Halloween

I am not sure of the exact appeal to Halloween. Perhaps it is the pagan in me, longing to come out. The girl who used to burn black candles and listen to eerie music. Really, the only religions that make even the slightest bit of sense to me are taoism and wicca, but I digress. Perhaps halloween is as exciting as it is because of the anonymity of costumes, the idea we can each metamorphise into another being. We grew up in a small town, atop a mountain, so the trick or treating was sparse and difficult. As young teenagers, my friends and I would traipse around the center of the mountain, hunting out the best goodies (full sized candybars) and I would stand by and disapprovingly watch as they "tricked" the less than generous houses. Back then, parents were trusting enough to send their strangely clad children out into the dark to knock on strangers doors. We would all heed the rules about no wrapperless candy, knowing that evil disguised itself as razor blades in 3 Musketeer Bars. As a parent, my joy comes from the photo ops with my children....cute little cherubic faces peering out from nylon and stuffing, equal mix of glee and fear in their eyes as we walk up to the houses with hanging skeletons and luminescent jack o'lanterns. I love the horror movies they play for the last two weeks of the month, and have to wonder why we as a society love to be scared the way we do. Although I suppose that the fear we feel when watching halloween or Psycho or Pet Semetary is nowhere close to the fear we feel when at war, or when republicans are in office, but again I digress.
This year, my oldest daughter is unsure of what she wants to be. It started out as a cowgirl, then switched to a bat, and now it is wavering between a storybook character or a fairy. I have tried to tell her of the handmade costumes of my youth...my mother actually dressed me as Michael Jackson and Ben Franklin, but kids these days assume all costumes should come wrapped in plastic and match 20 other kids in their classes. There is palpable excitement in the air this week at my house. Our pumpkins are eager for their slaughter... the scarecrow grins through the dark, and the glow in the dark spider is happily awaiting the impending day on his web. And this year... I get to be the woman all the kids will long to see....for I, my friends, have Full Sized Candybars.