American Halloween: Enculturation, Myths and

Consumer Culture
Shabnam Yousaf

Quaid I Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

The cultish festival of Halloween is encultured through mythology and has become a
hybrid consumer culture in the American society. Historiographical evidences illustrate
that how it was being Christianized in the 9th century CE and transformed a Pagan
Northern-European religious tradition from its adaptation to the enculturation process by
the early church, to remember the dead in tricking and treating manners. This paper will
illuminate the intricate medieval history of Celtic origins of Halloween, etymology of
Samhain festival, rites of passages and the religious rituals practicing in America regarding
Halloween that how it evolved from paganism to Neo-paganism and hybridized through
materialist glorification from mythology to consumer culture. The mid of 19th century
witnessed the arrival of Samhain rituals in America with the displacement of Irish
population. Presently, this festival is infused with the folk traditions and carnivals. The
trajectory penetrates its roots from discourse to practical implications, incorporated in
American culture and became materialized. To assess and analyze the concoction of
mythology, enculturation into culturally materialized form and developed into a consumer
culture, This paper will take the assistance from Marvin Harris ‘Cultural Materialism’, to
seek the behavioral and mental superstructure of the American social fabric for
operationalizing the connections and to determine the way forward to explore the
rhetorical fabricated glorification of consumer culture inculcated through late-capitalism,
will be assessed by Theodore Adorno’s theoretical grounds of ‘The Culture Industry’. This
article will re-orientate and enlighten the facts and evolving processes practicing in the
American society and inquire that how the centuries old mythologies are being encultured
and amalgamated with the socio-cultural, religious and economic interests.

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Keywords: Halloween, Mythology, Samhain, Paganism, Consumerism, Enculturation, Cult,
Folklores, Industrialization, Irish

Introduction

Halloween or Hallow Eve is a great festival celebrated every year as a Western Christian
world holiday on October 31. Halloween is the second biggest festival celebrated after
Christmas in United States of America. It is celebrated as a worldwide secular holiday
specifically in the western world. The tradition basically originated from the region of Europe
and specifically from Ireland. The Celtic Pagan festival of Samhain, the inhabitants were
practicing centuries old traditions including lightening bonfires and wearing of odd costumes
to deceive outer world entities particularly the ghosts on the arrival of winter (Mark, 2019).
With the discovery of Americas and with the natural behavioral patterns as human migration
due to any of the reasons, the culture, traditions, norms and values also travel with the
collective consciousness and their solidarity factorization. One can connect the mythology of
melting pot embedded in America with the example of the Irish people and their roots
connected with the Celtic religious beliefs, traditions and practices encultured and observed
very prominently not only in America but influenced the whole world due to its
amalgamation with the Christianity (Ruth Edna Kelley, 2014). The modern-day observance
of the Halloween, Thanksgiving, All Souls Day etc. are the popular festivities practicing
particularly in today’s Americas, Canada and the European countries, and celebrated globally
as a popular culture.

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Historical Backgrounds

Ancient History of Halloween

Every recorded history of human race focused on the ritual observances with reference to the
happiness and griefs, marriages and deaths practices in terms of showing solidarity and
collective conscience as communal traditions. The human race experiences the nature which
are undeniable replaced with nurture as culture. The traditional practices and rituals like
mourning at deaths to show the emotions of grief on losing a member of the society. (Mark,
2019) The oldest traditions in the world exists with the curiosity of knowing the relationship
between the living world and the dead conditions. These types of rituals and traditions depicts
the honor to remember those who unwillingly moved away to another world. The ancient
traditions and the practices of Halloween traced back its history to the Celtic festival of
Samhain belongs to the centuries’ old Pagan religion from the land of today’s Ireland.

