It's Halloween!

I have vivid childhood memories Halloween (or Hallowe'en, as we used to write it). I still remember the first time I went out to beg for candies... My mother helped me get dressed up as a gypsy. I wore one of her skirts and several necklaces. Some older kids picked me up to "trick-or-treat" in Hay Lakes, the village where I lived. In the dark, it was such an adventure! In those years, we'd sometimes stand outside a neighbor's door and shout, "Halloween apples!" Sometimes we'd get apples - which were the latest fall fruit of the season.

(When did pumpkins replace apples?!!)

I don't remember carving a pumpkin till my own children were young.

They also had good memories of going out in costume to "trick-or-treat" - especially in the early years, when Terry would stand on the road and supervise. They would walk up and down our street - coming home with a big bag of candy and count their loot!





As a child, I wasn't aware of the religious origins of the Halloween - that it was the evening before "All Saints Day," November 1. In fact, it was only years later, when I was visiting my parents in Kelowna, that I made the connection. We must have been keeping an eye on grandpa while his live-in caregiver went out to an evening church service one Halloween.

I remember Gertrude returning, wiping tears from her eyes as she came in.

That's the last All Saints service I'm ever going to, she announced. It's too emotional... I know too many people who have died. 

I was surprised... I had never gone to a service commemorating the dead. I didn't even know it was a Christian tradition.