Halloween

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You know it when the supermarkets start selling orange colored candy and plastic pumpkins, when you start hearing scary sounds on the radio and during TV commercials, and when out of nowhere there are bleeding people and evil clowns everywhere: it's Halloween.

It's the time of the year when pop-up stores (more like pop-up warehouses) which only sell Halloween stuff, from house decorations to full costumes for everyone, open their doors and the Haunted Houses dare you to come inside. And by 'Haunted House' I don't mean the boring plastic attraction on a regular fair, I mean the thing where you get chased by clowns and get to shoot zombies. It really is the time of year when people get to be something else, whether it is cuter than normal or simply scary.

Here in the US it's quite a big deal. The adults decorate their houses in the craziest way and go to the costume parties downtown in the weekend, all dressed up as a superhero, witch, sexy nurse, a Minion or Trump. The children, on the other hand, get to go 'Trick-or-Treating' on the evening of Halloween. The parents dress up (again) and follow their -also cutely dressed-up- children, from toddler to maybe a little too old, around the blocks to collect candy. It is not that lively in all neighborhoods, though, ours was as silent as an empty graveyard. But we were lucky to have friends with a very enthusiastic bunch of people in their street (thanks Jen and Wesley!), so we got to see what this dentist-loving tradition is all about. Well, there were a lot of children (and I suspect even more adults) running around trying to collect as much candy as possible and some amazing decorated houses. Some places just had a pumpkin in front of their doors, others really went all out. There were haunted houses and entire graveyards, fake ghosts (at least I hope) and giant spiders, lights and swinging skeletons, with the best house apparently getting a small price from the homeowners association (always does the trick).

But I wonder how many of these people know where these traditions come from. I, for one, had to Google it...

So, the all knowing search engine told me that Halloween derives from 'All Hallows Eve', a time to remember the dead Saints and all faithful departed with vigils and commemorations. Centuries ago, the poorer people would go door-to-door to collect 'Soul cakes', or alms, in exchange for praying for the givers' deceased loved ones. Candles and other lights would be lit to guide the souls to their final resting place. But it was also believed that Hallows Eve was the last opportunity for wandering souls to take vengeance on their living enemies, so people would weir masks to be unrecognizable. Mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century introduced the festivities to Northern America, where it eventually became the major holiday it is today. The alms becoming candy, the masks entire costumes.

After the 'trick-or-treating' and the 'best costume' competitions, pumpkins full of candy are all that is left until Christmas, when (except the costumes) the decorations and the food will return in full force...