The Irish Festival of Samhain

Samhain was the thousand years old festival which means ‘end of summer’ season and the
time was close to the arrival of winter to harvesting the crops. Samhain as the Celtic new
year festivities, are celebrated due to the strong beliefs of Celts that the veil between the two
worlds, living and dead, were supposed to be thinnest and the link among the living and the
dead may be possible (Lefkowitz, Spring 1993). The dead could approach and interact the
places and the belongings from where they belong. They may happy or annoyed depending
upon their feelings and emotions towards the living world, may harm and destroy people or
the crops.

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Pre-Christian Pagan Practices

The information about the pagan festivals recorded from the pre-Christian oral historical
accounts by the Irish monks as well as the Christian scribers patronizing the pagan rites. The
practices of slaughtering livestock, stocking up foods for the winter season and disposing of
the skeletons of the animals in bone fires later known as ‘bonfire’ (Santino, Summer 1996).
As a second view of this observance may be describe as the gatherings and the festivities
were due to the elaboration of the celebration through feasting and drinking to welcome and
honor the otherworldly visitors interacting the living world during the party time for their
prayers. Setting the course to welcome the departed souls by showing up that supposedly,
these are the happiest moments of the year to welcome and practices of celebrations were
observed to present the favorite foods of the dead loved ones. These kinds of practices were
originated and adopted 2000 years ago after Christianizing the Samhain festival (Skal, 2002).
However, the pre-Christian history traced back its roots to point out the supernatural entities’
involvement had been experienced during this timeframe. In order to deceive the evil spirits
or the unwanted forces, they started darkened their faces with ashes from the bonfires. The
concept of wearing masks evolved from here to get rid the unwanted attention of the darker
forces by adopting the false appearances, dressed up and making over like spirits, ghosts and
witches.

Christianization of Halloween

The writings of the 18th century British engineer ‘Charles Vallancey’ who wrote about the
Samhain as a Celtic god and Halloween as its feast on the basis of poor understandings and
experiences of the local culture and language. British Christian groups attempted to demonize
and denigrate the festival of Halloween (Hufford, 1995). However, this biased idea portrayed
an erroneous reflection of the Irish rituals, may be an attempt to impose the label of
uncivilized and uncouth community, to serve the political and monarchical mindset.

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Amalgamation of Irish Mythologies with Christianity

The celebrations of Samhain merriments became popularized and known to the European
world when Christianity came to the Ireland anticipating with the purpose of evangelizing
and Christianizing every corner of the world. The hill of Tlachtga (Hill of Ward) in the
Ireland’s county of Meath was the place where the bonfires flames signaling the inaugurating
symbols to start the festivities (Skal, 2002). The Irish mythologies comprised of many
goddesses and their folktales, particularly, the druidess of Tlachtga, who was the daughter of
a powerful druid ‘Mug Ruith’ traveled the world for seeking witchcraft and the misfortune
leads to her story to the birth of triplets on the hill. The folktale of Tlachtga had various
descriptions and interpretations due to evangelizing and Christianizing the Pagan temples
like the Pantheon (Rome, Italy), symbols, legendary characters, cultural centenaries and the
existed religious iconography (Rogers, 2003).

After the arrival of St. Patrick to Ireland and the story of hill of Tara became Christianized.
Pope Boniface IV consecrated the great Pagan temple of Pantheon in Rome, in the 7th century
CE to the Saint Mary and the martyrs and 13 May had set as All Saint Day but in the 8th
century CE, Pope Gregory III changed the date of the feast to 1 st November. Scholars
assumed this conversion of All Hallow Eve due to intentionally Christianizing Samhain
(Ehrenreich, 2007). The Roman festival of Lemuria refers to the days of observances held
like Parentalia and Feralia dedicated to the restless souls to honor and remember the spirits
of loved ones by paying visits to the graves of the dead and leaving with gifts like grains,
salts, bread soaked in the wine etc. other than the Roman influences, the other developments
inculcated into the Samhain festival. The communal activities were marked and associated
with the celebrations of transformations either about the dead world or the different phases
of the year connected with the seasonal relativities (Clark, 2005).

