Courtesy - Wikipedia
Halloween started back in the 1500’s as a day to honor the dead. There was much merry making with costumes, food and “trick-or-treating.” Back then, people used to build huge bonfires to scare the spirits that walked the Earth when the veil between the living and the dead became very thin. In parts of the world, and in some religions, people still do this today.Nowadays, Halloween is still celebrated with getting dressed in consumes and lots of revelry, including “trick-or-treating,” which is mainly for the kids. Today we still tell scary stories and carve pumpkins like those that they did hundreds of years ago.
When I was growing up, I can only remember going into town once to take part in “trick-or-treating.” For one, we couldn’t afford costumes, so usually Daddy would take us up the road to his parent’s house and Mamaw would give us all treats. These treats consisted of home baked goods mostly and very little, if any, candy, which was probably a good thing. I’ve only had four small cavities in my life so far, so after six decades that isn’t too bad.
Anyway, when we arrived at Rosenberg Mamaw’s (what we called daddy’s mama) house, she would have small brown lunch bags lined up for us on her little, white Formica table in the kitchen. They all had our names on them and she would hand them out. We would eat our goodies and visit awhile and of course, it was another occasion to “oooh” and “aaah” over what we had in our sack.
The only time we went out to “trick-or-treat” in a regular neighborhood (remember we lived on a farm in the country), we all made up costumes out of farm clothes, stuffing them with hay and whatever else we could find because of course they were way too big for us kids. We used pillowcases or feed sacks as our “trick-or-treat” bags and Daddy took us to a new neighborhood where they had built a bunch of little box houses, all just alike, on a cul-de-sac.
We had fun going from house to house and the night flew by. There were many other kids out, all in fancy costumes, and we were a little embarrassed with our homemade ones, but we still had a good time and all sat around on the floor, once home, and emptied out our sacks to rummage through our goodies and compare what we all got. I’m sure a bit of trading went on as well.
Since I’ve been grown and have my own house now, I get dressed every year to hand out candy to the little kids. For the last fifteen years or so, the parents come along with the kids. When we lived in CA, they would take pictures of me giving candy to their little ones, who at first were afraid to approach the witch. I used to go all out with the decorations, spooky music, dry ice, and jack-o-lanterns with candles inside.
Since I moved to the desert, I don’t do that anymore, but I still dress up to hand candy out. We don’t get near as many kids here, but they sure do decorate the houses, which is a bit of a surprise in this overly religious area of the country.
My cats are scared to death of me in my witch’s hat, all except my little daredevil Koki who is always my shadow.
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If you’re into ghost stories, now is the time for me to give a plug for my first book Haversham Hill. It’s a clean book, no profanity, or X-rated material. If you want to “search inside” this book, you can go to Amazon at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/143485893
Or read the first chapter on my website here: http://www.faeriemoundbooks.com/
Hi Sunni, I was surprised to see you read my blog so quickly. I just posted it about 15 minutes ago. I never had any store bought costumes either as a kid, but it didn't stop me from dressing up. We lived in a small town and most of the kids had home made costumes. Of course there were always a few who had the fancy ones, but I didn't care. I'm just surprised my mom never took pictures of us. She was real big on taking pictures and I guess that's why I am too. I enjoyed your story about Halloween. Many of the customs are from pagan times. They were very superstitious.
ReplyDeleteDonna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and posting.
Yes, I'm always up this time of night usually - catching up on things and posting around the net.
I grew up on a farm so we seldom went to town for anything - most everything had to be handmade.
We didn't own a camera for years so there are very few pictures of us as kids growing up. The few I have will be put in a family book I'm writing about growing up on a cotton farm in the 50's.
Yes, Halloweeen originated as a pagan holiday as most of our holidays did. Most people don't realize this. All you have to do it google the history of any holiday. I was going to write a post about Halloween origins, but Sharla at Catnopolife beat me to it, so I decided to scrap it after that and to post this instead. I didn't want to be redundant. She covered it all very well.
Sunni
Sunni , you are a beautiful witch!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're writing a book about your childhood, I love reading your stories about your childhood, it always sounds so sweetly nostalgic and so unlike the lives of children today...
Hi Valerie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your compliments. I've had that same outfit 30 years and just hang it in the back of my closet.
Yes, I really want to get the family book finished, but life is always getting in the way, as they say. We didn't grow up at all like children do today. I'm sure someday that kind of childhood will totally be a thing of the past and kids will think we lived in the Dark Ages back then.
I didn't realize you were in NZ. I wanted to reply on your blog after you answered my question on there about the cold winds from the antarctic. I didn't see a reply button under your posted answer. My grandmother travelled to NZ once and said it was very beautiful.
Thanks for visiting.
Sunni