Poll finds Hallowe’en losing popularity
The spirit of Hallowe’en has been exorcised, a survey has revealed.
For more than half the people polled said the trick-or-treat tradition is less popular than it was when they were a child.
Fewer than one in five adults will be wearing costumes tonight as the island marks the night of pumpkins, candy treats, ghouls and goblins.
Just 13 per cent of people told pollsters they thought trick-or-treat was more popular than when they were a child, compared to 57 per cent who said it had declined in popularity. The remaining 30 per cent believed it had not changed.
Only 18 per cent of adults said they would wear a costume compared with 82 per cent of people who said they would not.
Among the Hallowe’en believers are Jamahl Simmons, the Minister without Portfolio, and his wife, Sherri.
Mr Simmons said: “Hallowe’en has always been special to my wife and me for all the wonderful experiences we shared with our sons throughout their youth. Now that they are too big for Hallowe’en, we have over the past four years dressed up as superheroes to hand out candy to the little trick-or-treaters of Constituency 33 [Sandys South].”
He added: “We love it, and we are told many of the children — and their parents — look forward to seeing what we will dress up as each year.”
The poll was carried out by Global Research between last Thursday and Monday.
A breakdown by age showed just 6 per cent of people aged 65 or older will wear costume, compared with 25 per cent of people aged between 18 and 44.
And 22 per cent of women will dress up, compared with 13 per cent of men.
Witches and black cats were the top choice of costume, followed by clowns, Batman’s The Joker character and Marvel superheroes.
Other costumes to hit the streets tonight will include Donald Trump, Elvis Presley, children’s book character Pippi Longstocking and a gumball machine.
The telephone poll of 401 Bermuda residents was carried out between October 24 and 28 and had a margin of error of +/-4.9 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.
• To see the results in full, click on the PDF under “Related Media”