AIBU to find this halloe’en display’ offensive?

I have seen half a body apparently emerging from someone’s flower beds with an axe through its skull and blood pouring out of the head. Like others I don’t know when it became au fait to create a gruesome tableau outside the home where all can see it. Halloween is becoming a huge deal, and obviously these tableau’s cost money.
To be honest if small children are taken trick or treating and see some of these hideous scenes I imagine it could keep them up at night.
Is surely more for adults. And that’s another thing why do women celebrating Halloween dress as if they are taking part in role play in the bedroom? Surely that isn’t traditional.

undines, well put.

Totally agree. Sad reflection of how desensitised society has become. I don’t get Halloween at all. Another American excessive waste of resources and time. I won’t be answering the door to trick or treaters.

I think it's horrible and not in the spirit of Halloween, which is Celtic Samhain - an important ancient pagan festival. This is a time to honour the ancestors, to respect the darkness (as the womb of life) to remember the Beloved Dead, to tell stories and have a bit of harmless mischief to cheer up the darkening days. Being subjected to such gruesome images desensitises people to the awful things that happen and make it easier to dismiss atrocities - such as those perpetrated daily in Gaza now. It all becomes just pictures....

Lived in the US a couple of times and seen many similar scenes at Halloween, dislike them intensely, definitely not part of a fun evening for youngsters.

Totally tacky and offensive

I think these black plastic tied up bodies are not just an individual making things for their house I believe they must be on sale as I’ve seen too many hanging around this year
Very poor taste in my opinion

biglouis 😆 good for you.

oreo, I’m with your sentiments.

I can see how many people would be upset by what OP describes. Does not sound very suitable for young children. However but we Liverpudlians are a tough lot and it takes a great deal to scare or intimidate us.

I once had an obscene phone call. I think it was his first one. Scared him so much he rang back later to apologise.

I think the person/people who thought up the PM scenario must have been inspired by the endless police/pathology dramas, involving the murder, usually of women, often sexually assaulted. I find them so tiresome and formulaic, not to mention the feminist aspect. Though there was one recently written by and directed by women..

There was a drama around Jack the Ripper, and another about the Yorkshire Ripper. So prurient, but people enjoy them.

Don’t know how this links in with Halloween, though, and is another topic.

I too dislike these violent, creeepy all-American Halloween displays.

We have our own traditions in Europe and should promote them.

Until the Reformation All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and all Souls' Day - 31.st.Oct. and 1. and 2. November were memorial days to the dead, as they still are in predominantly Catholic countries and in the Catholic church everywhere.

When exactly Americans added all these scary, and now frankly indecent elements, I do not know, but as a teacher I have been increasingly worried by the acceptance of violence in entertainment during the last four decades (at least.)

Children of all ages can accept a certain amount of violence in fairy tales, although many, as I myself did, are revolted by the more violent fairy tales, but even small children know that the world of fairy tales is not identical with ours.

What neither small children, nor teenagers realise readily, is that the violence shown in thrillers, horror movies, or even Jacky Chan films is dangerous. A film hero, be it Bond or Jacky Chan may survive being kicked in the head, blown up etc. but real men and women do not, or at least do not undamaged.

Human life is cheapened by violent acts being shown as entertainment, and this leads to youngsters copying their film heroes. Who would have dreamed when we were school-children that murders would be committed by 12 year olds, or young teens fight with knives ? Only those from the very roughest areas of the very toughest cities. Now these things are happening everywhere.

Is it not time to stop permitting violence as entertainment?

Halloween's absolutely dreadful, a somewhat unpleasant American custom derived from the Scottish "Mischief Night" and then taken to the most unpleasant extremes by our own most unpleasant members of the population who think that their main source of inspiration should be modern gore-ridden horror films. It gets worse and worse each year. I don't play along or take part in any way - I just grumble and hide with the lights off.

No you aren't BU! I'm not at all sure I understand Halloween. We did 'duck apples' and toffee apples and went to church for All Souls. I've read that there is a pagan thing called Samhain, commemorating the souls of the dead - but this modern stuff is plain weird.

Where did the idea come from for this gruesome and macabre display? I would find it very upsetting, particularly in view of all the body bags we see nightly in reports from Gaza and Lebanon.

Oh come on, really?

The whole Halloween thing should be banned in my opinion. Why some adults encourage and promote this with children is beyond me.

I agree the torture side of it should be rated 18+. Went with my daughter to pick my granddaughter up from the childminder. Bearing in mind the child is 13 months, the front window had a sheet projecting ghouls and nubs with bloody tears!
I didn't comment found it inappropriate.
Can't believe I'm so pruddy about it, but to me, totally inappropriate for a childminder.

As someone named Karen I find this Karen Halloween mask (see photo) horrible and some Halloween decorations are in bad taste, but I think dressing up and a few scary spiders can be quite fun.

matters

The whole commercialisation of Halloween is distasteful. People who make fun of serious natters such as the trappings of death are stupid.

I seem to remember that for Halloween we did things like , peeling an apple in one go and throwing peel over your shoulder . See if it landed in shape of your future loves initial. And bobbing for apples . None of today's customs of decorating houses and each other.. we would be too busy building a guy ! And hoping we picked a good spot and a dry night .

DiamondLily

Halloween is an American9 thing. I can’t be bothered with any of it.🙄

It is actually an Irish thing to be accurate.

Witches are one thing this sounds to much .
I saw some children recoil at a shop window display in my local shopping mall .

During a trip to California in September/ October and there were some amazing gardens decorated for Halloween some did include skeletons and imitation graves but they weren’t scary, just amusing. Some of the costumes on sale here are awful and inappropriate.

Back in the 80s, when Hallowe'en was just a few spooky stories, ducking for apples, cobwebs and witches round here, we were in Mauritius one October half term. As entertainment on Hallowe'en for the children, some of the hotel staff dressed up and acted out cutting up a couple of mutilated bodies on hospital trolleys. Blood, intestines, body parts, machetes and evil cackling galore. I have a photo somewhere of children as young as 5 gathered round watching it. I'm thinking they're probably either still in therapy now, or serving time for murder.