What Do All of These Halloween Pandemic Headlines Have in Common?

Quiz time! I’m going to give you a few newspaper headlines. They all have something very specific in common. It’s not that they’re all newspaper headlines OR that they’re all warning about the pandemic. I mean, they ARE but that’s not the unique thing about them. Let’s see if you can guess it:

“Ban Placed on All Halloween Events”

“Halloween Fun Should be Curtailed”

“Police Prohibit Halloween Celebrations; Ban Crowds”

“Big Throngs Defy The Health Rules”

“Hallowe’en Events Should be Tempered”

Time to make your guess. Other than being headlines about Halloween restrictions because of the pandemic, what do these headlines have in common? I think the answer will surprise you.

Did you guess that all these headlines came from cities run by democrats? If you did, you’re wrong.

How about, they’re all cities run by republicans? Wrong again.

Maybe you guessed that these are all newspapers who have endorsed Biden. Or Trump.

Wrong and wrong.

Here’s the correct answer:

These are all newspaper headlines than ran back in ’18. NINETEEN 18, that is!

A lot has changed in 102 years. But a lot has remained the same. In 1918, The Great War was drawing to a close after over 4 years of bloody, muddy conflict. The world’s first great, global conflict resulted in 20 million deaths. But an even deadlier event was just getting started. The 1918 flu pandemic, also known (erroneously) as The Spanish Flu, would rage for two more years, eventually claiming the lives of FIFTY million people.

Some of the congruencies between Halloween 1918 and Halloween 2020 are…well, spooky. An election was only a few days away; some cities had already been ravaged and others, relatively spared; civil authorities were making masking and social distancing proclamations…and millions of Americans were IGNORING them.

Of course, in 1918 we had just been through a hellacious wartime experience. Here in 2020, it only FEELS that way.

Read more about the similarities here.