Migration/ Transformation of the Celtic Festival

Observing all the ancient legacies, traditions and the various forms of Celtic festivities
transformed and evolved with the passage of time with many more additions and subtractions.
Theses festivities travel with the Celtic migrations to every part of the world. Bonfires are
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still lighted in the honor of the Christians saints and the heroes. Changes of the seasons are
also celebrated in the glory of Jesus Christ. Most of the ancient rituals and the practices of
the festival now faced the incarnation of the new penetration like the ‘Souling’ in the 16th
century CE. The beggars and the poor people of the society may go to door to door and
knocking to ask for a soul-cake (Berry, 1912). After the protestant reformation in Britain, the
protestant poor people offered to pray in exchange of foods. The 17th century’s manifestation
known as the Guy Fawkes Day celebrated on 5th November as a victory or the triumph over
popery when a group of catholic tried to assassinate the King James 1 but failed to do this
task and caught red-handed with the explosive beneath the house of the lords (Bannatyne,
1998). In remembering that incident, the government officially claimed, it was a celebration
of Prudence sparing the monarch ruler.

Observance of Pagan Tradition in America refers to the pejorative terminology used by the
early Christians for the believers of polytheism and also referred as the religion of peasantry
during the medieval period and connoted for their beliefs in the false gods or the supranatural
powerful entities (Jones, 2014).

Review of the Literature

This section will present a review about the existing scholastic literature to adopt a theoretical
underpinning on the concerning conceptual categories, their operational definitions and
origins, the interpretations of the historical backgrounds of the Samhain festival, American
mythology-from the Paganism to the neo-Paganism and the process of enculturation. In order
to assess the academic works of other researchers, this study revolves around the concepts /
constructs about the Celtic religious traditions from the Pagan Northern-European religious
origins of the Medieval historiography to the neo-paganistic rights of passages, folk
traditions, carnivals and celebrations in the western world generally and in the American
context specifically. It seems judicious to tackle the existing literature relating concepts /
constructs of secondary kinds of sources one by one, that are related with each other and can
be further explored by analyzing the literature.

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The historical accounts of the Greek era and the pre-Socratic philosophers in the fifth century
B.C believed that human beings imagined their gods in their own perceived images and the
new cults usually adopted the eclectic methodologies by the intrusion of the Christian
mythology. Gods and Goddesses in the Celtic religions have defined their roles in their own
connotations, whereas, the power definitions for male and female deities have been
developed by the discourse of the Hebrew Patriarchs, the Church fathers and the Freudian
writings. (Lefkowitz, Spring 1993).

The structuralist framework of the myth is similar to the study of a language and its deep
structure. The underlying structure may be understood by going through the Saussure
linguistic signs and thoughts by differing launge and parole. Ontologically, myth is not static
but dynamic. And the epistemology of the myth may be deciphered by analyzing mythemes
and its diachronic development and variations. The temporal and thematic relations may
allow us to translate the mythical narratives and maintain its capacities even though poorly
translated from one language to another (Strauss, 1955).

Irish Celtic culture has a sequenced prehistoric series in a chronological manner to decern
the ancient culture of Ireland and its traces from Paleolithic age (the old stone age, 10,000
BC), Mesolithic age (between the upper paleolithic and the Neolithic age, 8,000 BC) to the
Neolithic age (the new stone age, 5,000 BC). After the archeological excavations of the
remaining artefacts and the ashes of villages, archeologists have traced the invasions and the
remains of immigrants to this island thereby witnessing the ancient style of living. The
intrusion of different cultures, traditions, and practices to this land (like the agricultural
revolution and the invention of the wheel) are the discoveries of the Neolithic period to fasten
the means of transport (Editorial Board, 1941).

Irish Celtic mythology comprises stories of the Irish origin, former gods and goddesses and
the mythical texts of pre-Christian Ireland that preserves the medieval Irish literature, its
cycles and the offshoots in the Celtic mythology. The Mythical, the Ulster, the Fenian and
the historical cycles are the forms of literature that have produced and shaped the whole
framework of culture and society. Folktales continued by the oral traditions and considered

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to be the invention of the medieval period that existed in the Irish mythology (Jubainville,
2018).

