COVID-19 Halloween: Trickier than treats this year
Tyler Vallano with his son, who donned a duck costume last Halloween for a gathering at the Peters Township Public Library.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
The Grim Reaper on East Beau Street in East Washington last year stood in brilliant sunshine, but perhaps he foreshadowed what was to come in 2020.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
The Castle Blood haunted house attraction in Monessen
One pedestrian said to another, “I feel like Halloween.”
It was April, and her comment was prompted by their masks – not the fun kind that accessorize a costume, but the utilitarian cloth swath to guard against the highly contagious novel coronavirus.
Fourth of July weekend ended, and it seemed that Halloween candy and decorations suddenly replaced red, white and blue on store shelves.
As Oct. 31 approaches, some seasonal celebrations are disappearing faster than salad bars. Others are hanging in there like bats in a cave, while the fate of still others hangs in the balance.
Tyler Vallano, a vice president at Hefren-Tillotson wealth management in Southpointe, Cecil Township, said in a phone interview about an eerie COVID-19 Halloween: “No doubt there’s going to be some economic impact, but I don’t think it’s going to be at a scale that’s going to significantly affect the economy.”
Vallano cited a Yahoo News article quoting Tom Arnold, a professor of finance at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, Va., who said Halloween is “the holiday that comes second after Christmas as far as spending goes.
“I don’t think it would be wrong to predict that spending gets cut in half, at a minimum.”
The article went on to state that Halloween spending in the U.S. was estimated to top $8.8 billion last year, the third-highest amount in the 15-year history of the National Retail Federation’s annual survey about sales of costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards.
“What will municipalities do?” Vallano speculated about an alternative to passing out treats: “Maybe put a basket of candy outside?”
Halloween grew so big thanks to marketing wizardry aimed squarely at not just little warlocks and werewolves, but at adults.
One guy who thrives on Halloween is Alec “Ricky” Dick, the lord of Castle Blood, 100 Schoonmaker Ave., Monessen. Looking forward to the arrival of October, he said his drawbridge will be “open 100% unless everything changes in a month.
“We’ve been desperate since April hoping we could do it, loving what we do and loving our customers.”
Cast members, who allegedly all live at Castle Blood, are eager to suit up and scare, but all involved realize this year will be different.
They and Dick are expecting to see his visiting subjects in “100% masks, or please don’t come. They need to be wearing a medical mask, not a Power Rangers mask.
“We really worry about everyone’s safety.”
This year marks the 28th season for Castle Blood, and Dick, taking time from a painting project, promised his Oddities Museum “will be in a new place and twice as big.”
Castle Blood has scaled back hours a bit, but plans to be open the first weekend in October from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Sundays and featuring, during the last two Sundays in October, gentler no-scare family matinees from 2 to 4 p.m.
What does he expect to be the most popular costume this Halloween?
“Plague doctor,” he said of the darkly caped, top-hatted character wearing goggles and a long, bird-like beak, where incense and herbs were stashed to ward off bubonic vapors during epidemics.
If communities shun trick-or-treat this year, “This may be their only chance” to go Halloweening, Dick said of tours inside his ghastly abode.
Neighboring Rostraver Township has actually added a new holiday activity: a goblin hunt at 1 p.m. Oct. 31 at the DiVirgilio Sports Complex, followed by trick-or-treat from 3 to 6 p.m. that day.
Last year, Halloween night was a Thursday night washout in many places, but this year, Oct. 31 falls on a Saturday, which would normally be prime time for both child-centered and adult celebrations.
Dennis Makel, solicitor for several municipalities in Washington County, said the pandemic raises the possibility of spine-chilling consequences from community-sponsored trick-or-treating.
“A kid becomes infected with this virus,” he explained. “There’s a liability issue. Who are they going to sue? They’re going to sue the municipality.”
In Canonsburg, which canceled its Octoberfest, Mayor David Rhome said the borough’s decision on trick-or-treat “is still under discussion.”
Likewise, in Peters Township, trick-or treat “has become a topic for a lot of municipalities,” said Manager Paul Lauer, who expects council to take up the matter.
The Haunted Trail at Peters’ Arrowhead, which drew 2,300 in 2019, has vanished into thin air this year.
Rather than a haunting experience that would be a ghost of itself, recreation director Michelle Harmel said the decision was made to cancel, noting state Department of Health regulations would make it impossible to accommodate potential participants and expect the little hobgoblins to remain socially distant.
“We couldn’t figure out a way,” she said.
Peters Township recreation department-sponsored daytime trunk-or-treat will take place for younger children with a date and time to be announced.
Canton Township also has a trunk-or-treat scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Halloween at Jefferson Avenue Park, and supervisors unanimously approved door-to-door trick-or-treating for 6 to 7:30 p.m. for the same day, Oct. 31.
If trick-or-treating no longer seems like a walk in the park, imagine the concerns for an actual park.
Kennywood Park’s Phantom Fright Nights were a regional destination that gave up the ghost this year.
“Rather than operating through fall and winter, we decided to end our season on Labor Day due to uncertainty about how COVID-19 may impact business as the seasons change,” wrote park spokesman Nick Paradise in response to an email inquiry.
“This has been a challenging period for everyone, us included, and we determined it was best to finish our season on a high note on Labor Day, as Kennywood did for its first century of operations.
“We look forward to better circumstances in 2021 more resembling previous years. Halloween remains a big part of our plans for next year and future seasons.”
Amusement parks capitalizing on Halloween may be a relatively recent trend, but a specter of ghoulishness from pandemics past was also making the rounds on Twitter.
An image of a 102-year-old clipping from the Latrobe Bulletin not only reported on the cancellation of trick-or-treat due to concerns about spreading influenza, but also appealed to revelers not to carve thousands of jack-o-lanterns, bob for apples or decorate with stalks containing ears of corn.
The reason for saving fruits, squash and kernels?
Fear of food shortages.