Everything’s twisted and scary on Halloween, especially here at Thrillvania Haunted House Park. Haunted houses and dolls, scary clowns and witches, vampires and werewolves, narrow coffins beneath shadowed tombstones in dank, dreary cemeteries. The scarier the better on Halloween, unless you have a phobia. Then, who knows? Anything can happen on the scariest night of the year.
Most holidays have associated cute, warm and fuzzy creatures and it’s rare to find someone who actually suffers from leporiphobia, a fear of bunnies, or Santaphobia, the fear of Santa Claus, but there’s nothing cuddly at all about Halloween. In fact, October 31 is simply bursting with opportunities to terrorize and traumatize.
If you have a fear of something, say snakes or spiders, your body’s fight or flight mechanism kicks in. You may run away screaming, but once you’ve escaped the threat you tend to forget about it, maybe even laugh about it.
A foible is a minor weakness in your character, something just a bit off kilter, but it’s nothing serious. Maybe you’re frightened of something silly, like cupcakes or candy canes, but you – and everyone around you – can laugh about it because it is so silly.
But a phobia, that’s something altogether different. All you have to do is imagine your fear and you’re plunged into an icy cold pit of despair. Tell an arachnophobe you saw a big, hairy spider at work yesterday and they’ll run screaming from the room today. Tell your placophobic boyfriend that you’re going to a Halloween party at the cemetery and he’ll fall into a panic attack. And don’t even think about suggesting that your hemophobic girlfriend go dressed as a vampire unless you want to spend the night in the emergency room.
Let’s take a look at some more of the strange phobias which can be triggered by events or creatures we experience on the darkest, gloomiest night of the year.
Eisoptrophobia is the fear of your own reflection, which makes it difficult for eisoptrophobes to tour haunted houses or conjure Mary Worth or The Candyman during slumber parties. This phobia can also extend to include people who are terrified of seeing themselves on film. Unfortunately, Kim Kardashian is reportedly immune to this phobia, no matter what she’s wearing.
Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns, any clowns, even those cute clowns with the big, floppy feet, fuzzy orange hair and enormous red smiles. It’s the teeth behind those smiles and the claws beneath the fourfingered gloves that terrify Coulrophobes and force them to run screaming from their bedrooms, “Can’t sleep! Clowns will eat me!”
Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13 Halloween since it falls on October 31 didn’t have a someone in a hockey mask waving a chainsaw?
Believe it or not, cucurbitophobes have a morbid fear of pumpkins, so you can imagine their terror on Halloween night. All those Jack-o-lanterns with blazing eyes sitting on porch after porch after porch must send them into fits. Experts believe this phobia is developed at a young age when children are first forced to pull the guts out of the pumpkin before they start carving. Ewwww!
On Halloween night the Boogeyman is everywhere which must make it especially difficult for boogyphobics to come out from under the covers.
Even if you think you’re immune to these irrational fears and phobias, think again. Maybe you have a fear of chewing gum – chiclephobia. What will you do when someone drops Double Bubble Bubblegum into your treat basket?
Or maybe you’re afraid of butterflies – lepidopterophobia. There’s bound to be at least one person at your Halloween party wearing butterfly wings and a tutu. And if you’re afraid to go to bed you might be a clinophobiac. But then again, you might just be a boogyphobic or coulrophobic, too.
After all of these phobias you can probably guess what people fear who have Samhainophobia. That’s right – they fear Halloween. The one night of the year when there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of!
In alphabetical order, here are some other phobias and their related fears that might cause Trick-orTreaters to run screaming from your porch or your party guests to high-tail it out the back door:
Achluophobia – fear of Darkness
Alliumphobia – fear of Garlic
Arachnophobia – fear of Spiders
Ceraunophobia – fear of Thunder
Claustrophobia – fear of Confined spaces, like coffins
Cleisiophobia – fear of being locked in
Coimetrophobia – fear of Cemeteries
Dementophobia – fear of Insanity
Formidophobia – fear of Scarecrows
Hagiophobia – fear of saints or holy things
Hemophobia – fear of blood
Herpetophobia – Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly things
Melanophobia – Fear of the color black
Nebulaphobia – Fear of fog
Noctiphobia – fear of night
Phasmophobia – fear of ghosts
Placophobia – fear of tombstones
Phobophobia – The fear of fears
Pnigerophobia – Fear of choking or of being smothered
Pupaphobia – fear of puppets
Seplophobia – fear of decaying matter
Spectrophobia – fear of mirrors
Staurophobia – fear of the crucifix
Stigiophobia – Fear of Hell
Taphephobia – being buried alive
Don’t skip Halloween because of a phobia. Maybe we can help.
All kidding aside, if you suffer from a phobia that’s triggered by some type of Halloween tradition, we may be able to alleviate some of your fears if you call ahead to Thrillvania Haunted House in Dallas, TX and ask about our attractions so you can prepare yourself in advance. You might find that you have absolutely nothing to fear throughout each of our haunted houses and we may be able to tell you what areas to avoid. We know Thrillvania isn’t for everyone but we’d like to help you feel as welcome and comfortable as possible so you can enjoy Halloween, too.