In 2013 Use this guide to Create your Halloween Lions share of the Cash Bonanza that is Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of “All Hallows’ Evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints) and the day initiating the triduum of Hallowmas.
According to many scholars, All Hallows’ Eve is a Christianised feast originally influenced by western European harvest festivals, and festivals of the dead with possible pagan roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.
Hundreds of years later, the Christians spread their influence in to areas occupied by the Celts and the Romans. The Catholic Church were not fans of holidays celebrated by any Pagan group. To deal with this issue, the Catholic Church started the All Saints Day to commemorate the dead; which is a lot like Samhain. All Saints day originally was on the 13th of May, until 835 A.D. when Pope Gregory IV moved All Saints Day to November 1st, which is the same day as Samhain. The whole time the Catholic Church planned to replace Samhain with a similar but slightly different holiday in God’s name. All Saints day was also known as All Hallows or All Hallowmas. In Old English, Hallowmas means All Saints Day. Samhain was still being practiced even though the Christians had All Saints Day; Samhain took place on October 31st so it was also called All Hallows Eve, then it was later called Halloween.
Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (also known as “guising”), attending costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
Halloween is not just for fun. It adds billions of dollars to the economy. And if early projections come true, then Halloween 2012 will be the biggest ever. That is good news for just about everyone tied to retail. 24/7 Wall St. has analyzed various economic and industry forecasts around Halloween and the raw dollar figure is massive. The $8 billion widely used by the media is a gross understatement. By our calculation, the revenue Halloween adds to gross domestic product is more than $10 billion.
Halloween costumes are the biggest seller and when it comes to finding that perfect costume for your party or even for your kids, there is no lack of money they will be spent. Let’s take a look at a few stats from 2011 Halloween spending.
2013 Halloween Season
What an Average American Will Spend on Halloween in 2012
• Halloween Costumes: $28.65
• Halloween Candy: $23.27
• Decorations: $23.56
• Greeting Cards: $4.34
Obviously the best way to make money with Halloween is through the promotion of Halloween costumes. You can open up your own site to drop ship and sell your own merchandise, or even hook up with a franchise and open shop with your own retail store in your area (these always do well). If you were to ask me, I would much prefer to simply be an affiliate of an online Halloween costume store! This means you just need to send customers to their site and you will earn a nice commission on every sale… with no annoying purchases, rent costs or inventory to manage!
In the United States, Halloween was not originally celebrated that often since it was predominantly a Catholic holiday and most of the Americans were Protestant people. Later on in the United States history, more Catholics came to America and brought some of their Halloween traditions with them. It was mainly the funnier traditions that were brought over, as opposed to the dreary and superstitious traditions of the past. Over time, Halloween became a secular holiday, but the traditions have transferred over to modern times to produce a night that is fun for all ages.
