these are adult decorations.
Now that it is October, homes around the city are decorated for Halloween. Most decorations are darling – hanging ghosts from trees, the witch who smashed into the tree trunk face first, funny R.I.P. tombstones on the lawn and lots of pumpkins and fall decorations.
Some decorations I don’t get – like the house which has a sign that says “We eat mermaids,” decorated with hanging skeletons. Okay.
And of course there’s the house with a giant skeleton on the roof, which resides there all year. I almost look forward to his seasonal costume changes.
However, nothing could prepare me for the house with all of the dead dolls as Halloween decorations – dolls with bloody stumps for arms and legs, a doll with a chainsaw, doll heads on spikes, dolls with missing heads, bloody dolls, dolls caught in mousetraps, caged dolls, barbie doll heads in a row on a tall spike, dolls caught in a spider web and being eaten by spiders, giant rats eating dolls, and dolls on spikes.
The heads on spikes on the fence is a nice touch… if you’re from Ancient Gaul perhaps.
Am I missing the joke? Is this a thing?
These aren’t your kids’ old Chucky doll, which was horrific in and of itself back in the day.
I asked a couple of friends, who likened this bizarre display to dead babies. I confess – that was my first reaction when I saw a good sized doll appearing dead on the dirt.
And what little kids are going to voluntarily walk up that driveway to the front door for Trick or Treat?
These decorations look wicked. Demonic even.
Costume stores carry gory and graphic costumes now that just were not available before. To have a gory costume years ago meant a vivid imagination, an ax, and a lot of ketchup or fake blood.
I remember about 10 years ago being shocked at a costume that was a latex replica of a skinned, demonic-looking dog. Now zombies are a very popular costume.
But dead dolls? Dolls on spikes? Dolls in cages?
Who thinks this demonic display is funny?
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Apparently Christianity.com has sold out to the dark side. Halloween has always been evil. People try to whitewash all the demonic imagery but it is what it is. Thanks to Katie for pointing out that Halloween is Demonic.
Wow. That is some sick stuff.
We often hear “garbage in, garbage out.” In this case, it looks like “demons in, demons out.”
Kids need to stay away! Far away! Adults, too. There may be dungeons within that benign-looking suburban house.
This movement into the demonic & depraved took place about the same time that Halloween became an “all-ages” event about 15 years ago, or so…
Halloween USED to be just for kids under 14-15, but Madison Avenue and those stupid “pop-up” Halloween stores started marketing to (arrested development) adults around 2005-2010 and now we’re seeing these gore-fest displays…
Speaking of which, have we seen the current crop of “horror” flicks that are coming out between now & Halloween – if we want to talk about DARKNESS, all of these films look like they’ll cause psychological disturbance, if not outright trauma to anyone stupid enough to expose themselves to that “entertainment”….
The relatively benign appearing Halloween decorations of the past are actually all the more insidious and evil because it normalized celebrating a Satanic event. Think of a plushie Hitler. Is that OK because it has a smile on its face or is it conditioning kids to accept a genocidal maniac as anything other than what he was?
Hi Katy, thanks for this. I will not enter a Michael’s store during October. So, it’s a shame that over the years Oct. 31 has become truly for adult and Satanic. Beware of main stream “history” media such as History.com . They are just as unreliable as TV news. You wrote that Halloween is a Christianized pagan festival. I beg the differ. Catholic tradition does not acknowledge Halloween, if that’s what you’re implying. Most of us Catholics know that Halloween is a secular, not religious, ‘holiday.’ The real story puts a favorable light on the Catholic feast known as All Saints Day (November 1) whereby Catholics remember their saints who have passed. Go to a Catholic church Nov. 1 and you’ll see children dressed as their favorite and/or patron saint. “All Hallows Eve”
Now, All Souls’ Day in the Catholic Church tradition, pre-Vatican II, is celebrated Nov. 2 whereby the priest is given the names of deceased relatives by parishioners; we remember our dead with reverence and respect as it should be.
(October 31) is known as a solemn “vigil.” Catholic Online Encyclopedia – https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm
Correction – forgot to put this in proper context. “All Hallows Eve” is Oct. 31, a solemn vigil.
My research found Pope Gregory I, also known as St. Gregory the Great, who headed the Church from A.D. 590 to 604, advised a missionary going to England that instead of trying to do away with the religious customs of non-Christian peoples, they simply should convert them to a Christian religious purpose.
The Church mixed the traditions involving Celtic spirits and Catholic saints. In the 800s, the Church designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day.
The first night of Samhain, October 31, became All Hallows Day Evening, the night before the saints were venerated. That name eventually morphed into Halloween, and it became the time when Christians could turn the supernatural symbolism and rituals of Samhain into spooky fun.
We’re defining deviancy down, it’s been going on for years and on many fronts.