Celtic Paganism, also known as the ancient Celtic religion by the Iron age people of Western-
Europe (500 BCE to 500 CE), are the religious traditions that encompass the religious beliefs
and practices. (Crowe, 1869).

The diverse forms of ancient religions influenced by ancient beliefs, rites of passages and
rituals are adopted and practiced by the various artistic group members as the self-descriptors
who are inspired by the ancient natural world and the religious practices of that era. Neo-
Paganism or the contemporary modern paganism are still practicing their rituals to this day.
(Berry, 1912).

Paganism was a pejorative terminology used by the early Christians for the believers of
polytheism and also referred as the religion of peasantry during the medieval period and
connoted for their beliefs in the false gods or the supranatural powerful entities (Jones, 2014).

Halloween being the oldest Celtic religious traditions traces back to the Celtic festival of
Samhain. It has transformed into the western fabric of the socio-cultural context and is now
an active traditional practice worldwide that also illustrates the relationship between the
living and the dead spirits (Mark, 2019). The Celts believed that the Samhain festival was
celebrated as a start of the first period of the Celtic year and marked the end of the harvest
season with the arrival of winter. This time was considered as when the veil between the
living and the dead world became the thinnest and the spirits of the dead may wander and
visit where ever they want to go. Practices and rituals are performed to please them and to
some extent deceive them by making frightening faces (Mark, 2019). The observance of the
Samhain comprised of slaughtering livestock, preserving meat (for the winter season), and
disposing of bones in the fire which was commonly referred to as the ‘Bone fire’ (Hufford,
1995).

The intrusion of Christian evangelical missionary groups demonized and denigrated the
observance of the Samhain festival and its rituals. In the trial of Christianizing Ireland and its

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Celtic culture in fifth century BC, Christianity itself adopted the religious iconography pagan
symbols, temples, and legends. Pope Boniface IV celebrated ‘All Saint’s Day’ as a feast day
which further evolved by Christianizing it into ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ (Ruth Edna Kelley, 2014).

The myths attached with the rituals and practices include Jack-o'-lanterns, dressing in colorful
costumes, painting scary faces, trick-or-treating by the children (A practice asking for food
and candies in exchange for prayers for the dead), medieval Britain custom of Souling,
festivities and games (A game of bobbing for apples), fortune-telling, apple game (for the
marriage prophecy) etc. are the mythical folklores and the prevailing practices of Halloween.
A special ritual is also intricated as by looking in a mirror at midnight with a candlelight next
to you for the appearance of the future husband's face. Different mythical Folklores, wiccan,
witchcraft and black magic, observance for the dead spirits and their welcome on the Eve of
Halloween are also part of the Halloween rites of passages and the communal celebrations
(Hufford, 1995).

The Irish influence and the enculturation through the mythologies, folklores, cultural
practices and the Samhain rituals into the continent of North America was due to the Irish
immigrants. With the migrations process and the repatriations due to the great wave of
famines of the first half of the nineteenth century by the mid of the twentieth century, the
Irish Celtic Samhain transformed into the Christian Halloween started as a children's day off
and then evolved into a national-public holiday (Bannatyne, Halloween: An American
Holiday, an American History, 1998)

Celtic-Christian rituals are rooted in a rich and complex history. Halloween has evolved from
the ethnic festivity to the merger of street carnivals, fright nights, and has become a massive
commercial enterprise concern. The mixture of the Samhain festival with the elements of
Hallowtide like All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day arrived in the United States of America
as the Scottish and Irish festival evolved as a large-scale festival thus a public holiday
declared in the early twentieth century. Halloween is the most enchanting day, illuminating
the complicated history and shifting cultural forces behind this enduring trick-or-treat
holiday. Drawing from the fascinating array of mystical sources and ancient history to the

