I saw some discussion about Halloween at SDC on another thread. So I decided to start a thread to discuss the possibilities of Halloween at SDC. Halloween wasn't celebrated very much in the United States prior to the 20th century. So I don't know if it would even be appropriate for SDC theme-wise. (Whereas most of the Christmas traditions had started taking hold in America in the latter half of the 19th century. Thomas Moore published his famous poem in 1823. So even Santa was already part of the picture.) Perhaps you could do a Halloween theme like "Baldknobbers gone wild!" Take the theme of Fire-in-the-hole and spread across the whole park. Baldknobbers trying to get you, the undertaker chasing you. It could be scary in a fun way. Whaddya think?
The Victorians loved Halloween, so I think it would be very appropriate for SDC. I love all of the Victorian/Edwardian Halloween decorations and think SDC would look great decorated up. If you have ever seen Meet Me in St. Louis you might remember the Halloween segment in that and that is the style I am thinking of. I know a lot of people ask about Halloween in the City!
I prefer SDC going with a celebration of Fall instead of Halloween. Leave Halloween to Worlds of Fun, who does it right. SDC has Christmas.
However, I'd love for them to get a fall concert series going in Echo Hollow during Fall Festival "ROCKtoberfest" anyone? Have some big name Christian groups and even some Rock groups come in and perform on the weekends.
I'm not a big Halloween fan, so I am great with them doing the fall festival.
rocktoberfest? like the echo hollow idea.. but i am a big rock fan. i think there would be too mzny people NOT like the music. I know there are a lot of concerns with MM theme. that might be the time to do concerts.. its just seems hard to bring in rock to the 1880s :-\
I never really thought about how Silver Dollar City never gets into Holloween until this topic came up recently.
I am actually very glad that Silver Dollar City doesn't overwhelm itself with Holloween because Holloween celebrations often end up being so hokey. I think the Harvest Festival is more than adequate for this time of year. Let's save the cheezy Sponge Bob, and Dora the Explorer costumes for Kids Fest. ;)
I suppose if they really wanted to, they could tell "ghost stories" at the ghost trap over there by the old tree house.
I agree that the harvest fest sets the park apart and that Halloween has the potential to get cheesy. That said, I think that SDC would do a great job with it, but it should be limited to one or two weekend nights after 6pm (that's right...keep the park open til 10 on the Friday and Saturday closest to Halloween) This way, those who wanted to enjoy the park and the music without getting frightened could do so.
A friend and I had this discussion and we agreed that Baldknobbers (and perhaps some creepy creatures) would have to be the central theme, as SDC is not gonna stand for ghosts. She also brought up an interesting thought. Do you think that SDC would have a problem with guests dressing up for Halloween? It is obvious that masks and face paint may be restrictions (for identification purposes, in case of an incident). But as long as a costume is "family appropriate" I don't see a problem with it. Any thoughts?
Hmmmmm?? MM lasts 2 weeks............... halloween?? 2 weekends, late nites, rides after dark? maybe..... :-\ what would music them be? ???
As much as I love Journey, Aerosmith, Styx, Bon Jovi, etc. I don't think this would be appropriate. I think you should try to find spooky songs that stick to the theme as much as possible, with only one exception. SDC entertainers (on stage) and guests who wanted to join (off stage) in could dance to "Thriller" at the end of the night.
Absolutley... be a great way to finish an evening and probably would be very funny!!
*Disclaimer: I am not oslamming anyones religon. I am not trying to step on anyones toes. with that said continue please!*
I am NOT saying this is the reason, but my husband and I talked about this before, and maybe the reason for not having a halloween theme is because of the christian roots. I celebrate the holiday with gusto and I am christian, but there are some good christian people out there that frown at it because they feel its the work of the devil. So maybe to keep the offense off.......but then again they have christmas and proudly declare it. Which I believe in. But again that goes back to having christian roots. The whole reason for Christmas is Jesus being born. Maybe I am way off base but those are my thoughts.
Quote from: MissinTheGreenTrams on October 23, 2010, 03:11:43 PM
*Disclaimer: I am not oslamming anyones religon. I am not trying to step on anyones toes. with that said continue please!*
I am NOT saying this is the reason, but my husband and I talked about this before, and maybe the reason for not having a halloween theme is because of the christian roots. I celebrate the holiday with gusto and I am christian, but there are some good christian people out there that frown at it because they feel its the work of the devil. So maybe to keep the offense off.......but then again they have christmas and proudly declare it. Which I believe in. But again that goes back to having christian roots. The whole reason for Christmas is Jesus being born. Maybe I am way off base but those are my thoughts.
