Or happy Halloween, depending which you celebrate. Both is, of course, an option. As we wrap up the harvest season, at least those of us in northern climates that are rapidly moving towards winter, we celebrate the shifting seasons with Samhain, taking the opportunity to mourn our losses at this point in the year when the veil between the living and spirit world is considered to be at its thinnest.
In the United States, we also celebrate Halloween, a holiday that has derived from Samhain and similar celebrations. While Halloween parties usually fall on the weekend that precedes the holiday, whatever day of the week Halloween falls traditionally sees children donning costumes and going door-to-door trick-or-treating, requesting goodies (typically candy) from their neighbors. Many towns now have designated trick-or-treating hours, usually ranging a couple hours before and after sunset; our hours are 4-8pm, with a 5:50pm sunset.
We live in an area of town where trick-or-treating is light: the yards are reasonably wide, and there are no sidewalks or street lights, all of which discourage families from wandering our block. We usually see a handful of people before dark and that’s it. That is not, in my mind, worth buying a large bag of candy for, since we would then need to eat the remainders. Instead, I have a box of toys I set on a table by the front door with a “please take one” sign. These toys keep easily between years – unlike chocolate – and can be added to when the box starts to run low.
Though it’s not running low yet, I wanted to experiment with crocheting a ghost this year. And once I had made a couple of those, I wanted a spider – a pattern I’ve crocheted before – and threw together a couple Frankenstein monsters as well. Other than the spider, these aren’t stuffed… in terms of shape, they’re essentially upside down pots, holding themselves up on the weight of the yarn. Hopefully they’ll be enjoyed by the small number of people who wander by our house.
