This article has been updated with new information.
Can we just do away with this whole pretense that Halloween is on the last day of October? It has pretty much become an every-day-in-October holiday. And with early birds putting their inflatable ghosts, corn-stalk-stuffed scarecrows and bigger-than-life-sized skeletons on their lawns as soon as the post-Labor Day cool breezes arrive, Halloween is now more or less one sprawling fall festival.
Sure, there’s the risk of overdosing on scary stuff when it lasts half the season. A big upside is that arts-and-entertainment events turn just a little darker. With the days taking that exact same turn away from the light, the confluence of the atmospheric and artistic shadows creates its own evocative magic…