Akademik

(fawl.oh.WEEN)

n.

An extended celebration or observance of Halloween, often beginning several weeks before the day; the retail season that extends from the beginning of fall through Halloween and Thanksgiving in the U.S..

Americans will spend about $ 6.9 billion on Halloween this year $ 2 billion on candy alone, an extra $ 1.5 billion on costumes and much of the rest on decorations and doodads. Don't get me started on outfits for pets or the move to extend the holiday into an event that runs for a whole season so that it becomes — you'll love this — "Falloween." Only Christmas gets consumers dipping into their pocketbooks with such happy abandon. Stretch Halloween over the whole of October, and it may soon race into first place in the waste-your-money-on-trash stakes.

— Michael Elliot, "Boo, Humbug!," Time Magazine, October 27, 2003

Halloween now is second only to Christmas in dollars spent nationwide. Three numbers tell the tale: In 1993, we spent $2 billion on Halloween candy, costumes and decorations. Five years later, $4 billion. This year, an expected $7.6 billion.

In fact, the Consumer Trends Institute recently coined the word "Falloween" to describe how the decorations we once put up for one night of trick-or-treating have edged away from ghosts and goblins in pursuit of a more seasonal lifespan. Thus, the sight of front porches bedecked with bales of hay and garlands of golden leaves from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

— Kim Ode, "Christmas? Already?," Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), October 19, 2003

Chris Riddle, creative director at American Greetings, studies holiday popular culture and design trends all year-round. He predicts a kinder, gentler version of Halloween for children, an incorporation of more patriotic decorating elements and continued interest in adult costume parties. ...

A phenomenon he calls "Falloween" will also come into play in a bigger way this year. "Over the past several years, we've seen a move toward a longer observance of Halloween, particularly when it comes to decorating," he said.

— "Halloween Expert Predicts Kinder, Gentler Halloween Observance This Year," Business Wire, October 21, 2001

The C.H. Mason Christian Academy is offering a safe alternative for its students and other children in the community. Falloween is an annual fall carnival held by the academy.

— Lisa Farmer, "Eastside Preachers to Condemn Crime," The Daily Oklahoman, October 14, 1985

This term unites the words fall and Halloween to recognize the lengths to which many people now go to celebrate the latter. (I think most people know the origin of Halloween. Just in case, it was originally Hallow-e'en or Hallowe'en, a contraction of All-Hallow-Even, the night before All Hallows Day — now All Saints Day — which is November 1.) If you saw houses bedecked with pumpkins and skulls and cobwebs a couple of weeks ago, then you know those people are fully immersed in the Falloween thing.