Canceling celebrations, he said, would make the holiday “an even more dark and grimly felt time,” because instead of seeking a thrill we know is false, “we’ll be kind of sitting at home, you know, frightened by our own panic attack — the real creeping, insidious virus that never seems to go away.”
He added: “It’s like a horror film. When you think you’ve vanquished Freddy Krueger or whatever monstrous form is out there, they pop up and scare you again.”
It’s not all about spooks and scares, of course: Halloween is big business. Between costumes and decorations and candy — so much candy — a survey by the National Retail Federation estimated that American consumers would spend more than $8 billion on Halloween last year.
“Nationally, the retail industry has counted on Halloween as one of its important sales drivers,” said David Gulley, an economics professor at Bentley University. “While not at the level of end-of-year holiday or back-to-school shopping, Halloween matters. With far fewer parties and trick-or-treating looking very unlikely, this will be yet another blow to the already beleaguered retail sector.”
The National Confectioners Association, a trade group for candy makers, said that while there was no question that Halloween would be different this year, its leaders believed that consumers were holding onto a deeply “rooted optimism for the Halloween season and plan to come up with safe and creative ways to celebrate.”
Christopher Gindlesperger, the association’s senior vice president for public affairs and communications, said earlier this summer that the group had teamed up with two pollsters, Morning Consult and the Harris Poll, to dig into anticipation for what he called their Super Bowl.
The Morning Consult poll, conducted in late July, found that 63 percent of adults believed that people would “find creative, fun and safe ways to celebrate the Halloween season this year,” Mr. Gindlesperger said, and that an additional 25 percent were optimistic “but aren’t sure what to expect just yet.”