0
0
If you are like any of us here at Scary Overload, Halloween is sacred and near and dear to your heart. While the world has fallen apart around us this year and thrown a pandemic into the mix…Halloween 2020 is looking scarier every day, and not just because of the ghouls and goblins.
#SaveHalloween campaigns have launched across the globe supported by Halloween lovers and parents of trick-or-treating children alike. Many of these campaigns urged people to wear masks, to do their part in fighting the spread of the Coronavirus to save this beloved holiday. Now that the pandemic is very much here to stay, this question deserves to be raised:
“How can we safely and intelligently participate in Halloween activities this year?“
Scary Overload | Scary Overload.com
The Howling How-To
In order to decide HOW to Halloween, first we must discover what all this holiday normally entails:
- Trick-or-Treating
- Handing Out Candy
- Costume Parties & Events
- Visiting Fall Festivals
- Visiting Haunted Houses
- Visiting Haunted Hayrides or Trails
- Pumpkin Carving
- Yard Displays & Decor
- Home Haunts / Yard Haunts
- Bobbing for Apples
- Baking Halloween Treats
- Watching Scary Movies / Horror Movie Marathons
Next, we need to assess the level of concern performing those activities in today’s climate.
Trick-or-Treating & Handing Out Candy
Trick-or-Treating requires getting your kids dressed-up in their Halloween costumes and taking them around the neighborhood, door to door. This also usually involves collecting candy and treats at each stop along the way. Either the children reach in a bowl and grab what they want, or the treat giver selects items and then deposits a handful in each child’s chosen receptacle.
Risk Assessment
As Trick-or-Treating currently stands, with how it has been done before, there does pose a certain level of risk to handling candy or receiving candy that has been handled by others. There is also a risk going from home to home as it does require for you to be within 6 feet of someone in order to receive something being given to you. Now, if your costume includes a face covering and you maintain social distancing, Halloween and Trick-or-Treating absolutely could still happen and safely!
Imagine instead of bowls of candy and hands reaching in to grab, what if you had premixed treat bags for Halloween this year? You absolutely could set up a table in your front yard and have treat bags laid out in rows for children to approach and take!
If you social distance your group and houses across the country adopt the Halloween treat bag method, Trick-or-Treating’s risk assessment code just dropped from a Code Red to a Code Green!
Risk Assessment
Updated
Costume Parties & Events
This year, crowds of people are not going to happen. Businesses everywhere are being forced to change their processes in order to remain open and operate during this pandemic. In the traditional sense of costume parties and related events, the risk of these events still continuing during this time is huge.
Risk Assessment
Festivals, Haunted Houses, & Hayrides
Haunted houses and dark scream park attractions everywhere are a huge part of Halloween season! Whether its your local high school putting on a production that fundraises for some cause, or a top-ten professionally produced haunted attraction, people come from all over to get scared and scream it out with their friends during the fall!
Risk Assessment
Halloween activities that include large gatherings and close encounters are definitely risky. However, like the treat bag shift on the Trick-or-Treating front, could there be some things haunted houses and other like events could do to provide entertainment safely this year? If you think about the normal haunted house or hayride experience as it currently stands, there would definitely need to be some major shifts but here’s what makes sense to us:
- Timing Control: Social Distancing can absolutely be achieved if every group that arrives together enters together and if the groups don’t all arrive at the same time.
- Face Coverings: If everyone attending, whether staff or customer, wears appropriate face coverings, this will help to alleviate risk.
- Distancing Enabled: If actors and customers were always 6 feet apart this would greatly reduce the risk involved. Maybe the entertainment could change and actors could scare from behind plexiglass. Anything that makes the experiences less “in your face” will reduce the risk.
- Shift the Process: Hayrides could become more like trails and do away with the hay-covered wagons completely this year. Groups could stick with the group they came with and scares could happen at a distance.
- Extra Cleaning: All businesses have had to adopt strenuous cleaning processes and sanitization techniques this year. Haunted houses and scream parks will be no exception. Attractions like this should look to local officials and local businesses in their area for procedures they can adapt to make their business safe for guests.
Risk Assessment
Updated
Pumpkin Carving
Pumpkin carving began sometime in the 19th century within Ireland. When you have some google killing time, search for the legend of “Stingy Jack”. Irish immigrants came to America and thus the tradition came along with them. Pumpkin carving today is a very common, and popular pastime amongst American families in the fall.
Thankfully, carving pumpkins is something we do at home within our own family units. With that being said, the risks associated with events and public celebrations today do not apply to this activity! Carve on, my friends!
Risk Assessment
Yard Displays & Yard Haunts
Decorating your home for holidays is festive, and fun! Aside from Christmas, Halloween might be one of the most popular times to decorate the homestead! Some folks go “all out” in a Griswold-worthy fashion for this haunting time of year! One great thing about the yard display is it can be appreciated from a distance!
Yard haunts, on the other hand, could offer a risk during this time. Depending on how they operate, they would need to establish social distancing procedures, require face coverings, and use crowd control processes just like any of the larger attractions should do. Not to mention, sanitizing procedures! With all of that being said, if appropriate measures are taken, yard haunts and walk-through displays could still operate safely this year.
Risk Assessment
Bobbing for Apples
Bobbing for apples has been a fall tradition for hundreds of years. Despite its presence at Halloween parties and festivals today, however, its origins are more rooted in love and romance than tricks and treats. In fact, it began as a British courting ritual, popular among young ladies and their potential beaus. Apple Bobbing consists of a basin or pool of some kind, water, and apples. The pools of water are usually offered “community” style with no concern to the amount of mouths dipping in. This year, no matter if you are dating, or looking for another kind of thrill…bobbing for apples is too risky and qualifies as a mega Code Red!
Risk Assessment
Baking Halloween Treats
It just wouldn’t be Halloween without a trick and a few treats. Baking Halloween goodies is a tasty tradition, and one that we can all still participate in, within the safety of our own kitchens! We may be sharing less treats this year, and likely not baking them for parties or get-togethers, but we absolutely can continue to prepare treats, and enjoy them!
Risk Assessment
Scary Movie Madness: Netflix & Kill
Halloween wouldn’t be complete without a horror movie marathon or three! Don’t you just love watching your homicidal favorites go on killing sprees while waiting on those tasty treats to come out of the oven? So do we! The great thing about movie marathons is they are usually enjoyed from the comfort of your own living room. In that respect, you’ve got absolutely no risk! Perhaps we’ll see even more in-home entertainment produced this year! And don’t forget to watch all of your favorite Halloween specials!
Risk Assessment
In Conclusion
“How can we safely and intelligently participate in Halloween activities this year?“
With a few exceptions, Halloween can and should be celebrated. There’s nothing that we need more right now than a taste of normalcy. While adapting and continuing safety measures established during this uncertain time, Halloween can happen and absolutely should happen. There are seasonal activities for this holiday that are too risky. However, many fall activities, with a few major adjustments and shifts, could still continue and offer safe and healthy Halloween entertainment for us all!
