(28 Weeks)
This weekend’s project was assembling 100 little bags of candy for all the little ones who will appear at our door later this week. I expect them to be adorned with a costume representing some facet of the personality or their favorite 2024 pop culture icon and issuing a threat. “Trick or treat.”
We opt for the treats as most homeowners have throughout the previous 56 years or so from which I have some recollection of Halloween, although this will be my 60th Halloween. Halloween – like me – originated in Ireland. Halloween comes from the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced “SAH-win”) celebrated on October 31, where people would wear costumes to ward off evil spirits. When November 1 was designated to honor saints by the Catholic Church in eighteenth century, the day before (October 31) became known as “All Hallows Eve” and eventually Halloween.
My first Halloween in the United States would have been 1967. Aside from photos, I have no recollection of it. The following year, my parents began what would become a long tradition of hosting Halloween parties for my friends and me. Halloween was always a big deal! I was one of the only kids I remember to host a party for the entire class – boys included! – for any occasion.
The parties continued for a few years until I was allowed to trick or treat. The early years of trick or treating involved my parents just driving me to the homes of relatives or family friends, and then eventually walking accompanied by parents to the houses of some close neighbors. Real trick or treating didn’t start until the fourth or fifth grade when my friend Tracy invited me to her neighborhood in which, despite one-acre zoning, kids were promised quite a haul! (read about that here).
Being Irish-Catholic not only meant that my parents were all in on Halloween traditions, but it also meant our Catholic School was closed for all Saints Day, giving us a day to recuperate after all that walking and candy consumption. Personal Halloween traditions evolved over the years as I outgrew trick or treating. Although I never outgrew getting dressed up or throwing a party.
There was a Halloween when I was 21 and home from college, I dressed as the grim reaper and accompanied my friends to a bar. I was so scary, no one would talk to me. The following year, I had a party at my house (parents were away) and I was late 80s Bud Light advertising icon Spuds MacKenzie.
I had a couple of those horrible plastic store bought costumes or two (I can still smell the mask and remember what it felt like to put my tongue through that little hole in the mouth), but my mom made most of my costumes – witch, clown, bunny, Snoopy. Although I wasn’t a seamstress like my mom, I was creative enough to make or at least assemble many of my own costumes. I also thoroughly enjoyed dressing my daughter up until she wanted to start making her own decisions about costumes. The last one I influenced was the “rainbow” and that might be why I was out of a job by the next Halloween.
At work we have “Haunted Hallways” in which we decorate our offices and the hallways between them. The children in the organization’s care come around trick or treating. I resurrected the grim reaper costume two years ago and scared a few of the kids – mostly teens – who thought they were too old to be scared. That was fun! I missed it last year.
This year, I’m hoping we have enough trick or treaters between the designated hours of 4-8 p.m. for the 100 little bags I assembled (otherwise I will be forced to eat them myself). It’s not like the only days when trick or treating started when school ended and stopped when you either ran out to energy or people turned off their porch lights because they ran out of candy.
Did you really think this wasn’t going to include a fundraiser? It’s me. Of course it is! Over the course of these 60 weeks, I am hoping to raise $6000 for the children of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (that’s just $100 a week!). To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.
