Halloween
Up until now, I have lived my life without much involvement with Halloween. I am sure that will continue to be the case.
To begin with, I am not fond of party-like events. That is why I have never worn a costume, nor have I ever said "trick or treat."
It is said that Halloween originated from the "Samhain festival" held by the ancient Celtic people who lived in Ireland over 2,000 years ago.
Samhain means "the end of summer." The Celts celebrated this day as a harvest festival and as the beginning of winter. A day when the spirit world and this world mingle: In the Celtic calendar, November 1st was the beginning of the new year. October 31st, the eve of that day, was believed to be a time when the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred, allowing the spirits of ancestors and evil spirits to visit this world.
People at the time tried to protect themselves by lighting fires or by wearing terrifying masks and costumes to disguise themselves as evil spirits so that the spirits would not bring them harm. On the other hand, the spirits of ancestors were considered to be guests to be welcomed.
Later, the Roman Empire conquered the Celtic people, and Christianity spread. The Catholic Church designated November 1st as "All Hallow's Day" (or All Saints' Day) and merged it with the pagan festival. The eve of All Hallow's Day (October 31st) was called "All Hallow's Eve," which became corrupted into "Halloween." Subsequently, in the mid-19th century, the custom of Halloween was brought to America by Irish immigrants, where it developed into the form of the festival we see today.
Well, as for me...
I remembered a time about 15 years ago when I felt Halloween was close to home.
At that time, around October, I started receiving more requests from people saying, "We don't have enough trucks." Eventually, they started saying, "We'll pay whatever you ask, just scrape together any trucks you can!"
Logistics warehouses were also at a breaking point.
Because there were not enough warehouse workers, shipping operations were delayed, and because shipping was delayed, trucks were forced to wait for long hours to be loaded, only to depart late at night and unload the next morning, leading to a surge in spot shipments.
The cause of this was Daiso.
Daiso had started selling Halloween goods.
At that time, I thought, "The power of Halloween is amazing."
That "festival" ended about two years later.
Of course, it is not that the popularity of Halloween waned. It is not that Daiso's Halloween goods stopped selling.
It is the result of us learning from experience and implementing countermeasures.