Halloween, Fall Festival, and the Bible Belt

A funny thing happened to me on my way to creating a delightfully spooky Halloween house...I found out it may be a social faux pas to be any more gruesome than a southern belle should be.  I have some wonderful neighbors, a family with three young children who are the ages of my kids, who have totally taken us under their wing and helped us every time we have had a need or a question.  So, naturally, when I needed a ladder to hang my "spooky skeletons" and spider webs complete with rubber spiders I turned to my neighbors for help.  The husband was over in our driveway talking with Justin anyway because our boys were all out riding bikes together, I was doing dishes in the kitchen but ran out to ask to borrow the ladder.  I told him that I was going to hang some skeletons from our arch ways, he was more than happy to lend one of his ladders so we all followed him over to his driveway....that is where I learned some interesting news.

As he went into his garage to get the ladder I had an opportunity to visit with his wife (wonderful woman), I reassured her we were only there to retrieve a ladder---because my entire family followed her husband into their driveway.  She wondered aloud what we were going to use the ladder for, so I told her I had a few Halloween decorations I wanted to hang.  At that point she told me that they have a small smiling scarecrow outside their house AND THAT IS ALL because where they came from October was "all about fall festival" not Halloween (read between the lines to note that we must be satan worshipping demons for desiring to celebrate such an un-Christian holiday).  Part way through our conversation her husband resurfaced with the ladder, I could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to shut his wife up before she offended me (which she didn't) since he knew what I was hanging (skeletons) and that most likely my decorations were several steps further down the spectrum toward the unacceptable than her front porch scarecrow celebration of autumn.

After backpedaling for his wife and reassuring me that there is nothing wrong with Halloween or Halloween decorations my neighbor wrote it all off as merely a result of living along the bible belt.  All of this did get me wondering, will be tagged as the unholy of the street?

Note: One VERY important footnote, the idea for the skeletons was Allie's.  Before we bought the house she had commented on how great the archways would be for hanging skeletons at Halloween.