Halloween 2009 History and Online Sale Guide
Halloween is the night of ghosts. The origin of Halloween can be traced 2,000 years back to Ireland. Now it is celebrated in many countries like Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. The games and activities are varied in the different countries. Of the various games there is bonfires, costume parties, ghost tours, “haunted house” tours, carving pumpkins and a lot more.
History of Halloween
The Celtic festival of Samhain later evolved to be called as Halloween. Gaelic culture believes that with the end of the harvest season the boundary between the dead and living no longer existed. The dead started giving problems to the living by means of damaged crops and sickness like plague. The celebration of Samhain had bonfires on which the bones of the slaughtered animals were thrown. The masks and costumes were worn to ape the evil spirits or pacify them.
With the advent of Christianity the history of Halloween was changed. The day of 31st October when the Samhain festival was celebrated was altered to November 1st. The Christians celebrated it as All Souls Day. The eve of 31st October was known as All-Hallows Eve and it later changed to Halloween.
The costumes of Celtic Tradition still remained. People still wear masks to disguise themselves as ghosts. The trendy costumes of ghosts and witches have become very popular today too.
Sales during Halloween
The sales during Halloween are pretty high that some retailers find it hard to keep up the demand. There is more demand for items like moving gravestones and foam molded Draculas.
Boost in sales is also seen in much expensive stuff like patio and pool furnishing which are priced over $250. The manufacturers and retailers are very much overjoyed with this boost of sales which earlier saw a sluggish period.
Normally the sales in high in the costumes, spooky stuff and decorations items which are a rare treat during Halloween. You can see many items made especially for Halloween like spider web shaped lights, moving gravestones, foam Draculas with blinking eyes, gunslingers and the like.
The biggest retailer in the world – Wal-Mart Stores is promoting outdoor Halloween decorations this year. Spend this year is on inflatable pumpkins of 8 foot height and cauldrons. With Halloween becoming popular and dominant with each passing year the sales is rivaling with secondary and to-school holidays.
Each year a normal household is likely to spend almost $44 on each child for Halloween. The National spending is estimated to be around $7 billion which is very less when compared to $201 billion spent for Christmas.
The gross margin for retailers during Halloween is very high so the retailers generally tend to store the leftovers of this year for the next year. They do not mind the cost of storing leftover inventory.
The popular costumes during Halloween are Josier and the Pussycats, Batman, Spiderman the Power Rangers. Some characters from television comedy have also found new popularity in costumes. The sales of Halloween costumes have increased at Walmart. Masks have also become a popular selling item.
At Wal-Mart, SpongeBob Square Pants tops costume sales this year, Williams said. Scooby-Doo and plush animal costumes are also selling well, along with the police, firefighter and Spiderman costumes.
The other item that is brisk is candy sales. Many food companies have recorded the best sales during Halloween especially for products like Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey Miniatures, Almond Joy and Kit Kat.
Halloween, the season to celebrate! So let’s celebrate it in style.
