♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #69
Halloween or related. Feelings, traditions, memories.
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.
Back on the 24th
, and even in September, I spoke briefly about my favorite holiday, which just happens to be Halloween. This time of year is so inspiring. Maybe it’s the thinning of the vale, and that allows the muses to speak to me more clearly. I enjoy, mostly, my morning commute when the trees are changing colors and fuchsia skies light up the view like fire. I don’t, however, relish the snow that came a few days ago. Here in upstate New York, that can very much be a part of mid to late autumn.
Growing up with parents who wanted to make the early years of their children a beautiful experience helped pave the way for my love of the Fall and it’s most popular holiday. Getting in touch with our roots from tribal Europe is a wonderful offshoot. Until I was old enough, however, much of that was off the table–because a great deal of paganism is misunderstood and miscategorized.
Beyond historical roots and theology, and even learning, there was a lot of love. Baking with mom was nearly a ritual. From the apples that we picked in September, we’d still be making pies. My brother and I would help mom make sugar cookies shaped like bats, pumpkins, owls, cats and ghosts! Going to the pumpkin patch came next, to pick our jack-o-lanterns, maybe find a rare decoration to add to the collection, and bake the pumpkin seeds. Soon on the heals of that, or possibly before, our costume were either constructed by my mother, or picked out at Halloween Hall. It was more exciting than Christmas. Well, okay, AS exciting. Now, shopping and decorating for Halloween is more fun than Christmas to me now.
Once the jack-o-lanterns, costumes, baking, decorating and candy were secured—the watching of the Halloween movies commenced. Usually this entailed sitting around to catch Peanuts on CBS. Yes, I have jumped in a pile of leaves (without the wet sucker). The horror classics like Dracula and some other old films were also included. Mom likes Arsenic and Old Lace as well as Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, while more recently she’s take to Bell Book and Candle. You’ve probably read that all before!
Do you celebrate Halloween? What are your traditions? Leave me a comment below.
Now, let’s hop on over to see what the other authors have to say…
It’s definitely winter here in Alaska, though it is warm enough today that the kids will probably enjoy trick-or-treating this evening. That’s a rarity. Some years it’s 20 below zero. This year it will be right around freezing.
A friend of mine living there said it snowed a little a couple weeks back, and I was totally aghast you guys weren’t buried yet.
The Peanut’s classic shows were always my favorites. But just once, I wanted to hear an adult talk!
Right! I wonder what the symbolism behind that sound instead of speech is.
Sounds like you have some lovely memories of Halloween and good for you. Those are priceless.
Hi K.
I am new to the Open Gook Blog Spot…I, too, grew up in Upstate New York (Utica) and I remember wearing snowsuits under my costumes, lots of apple picking, and coloring a brown grocery bag with pumpkins to carry our treats in. We grew up before there was any risks in Halloween and kids went by ourselves with the bigger kids all through the neighborhood, stopping in the warm garages of many to warm up a little, drink cider, have doughnuts and be given an apple or a popcorn ball. One of my favorite holidays since I was a child! Jo
Hi, Joanne! Welcome to the hop! This time of year is just so special!
Sounds like you had a wonderful time at Hallowe’en. We in the UK never celebrated it at all when I was growing up.
Sounds like you had lots of fun.