Where I grew up people started getting excited about Halloween by no later than October 1. Decorations were put up, and candy started to get stockpiled in anticipation for the hordes of trick or treaters that were guaranteed to knock on your door. I always anxiously awaited for the day my mum said it was ok to carve the pumpkin. Scooping out its guts and saving the seeds to be roasted with salt later that evening. I would carve eyes, a nose and mouth in my pumpkin. Sometimes making it a silly face and other times giving it a vampire like grin.
As a child of the late 80s/early 90's there was nothing more exciting than the prospect of a bag full of candy and no amount of scaring was going to keep us away. Growing up in a small town I knew all the best houses to score the most coveted treats. The enormous brick house at the end of the road that gave out king size candy bars to the first 25 trick or treaters (but you couldn't go before 6pm), the house that created a scary maze in the back yard that had full size candy bars for those brave enough to venture thru the terrifying tunnels of straw with monsters waiting to jump out. The two houses that gave out homemade popcorn balls, and the house that invited you in for hot chocolate and chili to warm you up before you continued on your way. No one worried about being kidnapped, or slipped a razor blade in their treats. It was a night of glowing pumpkins and magic.
Every year my brother and I would start the day off at my aunts house where we decorated Halloween cookies, after it was back to my grandmothers house where we had dinner and then changed into our costumes. When we were very young my aunt or uncle took us out trick or treating but as we got older we went on our own. I remember my grandmother, mum and aunts always dressing up and taking turns answering the the door as child after child knocked on the door. My gram bought bags upon bags of candy and had bowls ready and lined up for the hundreds of children that would knock on the door. It was a night of magic and memories.
As I got older and no longer young enough to trick or treat, the responsibility of taking my cousins out to all those houses became my responsibility and joy. Taking them to the houses I had gone to a child and seeing the joy on their faces when they got the king sized candy bar, the popcorn ball, and all the other halloween treats. It didn't come without its perks, as the homes we went to were the same I had visited as a child as they always insisted a take a piece for myself as well.
Living here in the UK for the first time in 2008 I realise that Halloween isn't celebrated like it is in the US. In fact at the time there was hardly a mention of Halloween. Something I found incredibly strange as Halloween got its start here over 2,000 years ago with the Celts and the celebration of Samhain. As a uni student we celebrated halloween the way all students do, with a party. My second year living here I went back to my roots, carving a pumpkin to place in the window and buying a few bags of candy in hopes of trick or treaters knocking on the door. I turned on the porch light and waited for the first knock. No one came and I realised that my love of Halloween was not transcontinental.
Here I am living in the UK again 7 years later and I do see a change. Halloween costumes at Asda, adverts on the t.v. about getting ready for your Halloween gathering, and pumpkins available for carving. There are even events in London to celebrate the holiday. But living with a family of Brits its just not something they celebrate and so I didn't either this year. No cookies in the shape of pumpkins, bats and ghosts, no carved pumpkin, no decorations on the door or in the windows, no candy for the trick or treaters that might knock. Its just a day like any other.
I've told myself all weekend long that Halloween didn't matter, its just a silly holiday and my little traditions won't be missed by me or anyone else. But sitting on the sofa this afternoon watching an old Halloween episode of the Goldberg's I realised that it mattered to me. I'd grown up with Halloween being a time of family and friends. Bobbing for apples, cake walks, gold fish ponds, candy, I love all of it, and I miss it.
So Happy Halloween where ever you are! 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃
No comments:
Post a Comment