Halloween is by far one of our favorite holidays. My daughter and I consider it as exciting as Christmas. The Halloween season holds revered traditions for our household; we plan them with thrilling anticipation. We also adore horror movies and haunted tours. (I take full responsibility for this. My strict Catholic upbringing forbade pagan-istic things, including going to Dante's Inferno in Coney Island or The Haunted Mansion on the New Jersey boardwalk. These restrictions ensured an intrigue with the macabre for the rest of my life. Trick or treating, however, was encouraged. There are many loopholes for Christians, it seems. My mother's love for theater, and her sweet tooth, prevailed!)
Like most families, we choose trick or treat candy that we enjoy, because someone's got to eat the leftovers, right? As for pumpkins, there's something fun about sticking your hands in a fresh, cold one and yanking out the stringy, orange innards. Plus, you can bake the seeds- YUM. Through the years, carving at our house became more elaborate. We bought cutting kits, tracing patterns, electric candles and even 'pumpkin bling' to turn our jack-o-lanterns into veritable works of art. My daughter's skills far exceeded ours. When she proudly completed a perfect carving of the Headless Horseman (per the package label, Level of difficulty - Advanced) we were humbled and impressed!
We enjoyed trips to pumpkin patches, as well as bumpy hay rides that scratched our legs but were fun nonetheless. We stocked up on apple cider, Indian corn and gnarly gourds. We discovered that sure you could choose the biggest pumpkin in the field, but then you had to carry your forty pound purchase across two acres!
Halloween parades and haunted houses were age-appropriate when my daughter was little, and only mildly spooky. Then we sought scarier activities as our quest for fright intensified. Our Halloween seasons progressed from nights lost in a giant corn maze, to haunted evening rides at an amusement park, to a tour of a ramshackle hotel where terrifying gory-faced actors chased us, to a decrepit former prison, which once housed Al Capone, where even more gory-faced actors chased us. (I don't like to jog but certainly get a month's worth of running in October!)
Horror movies got better and better, giving us thrills and chills. Yet we appreciated the timeless classics like "Halloween" and "The Shining." (Say what you will, great costumes are created every year, but a quiet guy in a Michael Myers mask standing in the corner at a party is ALWAYS terrifying.)
We keep our fingers crossed each year, in the hopes that someone we know will throw a costume party. And usually we're not disappointed. Rob and I are fully prepared that we may need to carry the torch and host a Halloween party. If so, I'll embrace that role with enthusiasm! The magic of the holiday is that it's the one day of the year you can be anything you wish, no matter how scary or silly.
So fellow ghouls, find your fog machines and spooky music CDs, practice your werewolf howls and witches' cackles. Fill that candy dish and happy haunting to you!
