AMERICANS take their Hallowe'en seriously. A walk around a typical suburban estate reveals an amazing array of pumpkins, skulls, scarecrows, banners and of course witches in front gardens. Owners of black cats are warned to keep them indoors lest they be press-ganged into service.
For old as well as young it is a great excuse for dressing up, and this is good for the costume merchants. Hallowe'en is the most lucrative festival for outfitters and stores outside Christmas.
Where once the moms spent hours sewing the costumes together, now they are out working and it is the costume companies which are cashing in. Rubie's Costume Co in New York expected to sell 10 million outfits this Hallowe'en. Americans have spent an estimated $2 billion on costumes, decorations and candy this year.
The Irish Times did not dress up but did the next best thing by watching the traditional Hallowe'en high heel "drag race" near Dupont Circle. The costumes were fantastic, but even more weird was the sight of several hundred men in everything from bikinis to crinolines and four-inch spike heels racing along 17th Street.
"This is great fun," said a resident. "Washington is such a conservative place. Normally, all you see are ties. I wish it were like this every month."
But in the suburbs, parents who once played around bonfires in their yards and did the rounds of the neighbours to collect candy and fruit for their children, have now moved Hallowe'en largely indoors for fear of attacks. Now it has become a nation-wide fancy dress competition, with parents shelling out up to 100 for costumes.
The pagan aspect of Hallowe'en lingers in the rituals of masks and costumes. This causes alarm for the religious right. The Rev Pat Robertson, founder of the influential Christian Coalition, denounced Hallowe'en back in 1982 as a "Satanic ritual" and many saw this as a call for a boycott.
Massachusetts politicians passed a law banning "solicitation of food, gifts or other items after sunset under the so-called `trick or treat' custom". But so strong was the reaction that the law was quickly reversed. But the Satanic aura clings to the festival which is traced back to the Celtic Samhain celebration.
Some preachers exploit Hallowe'en to save terrified souls through visits to "Hell Houses". The Rev Keenan Roberts, a youth pastor in Arvada, Colorado, has been having success with his Hell House, where he frightens the life out of young visitors.
For $6 they are given a tour by a "demon guide" around rooms in which a homosexual who died of AIDS, played by an actor, lies in a coffin, and "abortionists" operate on a young woman while the demon screams that all this is the result of sin. While burning cheese gives off a foul odour, "Satan" chants: "I put the boy in the casket. I killed the unborn
The tour passes through the drunk-driving and teen-suicide rooms before ending in the room called "Heaven" where there is soft lighting and music and "God" calls out: "I so loved you that I gave my only begotten son."
These "Hell Houses" have spread in the US and have aroused protests and pickets. But Pastor Roberts insists they serve their purpose in scaring young people back to the paths of righteousness. Out of 4,500 visitors in the weeks around Hallowe'en, 510 signed cards proclaiming: "Tonight I have asked Jesus Christ into my life for the very first time."
Pastor Roberts defends using Hallowe'en to spread the message of salvation through fear. His fliers boast of the "Hell Houses" as the most "in your face, high flyin', no denyin', death-defyin', Satan be-cryin', keep-ya-from-fryin', no holds barred, cutting-edge evangelism tool of the `90s".
The pastor says he is "simply capitalising, for the sake of the kingdom of God, on the average American's interest in this type of seasonal attraction".
In the Washington area there are about a dozen witches covens which celebrated Samhain, as they call Hallowe'en. For witches, Samhain is the most sacred night and commemorates the last day of the Celtic year.
Members of the Dark Flame coven interviewed by the Washington Post deny they dabble in the occult or are Satanists. Covens "share a belief in the interconnectedness of humanity and the universe" and are "polytheistic and nature-centred".
There are now pagan and witchcraft sites on the Internet and holiday packages for pagans. One is "an Irish tour of Celtic and neolithic sites, which will include a visit to Lady Olivia Robertson, high priestess of Isis in her castle in Clonegal".
It all seems a long way from the suits and ties of downtown Washington.