It is a shame that there is a need to put a disclaimer with your post, MissinTheGreenTrams. However, I certainly understand your reason for doing so, as some people fly off the handle when it comes to religion.
The historical origin of Halloween, according to Wikipedia:
Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of SamhainWhat it actually means to many Americans is a day to get dressed up, get candy, attend parties, and have a great time, they don't even
think about the origins of it. I am a Christian too, and I celebrate Halloween without thinking of the religious context. Other people have different beliefs and think that it is an evil holiday. Because it conflicts with the owners' beliefs and in order to offend as few people as possible, SDC doesn't celebrate Halloween. This
probably is their rationale. I am not saying that anybody is right or wrong, everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
If they ever
did celebrate Halloween, it would have to be a secular event, focusing on things like history of the Ozarks, Baldknobbers, and scary animals. Even if they limited it to that, I
guarantee that somebody would still be offended because the time of year coincides with Halloween.
Nate well put.
i question the fact that if a family was so strong in their faith, that halloween offends them, would they even go to SDC to begin with.?
Fact is no matter what is done at any given time, somebody will be offended or just wont like it.
Some people may find christian weekend a PUSH for religion?
Some may find kidfest to much playing, not enough learning?
MM- people may not approve of late nites or music?
and so on and so on....
Does anybody know if any of the other Herschend parks do anything with Halloween?
Not real crazy about SDC going big into Halloween. I think the fall festival is just about right. If they put a bunch of extra decorations up for Halloween it might make it tough to get Christmas ready in time. It seems most years SDC is not even open on Halloween and sometimes not even open the few days before it as they are taking down all the fall stuff and getting the last of the Christmas stuff up for opening the first part of November. I must say though a haunted train ride in the dark sounds like it could be fun.
Quote from: U Smell Smoke on October 23, 2010, 08:52:13 PM
If they put a bunch of extra decorations up for Halloween it might make it tough to get Christmas ready in time.
Funny you should mention that. I was at the park a couple of weeks ago, and they were already putting up all the Christmas Lights in the middle of the Harvest Festival. I suppose it takes a long time to put all of those lights up with, or without Halloween decorations.
I wonder how much lights they have to put up? It seems like a lot of the lights are up throughout the whole year. Last time I was there, they even had some of the Christmas lights turned on (maybe testing them)
That must be a tough chore...4 million lights. If one light goes out....they all go out, LOL :)
i was near the opera house last month and looked like several lights had been hung in that area. primarily in and around PK.
Quote from: Nate65807 on October 24, 2010, 12:47:33 AM
I wonder how much lights they have to put up? It seems like a lot of the lights are up throughout the whole year. Last time I was there, they even had some of the Christmas lights turned on (maybe testing them)
That must be a tough chore...4 million lights. If one light goes out....they all go out, LOL :)
Lots and lots and lots of lights go up that week. So many that I HATE putting up Christmas lights around my house... still. >:(
Been there on Halloween, you would not think it is anything but Fall. No sign of any celebrations at all.
If you want to talk about Holidays (holy-days) and pagan practices, many modern holidays and symbols have roots in these same rituals/ practices.
Odd thing my wife and I have noticed, there are no black cats offered in the gift shops. We are Christians, and own a little black kitty, and love figures, decorations etc with the cat on it. We know many things come up around Halloween that are negative, rituals, superstitions etc. When Bummer and Lazarus (the pet store) opened, my mom went in and asked if they had any black cat items, and off the record was told that black cats would rarely be found in the store out of choice by the powers that be.
Something to think about.
Christmas and Easter are both pagan holidays.
'Nuff said.
Christmas and Easter are not pagan Holidays... They are Christian Holidays that the early church put on the same days as pagan holidays. They did this to make it easier to convert pagans.
Just because the origin of something comes from one place, doesn't mean that it can't be evolved to something else.
I'm getting a hamburger at Wendys which has its origins in Hamburg, Germany. I assure you, they won't be giving me steak mixed with breadcrumbs an onions. It will be way cheaper too.
We should be careful to stay on topic. Maybe a religion thread should be created for those who want to debate it, but not me :)
If I had to choose between Halloween at SDC and OTC the way it is, I would choose the Christmas festival hands down.
Also KBCraig and OklaSDCfan are both correct.
