News Production Unit - Initial ideas and research

After we got into our groups, our team decided to sit down and brainstorm ideas. after an initial few I started to think about something that was relevant to what was going on at this present time and I suggested to the group that we could focus on Halloween. Its relevant and its interesting as well as something that we can participate in to allow the audience to follow with us.

Where halloween began:
The first signs of people celebrating halloween can be traced back to nearly 2000 years ago where it was called Samhain meaning summers end in Gaelic. This is where a communal meeting would take place to gather all crops and foods ready for the winter months where nothing would grow. There have been vast links to say they believed the dying crops was linked to the visitation of evil or the dead. Since this time, in the 1800s the festival was well adopted by the American and Canadian countries but had evolved into the time of year when people (especially teenagers) would play pranks such as egging houses. As the pranking got more escalated and out of hand it was encouraged that people should dress up and knock on peoples doors in return for sweets. This tradition has vastly spread all over the world and is highly associated in modern times as the main things to do on the 31st of October. There are also christian links to halloween that suggest satanic rituals and witches would be carried out on this day to summon evil.

Commerciality:
There is some serious financial gain when looking at how independent and big commercial companies can make money off the halloween season. In the UK, it has become more and more popular over the years rising up 3000% in products brought since 2001. This includes things like fancy dress costumes, fake blood, pumpkins and party decorations. Tesco forecast there sales to be over £400,000,000 so it pretty clear that us Brits are loving the festival more and more each year.

Events:
There are lots of events that take place in October for halloween. Although the season is a high staple to Americans to attend events, its more and more popular in the UK as well. They range from family fun to the scary extreme, all ticketed to make profit in the commercial sector. Below are some of the things the British public can expect to engage in over the October period.

Scare maze attraction events (Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Tulleys Farm - Shocktober Fest, Fort Amherst - Halloween Horrors