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Hollywood horror films it has become the corporate commodity due to the boom of
industrialization and commercialization (Rogers, 2003)

Lisa Morton examined the trick or treat event by first looking into the history and the origin
and then exploring it with in-depth investigations to decern the popularity of the blended
version of the Britain ‘All Soul’s Day’. The Irish Samhain festival evolved into today’s
modernized form of Halloween. The festival has now adopted new customs and is publicly
observed as a global holiday like the ‘Mexico Day of Dead’. Morton also lifted the cobwebs
off the exploration of the haunted attractions, the impact of the economic recession and how
it is popularized through the developing interpretations and the discourses like folk and
ghostly tales, horror movies, literary works and television series. Her work is the pioneer of
its very own nature to peep behind the mask and see the past and present flashbacks of
America’s second biggest event (Morton, 2019).

Clark pointed out the impact of unidirectional socialization of children using the participant
observation method to explore the in-depth meaning and understanding of Halloween with
its ghostly tales in the American society. He also observed the degree and quality of fear
associated with the myths of Halloween and interviewed several adults and children aged 6-
7 years old. Clark also discussed in his article, the impact of the 9/11 incident with the notions
of cultural duplication and socialization process in children and the impact of ghostly tales
with the terror attacks (Clark, 2005).

The book ‘Haunting Experiences: Ghost in Contemporary Folklores’ written by the three
folklorists discussed multiple angles of modern culture and the various types of incorporated
customs and mythical practices due to a number of reasons. Ghosts and the supernatural
entities are the production of commodified modern culture and commercialized
entertainment industry. The three major institutions of the society are religious beliefs,
cultural traditions and economical commercial culture which are strongly bonded and feed
each other. Belief system always creates space for the supernatural entities (Sylvia Ann
Grider, 2007).

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In the fourth chapter of the book, Sylvia illustrates about the socialization; how children
socialized by listening the rollicking ghost stories from their adults; watching mono episodic
telefilms, reading bestselling novels which usually started from a horrific background but
were concluded with a jokelike punchline. Children, ten years old onwards, start realizing
their mythical virtual nature and set these ideas as the delightful, mesmerizing sources of
entertainment. They start to enjoy them as teen agers in slumber parties, pranks, campouts
and make fun out of these activities like dancing skeletons, wandering souls and perceive
them as a threatening and macabre dramatis persona of the evil spirits of the dead who
menace the living. These narratives have transferred and transformed from the childhood as
supernatural beings specially ghosts, vampires, witches and later become the benign figures
of delight and amusement (Sylvia Ann Grider, 2007).

Pellegrini illustrated in his article about the Halloween as a platform for creative
evangelization by the different Christian denominations and described how the Hell Houses
stage this attractive platform for the theatre performances. Hell houses offer the tour of
examination and experience that how the religious beliefs are lived, experienced and
communicated by using the dominant medium with reference to the Halloween practices.
These performances also depict that bad acts lead to hell includes the homosexuality,
abortion, suicide etc. (Pellegrini, 2007). He also describes the fact that it is practiced as the
second-biggest decorating holiday and indeed a multibillion-dollar corporate industry which
raises the rhetorical questions that ‘Is Halloween the New Christmas?’ ‘How much does an
average American approximately spend to celebrate it?’ ‘Is it a religious belief or a secular
practice?’ ‘How different Christian denominations have perceived it by evangelizing it or
supposed it to be a satanic seduction?’ (Pellegrini, 2007)

Jack Santino focused on the key element of Halloween and describe about a thread of
connection with ‘Fire’. His concern of the article was the fire, fireworks, Bonfires and any
celebration associated with fire to interpret and signify the cultural hegemony in the culture
of Northern Ireland. Santino conducted the detailed study through participant observation
and explored the facts revolve around the fire and the bonfires. The communal traditions
include gathering of members of the community to create and strengthen the idea of collective
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consciousness. The main concern of the essay is to decern the symbolic significance of fire
with the cultural hegemony and the interrelated customs of Halloween in the Northern Ireland
(Santino, Summer 1996).

