Okay, so why didn’t anybody tell me? Well, I suppose it’s because few people know me. But still, I had to find out about Summerween from the New York Times. Folks, I don’t spend a lot of time online. I work long days and I read books and mow the lawn. I just don’t have time. I wasn’t aware that Summerween was happening. Interestingly, the idea got started from Gravity Falls, an animated television show based on Twin Peaks and The X-Files. I actually watched this show because a couple of young friends, who spend a lot of time online, started showing it to me. I didn’t remember, however, that in one episode the population of Gravity Falls decides to celebrate a second Halloween in the summer. And now internet influencers (I’m more of an unfluencer) are popularizing the holiday.
The need for spooky holidays is encouraging to me. I’ve long been exploring the spirituality of the unexpected, and Summerween has the possibility of contributing to it. According to the New York Times article there’s no set date for the celebration. It’s more of a party aesthetic, but, the story notes, Michaels, the arts and crafts chain, has already caught on and is stocking scary summer decorations. I have long opined (and fifteen years is a lot of daily posting—nearly five-and-a-half thousand of them) that people are afraid. That’s why they run after unlikely political leaders and seek shelter beneath the wings of the Almighty. Horror movies, and Halloween, simply bring this out into the open. And what’s wrong with having a little fun with it along the way?
By the by, if you haven’t checked out Gravity Falls, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s a Disney production and it’s aimed at a younger crowd. That’s one of the disconnects I experience here: Halloween is something younger people love. At work I can’t count the number of people who’ve said (not to me directly, since few speak to me that way) that Halloween is their favorite holiday. I guess you wouldn’t expect to find a kindred spirit among old guys who edit biblical studies, of all people. I venture to guess that any of them would be surprised to learn that someone of my vintage even knows what Gravity Falls or Summerween is. Well, they’d have been right about the latter, had it not been for an article yesterday in the Gray Lady. And what a more adult way to find something out might there be?