Halloween, Christmas, and Easter were all attempts to Christianize Pagan Holidays. All Saints Day was originally held in May, it was moved in the 8th Century by Pope Gregory to correspond with the Celtic festival Samhain and its Roman corollary. The early church followed the Jewish custom of celebrating a holy-day with the start of sundown the previous evening. Thus the night before All Saints Day (AKA All Hallows Day) was called All Hallows Eve, which was shortened to Halloween. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Church door on October 31, 1517, because he knew the church would be gathering for All Hallow's Eve services. Christmas was an even earlier attempt to Christianize the Saturnalia festival. Instead of celebrating the birthday of the sun god on December 25. Christians started celebrating the birthday of the Son of God. The December 25th date for Christmas was actually fixed at the Council of Nicea in 325AD. Prior to that, Christmas was celebrated on January 6. The Eastern Orthodox still celebrate Christmas on January 6. But January 6 is now regarded as the Day of the Epiphany in the Western Church. The Council of Nicea also fixed the date of Easter to be the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. This happened to correspond with the pagan festival of Astarte, the goddes of spring. In the British Isles it was called the festival of Eostra. According to the Venerable Bede (10th Century AD), on the day of the Vernal Equinox a sacred rabbit comes into the land and lays a sacred egg (No Cadbury didn't make that up!). Out of the sacred egg the goddess of fertility/spring, Eostra, is hatched. When the goddess hatches from the egg, she ascends to the sky, hovers over the fields until harvest, then dies with the harvest, and is reborn again in the spring by the same process. The word "Easter" is actually the name for the festival of Eostra, as it is a variation of her name. Thus all three holidays were attempts to Christianize pagan holidays, obviously it worked pretty well with Christmas and Easter, but not so much for Halloween. But I still celebrate all three.
Looks like they have 95% lights up now.. looks like 4,000,000 lights!!! and maybe 8,000,000 staples! lol ;D saw the lighted figures laying down in grass around the train track, and train is all decked out and ready. So they will be ready to flip the switch in 2 weeks..
And as far as the halloween thing, we relate pumpkins, scaregrows, stalks of corn and so on to the holiday, and of course there are plenty of these on display now for fall festival.. pretty close now to halloween///
post from Facebook...Branson Landing
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Quote from: sanddunerider on October 24, 2010, 09:30:01 PM
Looks like they have 95% lights up now.. looks like 4,000,000 lights!!! and maybe 8,000,000 staples! lol ;D saw the lighted figures laying down in grass around the train track, and train is all decked out and ready. So they will be ready to flip the switch in 2 weeks..
I wonder if they have ever thought about leaving the strings of lights up year round on the buildings? It seems like it would eliminate a lot of work and a lot of wear and tear on the buildings. If they didn't have the lights turned on, would anybody even notice that they were still up? Don't they start working on the lights sometime in August? So some of them are up almost half the season already......I know this going off topic, sorry!
^Yes, it's always noticeable when the lights are left up, and it looks tacky. They do need to invent a better system though. The train station looked pretty bad the last time I looked at it because of all the holes from years of stapling lights into it. I'm sure many of the other buildings are in the same way.
why staple the llights on the train??? with all the options of clips that are available and the amount they would need they could get a discount, I think 3M puts them out.......they stick to the surface and you pull a tab and it comes rights off......no muss no fuss. They could do a trial on a similar surface sometime throughout the year. Ya know soak it down with water check for cold temps and ice to see how it stands up.
Quote from: shavethewhales on October 31, 2010, 05:14:36 PM
^Yes, it's always noticeable when the lights are left up, and it looks tacky. They do need to invent a better system though. The train station looked pretty bad the last time I looked at it because of all the holes from years of stapling lights into it. I'm sure many of the other buildings are in the same way.
I know it sounds quirky, but that has always been a huge concern of mine. As much as we all enjoy the millions of pretty Christmas lights, at what cost? Every structure in Silver Dollar City is riddled with holes from the mounting each year. They do need to find an alternative to the traditional staples, but let's face it, nothing so far has worked so well at holding the lights on tight.
Maybe this will help with the Christmas sprit. I work for an electrical contractor and there are two more guys that work here that are also SDC nuts, so with left over parts and some bought lights this is what we came up with. This in the back of our shop at work. Hope ya'll enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HghS6K424WM
well done!! :o ;D
Isn't there a Christmas thread on which to post all these thoughts?
I want to know how to do that my self.
:o
Truckman66--How did you do that!!!
Quote from: History Buff on November 03, 2010, 02:04:23 PM
Isn't there a Christmas thread on which to post all these thoughts?
This thread has derailed further of track than the infamous train crash on the Frisco Scenic Railway! ;D
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustinholmes/2351693978/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustinholmes/2351693978/)
I'm just teasing. So... Halloween was nice this year. :)
yes it was. But Halloween is over for another year. I am ready for....... oh wait, nevermind. that is another topic..lol