On a hot summer day, Bonnie Barton hosted a festive backyard gathering that looked different from the typical summertime pool party.
Jack-o’-lanterns were fashioned out of melons, instead of pumpkins. A novelty skeleton chilled out in an inflatable pool. Guests played ring toss, flinging plastic orange hoops onto pointy black witches’ hats.
Ms. Barton, 35, a social media influencer in Austin, Texas, was celebrating a novel holiday: Summerween.
A mash-up of a summer celebration and Halloween, the event seems to have been assembled, Frankenstein-style, out of social media’s insatiable need for content, retailers’ desire to drum up excitement in the dead zone of July and August and an enthusiasm among certain people for ghouls and goblins so strong that it cannot be satisfied by one holiday a year.
When Did It Start?
The term “Summerween” originated on “Gravity Falls,” an animated mystery TV series that had a two-season run on the Disney Channel and is now available on Disney+.
In Season 1, episode 12, which premiered Oct. 5, 2012, the residents of the fictional town of Gravity Falls, Ore., love Halloween so much that they decide to celebrate twice a year. For the summertime version, they carve jack-o-melons instead of pumpkins and tell tales of the Summerween Trickster, a creature that eats children who don’t show Summerween spirit.
The idea seemed to lay dormant until earlier this year, when an audio mash-up comprising dialogue of “Gravity Falls” characters discussing the holiday and the Pet Shop Boys song “West End Girls” started spreading on TikTok.
Ms. Barton included this mash-up on the soundtrack for the TikTok video of her Summerween party. “Summerween?” says the “Gravity Falls” character played by Kristen Schall. “Sounds unnatural.”
Other social media influencers jumped on the trend, as did retailers like the craft-store chain Michaels, which has more than 1,300 locations in North America. It stocked shelves with Summerween items, including flowery jack-o’-lanterns, hot-pink novelty gravestones and cheerful throw pillows emblazoned with human skulls.
“It has absolutely blown up this year,” said Miranda Enzor, 40, the publisher of Spooky Little Halloween, a quarterly magazine and website. “The online Halloween community started using it to Halloween-ify the other seasons and holidays.”
How Is It Celebrated?
The general idea is to take summertime social gatherings — pool parties, barbecues, beach days — and combine them with Halloween décor, imagery and traditions. That may look like carving watermelons and topping your grilled hamburger with jack-o-lantern-shaped cheese. Or sunbathing on the beach with a spooky beach towel. Or simply carrying a watermelon-shaped jack-o’-lantern handbag.
“What’s fun when it starts in the summer is to put a twist on color, a twist on the aesthetic, so it’s hitting those Halloween feels but it’s in keeping with the summer vibe,” said Toni Gabriele, 41, who, along with her friend Laurie Necco, 42, runs Ghost Girl Greetings, a company that sells Summerween-themed greeting cards, stickers and flip-flops.
Another popular activity is to take in a horror movie, long a summertime box-office staple. This year’s crop includes “MaXXXine” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.”
“Everyone defines it for themselves,” Ms. Barton said. “But come June, especially when it gets super hot, it does get you excited for the fall that’s to come after the hellscape. Nobody likes 100-degree days.”
Costumes are not yet a common part of the Summerween ritual. Fans of other traditional Halloween favorites, like haunted hay rides, pumpkin spice lattes and chunky knit sweaters, will also have to wait till fall.
Is There a Particular Day?
The residents of “Gravity Falls” celebrate Summerween on June 22. But for Ms. Barton and other “freaks who are obsessed with Halloween,” as she calls her fellow celebrants, there appears to be no fixed date. Any day from mid-June onward is OK for a Summerween party.
Ms. Enzor would be happy to celebrate Springween and Winterween as well.
“There would be no complaints from me if we took over every other holiday and season with Halloween,” she said. “For me, it never really ends.”
