On October 31, we celebrate Hal-low-een (n.): the eve of All Saints’ Day (a Christian festival in honor of all the saints, possibly held on November 1 to combat the harvest festivals and Pagan feasts), commonly celebrated by children who dress in costume and solicit candy or other treats door-to-door.
Most parents make you stop soliciting treats at some point, but I feel my mom has the best philosophy: as long as you are wearing an actual Hal-low-een costume–not just a hoodie, jeans, and a wig–then you can solicit all the treats you’d like!
My friends and I trick-or-treated well into our teens.
Why should “children” (n.), young human beings below the age of puberty or below the legal age, be the only ones to dress in costume and solicit people?
Because of my trick-or-treating freedom, I chose when to stop going door-to-door, but I will never stop celebrating Hal-low-een and dressing up.
…but I digress.
What comes to mind when you en-vision Hal-low-een?
fall
orange, red, brown
witches, vampires, zombies
haunted houses
black cats
Hocus Pocus
The Nightmare Before Christmas
(I will fight you if you say that this is only a Christmas movie)
candy
Pump-kins (n.): a large rounded orange-yellow fruit with a thick rind, edible flesh, and many seeds (which are delicious when sprinkled with salt and roasted in the oven); the plant of the gourd family that produces the pump-kin, having tendrils and large lobed leaves, native to warm regions of America.
Fake pump-kin flavor and spices invade baked goods and coffee. I can’t get enough of it. Last night I stitched several recipes together in order to make a completely dairy-free pump-kin pudding.
Did you take note of the fact that pump-kins are a fruit (n.): the sweet and fleshy product of a tree or other plant that contains seeds and can be eaten as food.
So pump-kin, including pump-kin beer, is OBVIOUSLY good for you. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait until November 20 to get all that canned pump-kin (there might be a shortage)!
Buy all the pump-kin things; make a terrific Hal-low-een costume (I’m going to be a calendar this year); stop and breathe in the crisp autumn air. Hal-low-een is fall and fall is the most magical time of the year.
-Ashley