by Ian Sturak
Across the world, the holidays have become synonymous with seeing houses dressed up in decor, pleasant and seasonal. Christmas is adorned in festive lights shining in hues of red and green, accompanied by jolly decorations of candy canes and extravagant depictions of Santa Claus. Over the Fourth of July, a fierce sense of American patriotism leads many houses to be covered in flags and patterns of red, white, and blue to be chalked all over sidewalks.
But the holiday that most inspires feverish embellishment is the one now upon us. Halloween, almost here, inspires decorations on a level contested only maybe by Christmas - and even then, the inspired content of the decor almost certainly hands the victory to Halloween.
Spiderwebs with their accompanying arachnids, gravestones with their ghosts and spirits, and cauldrons of dry ice with their grotesque hags and witches all adorn yards, haunting children as they make their way up to house after house to ask for candy.
And that’s not even to mention jack o’ lanterns - an Irish derived tradition that has evolved into seemingly every house completing their front doorsteps with carved pumpkins, a wicked light illuminating sometimes painstakingly detailed faces. Appearing in droves, they’re a staple of every house on Halloween day.
The wave of neighborhood spirit seems to show that decoration on Halloween is a necessity - but how early to decorate is always a date of contention.
Halloween is always October 31st, so at first glance, decoration at the beginning of October seems like a safe idea. Thirty-one days for decorations to stay up seems like a fair amount of time for the entire neighborhood to admire one’s festivity. Additionally, your decorations aren’t in much danger of being damaged. The tourist website for La Jolla reports San Diego as just getting one day of rain a month in October. WeatherSpark reports San Diego as receiving just 0.6 inches of rain the entirety of October, and having only a 4% chance of rain the first day of October - which raises to a 7% chance of rain by the end of the month. In short - your Halloween decorations aren’t likely to be ruined. Except for maybe large spider webs stretched across front lawns and anything electronic, which can seem a bit obnoxious if used before Halloween night anyways, one day of rain isn’t likely to damage anything.
In the end, it comes down to when you’d like to decorate. Before October isn’t advisable, and those who participate in the Bavarian celebration of Oktoberfest might wait until after the first Sunday of October so as to not step on the event’s toes, but otherwise, October is truly yours to decorate your house as you wish.