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Economics of death – and Halloween consumption

Photo of a pumpkin and dollar bills
According to Svensk Handel, the interest from the retail industry when it comes to Halloween is at an all time high. Photo: iStock

Candy heaven or candy hell? Halloween consumption has gone rampant since we imported this tradition from the United States, and is expected to reach 1,6 billion SEK in 2024.

In Sweden we used to just go to graveyards on All Hallows Eve and light candles in memory of loved ones that have passed, but starting in the 1990’s it has become a spectacle, with costumes, parties, ghostly decorations and trick or treats for the kids. 

According to Svensk Handel, the interest from the retail industry is at an all time high. In the grocery trade a full 63 percent plan to invest in specific Halloween promotions, a significant increase from last year’s 38 percent.

“I have noted a significant increase in the interest of death consumption over the last years and it seems to have started at the turn of the century,” says Sofia Ulver, Associate Professor in Marketing at LUSEM, who focuses her research on consumption.

We might react and cope in different ways after the loss of someone dear to us, but someone near the newly deceased has to have the funeral arranged, there might be a larger or smaller inheritance to divide and in most cultures there are subsequent recurring traditions of honoring and remembering them. Halloween would fall into this last category, even though most kids asking for candy at a stranger’s door, hardly think of their actual dead. The macabre, the props and the pumpkins are just fun and ambient, right? Right, but especially if the loss is recent, we might be a bit off balance, frail and vulnerable. 

More pessimistic about the future

Enter a full industry that caters to all kinds of needs, actual or perceived, connected to our mourning and wishes to honor the deceased.

“In many cases the consumption does not relate to the death of someone close to us, but I see an increase in revisits to the past in retail as well as in tourism, maybe because we are more pessimistic about the future,” says Sofia Ulver. 

Still, if someone would say that Halloween is going overboard with spending, history is rife with evidence to suggest that what we do now is no more than a shallow breeze compared to rampant excesses in history.

Ancient Egyptians were practically obsessed with the afterlife. Mummification, buried treasures, the Valley of the Kings, and at the top of the eternal food chain of the dead, the pyramids of course.

Ancient Greeks put coins on the eyelids of the dead to pay Charon who ferries them over the river Acheron to the afterlife. The higher ones social rank, the more costly the burial, with precious objects, sacrifices, criers and sometimes sporting events and competitions held in their honor and to appease the gods. Romans took it further with gladiator games.

These kinds of costly traditions seem to have lived on in Christian times. Tombstones and mausoleums or grand statues erected in memory of important people, lavish donations to churches or monasteries to pay for a swifter way through purgatory and, of course the whole relics trade, now that is a truly blatant form of death commerce.

“A death industry driven by commerce”

“In modern times,” Sofia Ulver explains, “the death industry is more driven by commerce rather than the centralized ways of old times, where the church and the state were the main stakeholders. This has changed everything from a perspective where religious communities leveraged people's religious belief to a secularly driven business that capitalizes financially through traditions and symbols for our amusement and consumption.”

Consumption has obviously increased, as Sofia describes, but with the historical examples in mind our modern ways of celebrating Halloween still seem pretty mild. Even if we were to stuff ourselves to bursting with candy and pumpkin pies, go completely bonkers with decorations and attend five costume parties every year, we will not be anywhere near the historical expenses just mentioned.

In conclusion, we hope you treat yourselves to a happy Halloween.