No Costume No Candy

I don't know about you but every Halloween I spend many hours designing and building my yard haunt. I only have it up for one night so setup starts a day or two before with a tear down of all the valuable elements that Halloween night!

I invest the dollars and hours to do this because I enjoy Halloween and I have a lot of fun creating a spooky environment for kids and adults to visit.

But I do have one small issue with all of this: It really bugs me that after putting in the effort to create a spooky environment, that kids and teens will show up without a costume, asking for treats. Sorry - it doesn't and shouldn't work that way.

How about showing some appreciation for what I (and others) have done by putting an effort into your Halloween costume. Half the fun of the night is seeing all the costumes! I don't care how old you are, if you are wearing a costume then you can get treats. However, if you show up at my haunt without any costume, just trying to capitalize on the spirit of the occasion, well I am afraid we have a rule at my haunt: No Costume, No Candy, No Exceptions!

With weeks, if not the entire year, to prepare your costume, there is no excuse not to have one. Some would argue that there are people whot can't afford one - true, but it does not require very much money to make a costume: An old sheet over your head and you are a ghost, some old tattered, dirty clothes and you are a zombie or a Hobo. A little resourcefulness combined with imagination and a commitment and everyone can have a costume.

So if you plan to Trick or Treat in New Westminster, and you come by my yard haunt, you better be in costume otherwise you could miss out on a real treat...

My Facebook Event Group Rights

I received a Facebook message today from someone claiming to be an Administrative Assistant with the Public Dreams Society (henceforth referred to as PDS) , the people who bring you the Parade of Lost Souls.

Now this person is requesting that I turn over administrative rights to my Facebook Event group that I created a couple of months ago title 'Parade of Lost Souls 2008'. And if I don't turn over administrative rights, she may insist that I delete this event group.

Well first of all, this person did not include any official PDS contact information nor is there any mention of her on their website. Therefore, based on her justifications and the content of her Facebook message to me, I am not, at this point, going to blindly turn over any administrative rights and certainly not to a stranger ... I am sure you can understand the reasoning.

Now my feelings regarding this matter is simple: There is nothing on the PDS website that prohibits, limits, or governs the use of the event name or logo, at least none that I could find.

Secondly, I am well within my Facebook rights to create this event group because it promotes a public event by providing accurate event information. I am not fraudulently taking credit for producing the event or claiming to be part of PDS in any capacity. Nor is their logo being used for any commercial purposes other then adding brand credibility to the event group and bringing it directly to their target audience.

Hey! This is the second year I have created a Parade of Lost Souls event group - where was their concern last year? :)

I promote their event on my website, Vancouver's # 1 online Halloween destination, http://www.vancouverhalloween.com/ and have done so for several years but does this also mean I have to turn over administrative rights to my website? I think not.

Let me state here that I see no legal justification as to why I should turn over any administrative rights. However, she can mail me a written formal request on Public Dreams Society letter head, requesting that I not start a Parade of Lost Souls Facebook event group next year so that PDS can start one and control it. PDS can request my mailing address via the contact page of my website.

In addition, I am willing remove their logo from my event group image if they insist. Regretfully, the Facebook interface does not allow me to edit the event title otherwise I would consider accommodating that request too.

Finally, deleting this event is out of the question. Any forceful attempts by her to do so would only result in unwanted and unnecessary negative publicity that could possibly evolve into a public relations nightmare for PDS.

I expect to have over 100,000 page views on my website this month... and I don't think PDS would want all those Halloween enthusiasts and Facebook event group members reading how I tried to promote their event as the best in Vancouver only to have the Public Dreams Society force me to delete the Facebook Event Group because they wanted to control something they didn't have the initiative to start in the first place... please, I don't want to go down this path. Wait a minute! I think I might just have... :P

In closing, with only three weeks to go until the event date, I think it best we just leave things the way they are and next year they can do all the Facebook event promoting they want.

2008 CANDY WARNING

As many of you know, a Chinese milk company has used the industrial chemical Melamine which has now been associated with contaminated infant formula and other Chinese products containing milk protein.

Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure: Infants are particularly vulnerable. The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children in China and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.

Recently Chinese candy contaminated with Melamine has been found in White Rabbit Creamy Candy sold in California and Connecticut. No such products have been discovered in Canada has of yet.

However, just to be safe, Vancouver Halloween advises all consumers to avoid purchasing any candy manufactured in China containing milk products.

Please verify all Halloween candy products prior to purchasing them and notify your local health authorities should you find any candy manufactured in China containing milk products.

Wishing you all a safe and Spooky Halloween!

HALLOWEEN IS COMING TO TOWN!

Yes, in less then three months, Vancouver (and most of North America) will be celebrating Halloween and seeing as October 31st falls on a Friday, we can expect Halloween parties to be held in a variety of venues throughout the weekend! I personally love it when Halloween falls mid-week because no one will question why I am wearing a creepy costume of one sort or another for the entire week...

Throughout the city, Haunted Attractions will pop-up to lure us into their evil shadows in the name of charity and many people will spend hundreds of dollars and countless hours to transform their homes and their yards with all sorts of delightfully frightful decorations designed to frighten us. Adults and kiddies will dress up in all kinds of costumes as they attend many different events and parties. Then of course, on the big night itself, we will encourage our children to go door-to-door accepting candies from strangers in the name of Tradition: What a peculiar tradition indeed!

The irony of all this behavior this time of year is that most of us have absolutely no clue as to why we do this! Why do we do it? Are we cattle driven by retail and commercial influences? Do most of us have a suppressed sweet tooth that pushes us to send our kids on a dangerous candy collecting mission? Or is it some latent, dark desire to parade around in public as a drunken evil vampire cowboy pig?

Whatever the reason, we should take some time to educate ourselves and understand meaning of Halloween and to share that meaning with our children so that their lives will become richer with 'tradition' and not just sugar.