The historic / ancient worth and the significance of the Halloween festival was adopted from
the Irish Celtic-religious traditions and transformed from the Ritual to the Party night,
pumpkin lanterns, scary costumes and masks in the attempt to ward off evil spirits, chocolates
and the candy distributions to address the trick and treat idea with respect to exchange of
mysticism and materialism (Rogers, 2003).

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the origin and historical background of carnivalization, the
evolution of the customs and traditional communal activities and the transformation from
foreign European savagery culture to the west. Barbara also compared through the binary
opposing concepts like the human attraction to war and the desire of communal joy,
indigenous culture to the Western culture, the olden Greeks' worship of Dionysus and the
medieval exercise of Christianity as a danced religion. The communal joy was the event while
expressing the happiness in blissful merriments of feasting, costuming, and dancing
(Ehrenreich, 2007).

Church representatives drove the revels into the streets but the European settlers wiped out
native dance rites. Such types of crowds would undermine social hierarchies and inspired
rebellious revolutionary emotions from the Caribbean to the American plains. Ehrenreich
tried to intervene the point, that how the rock-and-roll rebellions incorporated carnivalization
of sports in 1960s ‘Dancing in the Streets’ concludes that human being are the social beings
provoked to share joyful emotions and thus to envisage, generate, the peaceable future. The
Halloween like festivities inculcated the history of outbreaks of joy from Dionysus to the
Grateful Dead (Ehrenreich, 2007).

Skal examines the blend of personal anecdotes with the social analysis of Halloween by
exploring the Celtic history to explain the American hard-nosed business in corporate terms
while fundamentalists perceived it as blasphemous and the witches and wiccans believed it
as sacred. Skal conducted number of in-depth interviews to know the different perspectives
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about the deeper influence of its historical and cultural effects of Halloween traditions.
Another concern was to know the association of the rituals and traditions with the holiday on
the name of death but in joyful terms and to understand the national psyche of Americans
(Skal, 2002).

Leslay Bannatynne pointed out the Americans’ unique love affair with the Halloween holiday
and also explored the pop-culture phenomena; why Americans celebrate it the way as of
today? (Bannatyne, 1998)

Dating back almost twenty centuries the Celtic festival of Samhain is the religious tradition
that has presently evolved into the celebration’s activities for the children, teen agers, adults
as Halloween. The U.S Census Bureau’s survey of 2019 released the fact sheets to access the
estimated facts and figures includes firstly to plan the celebration and to figure out the
estimated economic statistics because of the fact that it is becoming a multibillion-dollar
industry comprising of costumes, candies and chocolates, decorations, greeting cards,
pumpkin cultivation, bonfire accessories and the specific grocery items for the party and feast
celebrations. National Retail Foundation also reported the buying behavior of Americans
during the celebrations of Halloween.

Significance of the Study

The weightage of the literature to know about the origin, historiography and the evolving
stages of the Halloween as the pagan practices to the neo-pagan traditions, is too heavy but
after the boom of industrialization and commercialization, the cultural traditions have
become commodities and transformed into the popular culture. There is a gap identified in
the literature that how the cultural traditions shifted its nature into the economic corporation.
This study is significant in a sense that the outcome of the scientific inquiry will re-orientate
and enlighten the missing gap about paradigmatic transformation from culture to economy.

Problematization of the Ideological Transformation

After reviewing the extensive literature regarding Halloween, its origin, ancient traditions
and the practices into the modern digital era, this article pointed out the critical underpinning
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regarding the structure of ritual and the epistemological approach to ritual study in terms of
materializing the rituals through commercialization, consumerism and industrialization
(Rogers, 2003). No doubt, the performance of rituals in any society created the sense of
collective conscience and factor of solidarity as described by Emile Durkheim and the rituals
are considered to be the life and blood of any societal body.

