Halloween proves to be a great example of Scale with its mummified place in history. But why is this, and what lessons can business owners take from it?

Halloween dates back about 2,000 years to Christian Celtic festival held around November 1st called Samhain or “summers end” in which was an annual meeting at the end of the harvest year, a time and place to gather resources for the winter months ahead, however some speculate to Samhain being a time to speak and communicate with the dead and others believe the spirits would cross over into the other world.

Whilst Halloween is original, the WHY has changed the way we celebrate Halloween today, the theme of spooks and spirits remains un-buried but with an emphasis on having fun.

So how do the typical festive Halloween activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins, lighting bonfire and apple bobbing link into the Samhain festival? Well, the tradition of dressing in costumes and trick-or-treating goes back to the practice of “guising”, where people would disguise themselves and go door to door, asking for food in exchange for prayers for the dead.

The theme of Halloween has remained constant throughout due to being an annual date across the globe, everyone is involved in the ghoulish celebrations whether you know it or not from the local shops gearing up for commercialisation, to marketers and their campaigns in place for the Halloween spirit.

Trick or Treat, a friendly game you would associate with Halloween where children dress as ghosts and goblins and knock on un-suspecting doors in search for a treat, or perhaps performing a play in the efforts of “trick”, but by late 1800s this friendly version became more of an opportunity to play pranks on their victim and some, go too far compared to the previous play or skit such as tipping over bins, egging houses and other acts of vandalism.

While some people take pranks too far, there’s always a lesson to be learnt and in this case parents encouraged dressing up for trick-or-treating as a safe alternative to pranks.

This lesson can apply to your business because if you don’t take risks the outcome is always going to be the same. If you spread out and do something different, constantly challenge the status quo, and always look to stand out from the competition, the chances are you’ll accelerate your rate of SCALE.

Which brings me nicely onto expansion and how Halloween is so popular today.

When you hear the phrase Halloween you automatically know what it means but how did it become so popular? Well not until World War II the United States picked up on trick or treating and that’s where it all took off, and ever since it’s becoming  more and more commercialised but all the more enjoyable.

Halloween proves to be a great example of SCALE with its mummified place in history and still remains to get bigger and bigger each year because the concept behind Halloween is so simple and has such a large appeal to people, it’ll be no surprise to see Halloween haunting us for many years to come.