Headless Horseman celebration faces scrutiny
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Ghouls, skeletons, witches and vampires have long figured at celebrations on Halloween. But this year a familiar and beloved fright figure — the Headless Horseman — is under new scrutiny because of sensitivities over terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
The change came in the wake of the beheading of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State militants. News of British aid worker Alan Henning's beheading was made public last week. The four Islamic State killings have prompted a national conversation over what constitutes appropriate Halloween decorations.
Marketers of the Fox TV series Sleepy Hollow, which is loosely based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story, apologized after launching a "National Headless Day" ad campaign the same week terrorists released a video showing the beheading of Foley.
And last month, The Associated Press reported Busch Gardens Williamsburg removed some props from a Halloween attraction called "The Cut Throat Cove" after people in Virginia complained about decapitated heads.
But here in the Lower Hudson Valley — Headless Horseman country, where Irving set his story, and home to The Blaze, one of the season's most popular tourist attractions — people take Halloween very, very seriously. And they're not planning to make any concessions.
"We have never censored the floats or costumes that participants bring to the parade; we don't plan on starting that practice now," said Scott Baird, president of the Nyack Chamber of Commerce, which organizes an annual Halloween parade attracting 25,000 to 30,000 people.
Few places are as closely associated with the holiday as Sleepy Hollow, which changed its name from North Tarrytown in the 1990s.
Irving's hellish horseman appears on street and store signs, police cars, municipal buildings and, most prominently, a steel statue of the headless horseman preparing to hurl his jack-o'-lantern not far from the Old Dutch Church.
Local merchants have embraced the holiday — and cashed in on the celebrations, which pump tens of thousands dollars into the local economy, according to Anthony Giaccio, the village administrator.
Sitting outside the Horseman Restaurant recently, Christian Keesey, 39, of Ossining, said the village should stick to tradition.
"Are people going to stop dressing up as zombies because of Ebola?" he said. "Of course they're not."
Some Halloween event organizers said they already shy from the fake blood, guts and gore. They embrace more traditional scares like late-night ghost tours and haunted hayrides.
"It's not really an issue for us," said Howard Zar, executive director of Lyndhurst, home to Jay Ghoul's House of Curiosities. "We don't have anything bloody. It's about the art and the decoration."
Others are adamantly against any changes, especially in reaction to terrorist activities.
Rob Schweitzer, director of public relations for Historic Hudson Valley, six historic sites that includes Philipsburg Manor, said it had no plans to alter its popular Horseman's Hollow event.
The fright-night attraction features costumed characters — some decapitated — elaborate sets, special effects and a "twisted maze of horrors too terrible to describe," according to its website.
"That historic, iconic character has absolutely no connection to anything occurring in the Middle East," Schweitzer said in an e-mail.
"Our collective popular culture has a long history of flirting with violence, murder, mayhem and gore," he added. "Playing a little bit of psychologist, I would say some people like haunted attractions because they are 'safe scares' that take them away from worrying about the really scary things in their own lives and the world at large."