The days are getting shorter. There is a chill in the air. Darkness is encroaching. Our primal fears of the coming deadly winter need to be expressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is what Halloween is all about, after all\u2014a festival of death, a celebration of decay, a much-needed annual reckoning with the fact that like the drying grass and the falling leaves, we will not live forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of us understand that we will cease to exist: ashes to ashes dust to dust etc. But others are really not getting that. You can tell who’s who based on the Halloween decor on display.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What follows is NOT an evaluation of Halloween decorations based on the traditional metrics of “effort,” “creativity,” and “spookiness.” I have not even considered logistical challenges such as year-round storage. You won’t see a single carved pumpkin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, whether you like it or not, by decorating your stoop, you have opted into a citywide dialogue about what happens when you die.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In ranking the following decorations adorning homes in Brooklyn, I am weighing the complimentary attributes of whimsy and horror, to derive how much (or indeed, if at all!) the decorators grasp their own mortality. <\/p>\n
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