Halloween as a Custodian of American Culture

One can witness the fact, that most of the American cultural practices emerged from the Irish
origin due to the enriched culture of the Pagans, the popular Irish mythologies, the folktales
of the goddesses and the Christianization. Reviewing the American historical accounts, the
marginalized and oppressed class as the pilgrims and the new settlers seek for a heaven like
land as imagined land. They came to America from every part of the world specifically
Europe. The Christian division of Catholicism and Protestantism in Europe had not only
drawn the lines of physical boundaries, declaration of wars, political priorities but triggered
and catalyzed the process of migrations due to religious persecution. American society and
its inhabitants are not sharing any single ancestral connections but from every part of the
world. The question rises here that why some cultural rituals are intricately dominant and
practiced by most of the Americans like Halloween? Answer would be very subjective due
to diversified dimensions.

Halloween and its attached practices sprouted many other practices in the American society
like Thanks giving, Witchcraft, horror movies culture, pranking, carnivalization, food
distribution, fireworks, the way Americans celebrates the festivities and the ideas and
fictional stories about the supernatural world. The melting pot mythology may sum up the
discussion but still the surprising fact is that why and how Irish culture and rites of passages
become fashion icons and popularized. The celebrations always create a collectiveness in the
social realm. It also opposes the ideology of individualism and welcome all members of the
society as unified and integrated.

The American social behavioral patterns depend upon its psyche and the practices. The forces
which are devising the mental superstructure, from the introduction of the new trends keeping
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under surveillances for the additions and abolitions of the modern practices, need to be
critically analyzed. With the help of commercialization, the attractive practices penetrate into
the mental superstructure and instilled through the religious norms and values. The way
people defined sacred and profane for themselves become popularized and logically
approved. Diversified small and big industries firstly, try to calculate the extent of connection
among the norms and values of any festival with the religious thoughts.

The Ghost Stories for children developed the degree and quality of fear associated with the
myths of Halloween and socialized the kids by listening the rollicking ghost stories including
best-selling novels, watching horror movies and theatre performances. Children developed a
fictional world by reading and listening stories like magic, witchcraft and fairytale world
including Harry Potter, Matilda, Alice in Wonderland etc. Hollywood influence and the
various sources of fictions in building the narratives transferred and transformed from the
childhood as supernatural beings specially ghosts, vampires, witches and later become the
benign figures of delight and amusement for teen agers.

Inculcation of fashion icons during Hallow Eve is very much prominent in American society
through costume industry and others. Popular culture and consumerism converted traditional
practices and rituals into the pools of industries. It includes candy/ chocolate, costume,
pumpkin farming, decoration and lighting, mask and Whig, make up for the fake bloody
scars, Hollywood characters’ horror costumes, greeting cards, bonfire accessories, pet
costume, dummy ghosts’ industry

Transition and transformation of the rituals and its celebration at the national level as a
holiday is being observed as the second biggest festival celebration after Christmas in America.
The western Christian world holiday comprised of festivities including parties, feasting and
drinking in the events of carnivals, dance parties, parades, costume contests and taking part
in the activities and enjoying watching horror movies in the cinema, visiting shopping malls
to buy all the accessories referring its observances.

The Ancient Pagan Celtic festival and its traditions transforms from the Samhain to the
modern Halloween traditions includes guising practice that developed to wearing masks and
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now overall make over and costumes. It also includes Trick or Treat practice by the children
to collect candies from door to door, Jack-o-Lantern is the pumpkin carving and lighting the
pumpkins with candles, decor of the house with the dummy ghosts, spooky images, creepy
pranks, celebrations through feasting and drinking in parties, all the practices may be
observed in America. Liting bonfires using different concepts like signaling the spiritual
world through the flames, Halloween street carnivals, costume contests, parade revelries
painting scary faces, custom of Souling, bobbing for apples, fortune telling and girls asking
about the marriage prophecies. There are many superstitious concepts connected with the evil
spirits and its cultural solutions available within the cultural setup. witchcrafts, wiccans, and
haunted theatre performances are also the parts of the activities. Irish cultural assimilation
with the Irish migrants into Americas due to any of the reason transformed with the passage
of time. Irrespective of the religious, socio-cultural differences, the process of transformation
from Irish mythology to American mythology have changed the whole structure of American
mental and behavioral superstructure. It is changed from ritual to party, turnip lantern to
pumpkin lantern, need to want, from the concept of warding off evil spirit to saint day and
then prank culture is introduced and now being practiced by the social members. It also
transforms the exchanging food with prayers to offer the trick or treat by the kids, from
popular culture to consumer culture and mysticism to cultural materialism.

