We don't do "Halloween" any more, but honestly, not many people in these parts do. Spent the day visiting with an old friend of ours, and got on the road back to home in that time-frame (around sunset) when parents would normally be walking their costumed children around neighborhoods. We saw nothing; most homes were dark, only a few had some form of tacit Halloween decoration. Saw a few people out walking, but they looked like they were walking for walking sake and not celebrating. No one, anywhere, in costume. We pulled a very quiet street and into the garage. This wasn't always the case.
I was "Mr. Halloween" as a kid. When I learned that I could grow my own pumpkins, probably around age 8, I started planting my pumpkin patch on the hillside next to our house in Pittsburgh. I was SO pleased! I had several beautiful gourds. That first year, I flew into a frenzy as my older sister "MURDERED!!!" my pumpkins to make a pie.
That still did not stop me from carving a pumpkin every year. And that was about the only decoration we ever did; one pumpkin, lit by candle. Porch light on meant candy, porch dark, don't bother. Every house on our block had about the same, some houses actually had TWO jack-o-lanterns on their front porch. They went all out!
Then there came "Trick-o-Treating". Many of my dad's family (he was one of 12) lived within a few blocks of us. At that age, my cousins made up about 2/3 of the neighborhood gangs, and when it came to blanketing the neighborhood for candy, we had strategy and planning! From about age 8 to 13, I was part of that pack, dressed in a costume my mother made me (my favorite was a ghost with the word "BOO!" down the front). The streets of our neighborhood were compact, urban. We knew everyone; every house. There were no strangers. The houses had little land between them, meaning a LOT of opportunity to score a haul! We'd relay what house had the premium candy, which had the junk.
Thinking back, as an young adult living on my own, I have little recollection of getting dressed up, going to Halloween parties, etc... the most was wearing a "Groucho Marx" plastic nose and mustache into the office. It was more about having that carved pumpkin on the porch and handing out candy. Because I spent much of that time in apartment buildings, there were very few celebrators ringing the door bell.
We moved to our neighborhood in September of 2004. The side street our house is on is one of the few flat roads in the neighborhood, and at that time, many of the homes along the way had children and young teens. By mid-October, houses became adorned with orange gourds, skeletons and Styrofoam tomb stones. Cars would park along the street and throngs of children (and parents) descended upon us like swarms of locusts. That first year, we easily had 60 youth, some in costume, many not, just holding a pillowcase, coming by. And that was the peak. It gradually dwindled to a handful, then about a dozen or so years ago, the visitors stopped. Each year, the yard decor would wither. Eventually about 10 years ago, it all ceased. We noticed last night that nary a porch light was on anywhere around the block. Our part of Tiverton is borderline urban; houses on tight lots. A lot of multi-family homes. Nothing, then that one house that had every inflatable set up, then house after house of darkness.
It really feels like fear, or laziness, won out; let's not be social with our neighbors, let's not get out and, like exercise. Forbid we walk our children door to door to yell "Trick or Treat!"; instead, let's just have everyone meet in a parking lot for this new concept; "Trunk or Treat".
...where parents can stand around and look a their cellphones while the children walk up to strangers in decorated cars and ask for candy. Brilliant.
So Halloween is done. I took down our Dollar Tree felt pumpkin door decoration.
Digging out the Christmas wreaths to put up the weekend after Thanksgiving.
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5 comments:
Childhood Halloween memories are the best way to celebrate, it's true.
If it has no special meaning to you, then there wouldn't be much point. I value Samhain (Halloween) as a survival of my true ancestral culture from before the invasion of Christianity -- most of the modern rituals and symbolism of it do date from that time, even if in modified form and even if most people today are no longer aware of their real meaning. It's no different from how Americans whose immigrant antecedents were from various other cultures keep up traditions that were meaningful to their ancestors. If you aren't of Anglo-Celtic descent then there's no reason why Samhain would have much significance to you.
Fascinating; I was doing yard work this morning when an elderly neighbor of mine walked by. We chatted about the yard and the gardens for few moments, then she lamented that she hated the concept of "Trunk-or-treat", all for the very reason I outlined - that no one wants to be social any more or wants their kids to learn how to handle social situations. Just have everyone go to a parking lot, get candy and come home. (Sigh).
As a kid in the suburbs in the early 60s, I remember the entire neighborhood being taken over by kids in costume toting paper shopping bags. (it looked like the scene in ET.) When we filled one bag, we’d go home, our mother would dump it out and we’d head back out to fill it again. Times have changed.
I agree that it's changed, and not for the better. Still, we had 21 kids come by; not enough to deplete what we bought for them. So the rest is mine.
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