Ron's annual awesome pumpkin, 2007
(picture at right)
As I sadly remove the last of my black fingernail polish, I reflect on this year's Halloween. Since I first moved to the United States, Halloween symbolizes the deliciousness of all things dark and scary and the coming of fall. Australia doesn't really celebrate Halloween. I didn't celebrate Halloween until about the third grade. As many times as I have thought about moving back there (great standard of living, the beaches, family, the arts, the vacation comes first mentality) the thought of not having ghosties and goblins running around from jack-o-lantern lit house to house on October 31, really brings a cold shiver through my spine.
My seven year old son, dressed as an Army medic (the medic part was my influence, the M-16 joyfully his - I figure better he gets his army soldier phase out now, not at 18) ran around with his friends gathering hundreds of grams of sugar, even dollar bills and Hot Wheels. Some houses are so happy just to have trick or treaters, they really reward the kids. Seems Broadway Plaza is the place to be with it's safe, clean, well lit stores handing out treats. To me, that is NOT Halloween. Children must earn their treats by walking around their dark neighborhood, step up to the doorstep, ring the bell and hope that someone opens the door, preferably someone nice, with chocolate, not raisins.
Our house was decked in full Halloween regalia: orange icicle lights, pumpkins, candles, endless bats, spiders, skelteons and creeps. This year we started our graveyard. I have a feeling by time he hits junior high, the graveyard will rival anything from ILM.
This year my son demanded Daddy take him out so I got the job of candy dispenser. Every year the trick or treaters get more precious. Was it really that long ago that it was me, standing at the doors of stranger's houses, my pillow case held out anxiously awaiting the delicious reward for saying trick or treat, my costume either itching or half falling off or both? Yes, Jayne it was. A LONG time ago. But Halloween still stays timeless to me, like a favorite movie. So many things in life have lost their childhood magic, but for me, blessed Halloween comes every year and I never tire of it. Although Christmas still has magic too, it comes with so many more adult responsibilities and endless tasks. Halloween is simple: a costume, cool decorations and running around with your friends getting lotsa free candy. What could be better?
Halloween also speaks to the pagan part of me, it is one of the few historical rituals I participate in that celebrates life and nature. Since B.C., my ancestors celebrated Samhain or the like, to celebrate and acknowledge the coming of winter. Back then, when thirtysomething was not a time to reflect on your career and retirement account but a time to think about the end of your life, time was more precious than it is today. Life was more about survival and keeping your loved ones close, not accomplishments and accrual of posessions. Halloween was a time to stop and pay respect to the passing of time, the changing of the seasons, the marching on of time, the fact that we all too soon, pass on away from this earth.
I look out my window at the yellow and red falling leaves and chew on pomegranate seeds from my neighbors tree. This fall has been an endless shower of acorns and apples in my backyard. Is this a harbinger of a cold rainy winter? I hope so. All summer we have been outside and busy, playing and swimming, running and traveling, doing and going. I'm ready to go back inside, light more fires, read more books, play more board and card games, talk and listen to music, slow down a little.
Halloween is the day that always reminds me of all this, that time is my friend, not my enemy. That I am so blessed and lucky to be right where I am.