Theoretical Underpinnings

This study may borrow the conceptual elements and the assistance from the already existing
framework of Marvin Harris’s idea of cultural materialism which is an epistemological
research approach and the extension of the idea of dialectical materialism of Karl Marx and
Fredrich Engels. He explained the socio-cultural system in terms of technology and economy
and etic behavioral categories in tripartite schemes as Infrastructure, Structure and the
Superstructure in which superstructure expounds the behavioral and mental superstructure
such as leisure activities, annual festivals, sports, hobbies, alcoholism, gambling etc. and the
mental superstructure consist of religion and its rites of passages, social hierarchies, beliefs,

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values, norms and rituals. Harris approach may connect the American activities of Halloween
to analyze the etic behavioral patterns with the religious realm activities and the beliefs
system prevailing in the metal and behavioral structures.

For the critical analysis, the present article is also taking assistance from the Theodore
Adorno’s idea of culture industry. According to Adorno, the glorification of consumer culture
inculcated through late-capitalism. He argued that the materialistic glorification of
consumerism and commercialization produced a modernized form of capitalist economy. He
also assumed that the commodification of the culture is the commodification of human
realization. The culture industry as the modern / mass culture is the birth of the phenomena
of post-industrial society which refers to a consumptive and dominated by late-stage
capitalism. Through collective consumer conscience, the culture industry intervenes in the
economic structure and the superstructure to manipulate the norms and values developed by
dominant and popular ideology and through technological maneuvering. Moreover,
consuming or shopping instead of fulfilling the basic needs or comforts of life leads the
individuals to buy more and more for Id' desires and wishes, working on the pleasure
principle. The argument is valid because it ignores the economic and psychological burdens
of the compulsive disorder. The materialist glorification of consumerism has poorly affected
human reasoning as well as the societal structure and superstructure. The rules of
commodification are complying to make the culture, industrialized. Instilling the concept of
industrialization in the case of American Halloween practices and its observances may be
observed and analyzed through the data analysis of National Retail Federation (NRF)
published in 2018.

The above-mentioned data clearly illustrates the buying and consuming trend during the
Halloween season. From 2005 the spending trend increases from U$3.3 billion to U$9 billion
in America. According to the statistical surveys of NRF on the buying behavior of Americans,
the average American spending on Halloween was recorded as $169.81per person in 2017
and the figure is up to $185.50 in 2018. This chart is depicting that now the Halloween festival
and its rituals become a multi-billion-dollar business and divided into different corporate
sectors. Adorno’s lens is very much logical and convincing the aspect and the rationale
103
behind different existing practices. It also analyzes the transformation from sacred to profane,
from rituals to parties and mysticism to materialism.

Conclusion

The historiography of Halloween, the origin and the evolving stages from the pagan practices
to the neo-pagan traditions, is transformed and diffused into the modern digital era. After the
boom of industrialization and commercialization, the cultural traditions have become
commodities and transformed into the popular culture. The paradigmatic transition from the
cultural practices to the economic interests has changed based on narratives and effected the
ideological frame of American mythology and the idea of melting pot and the promised land
because of the facts that they are being deceived and exploited by few trendsetters and
spending their hourly wages without understanding the agendas of the capitalist mindset
which they have created the craze of buying by using the media as a powerful tool.

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