Hallowe'en

Hallowe’en was never a favourite holiday with me.  In fact when my father first told me about Hallowe’en I thought it sounded like one of his jokes.  I was seven.  I refused to get all dressed up to go knocking on strange doors but my sister and brother went out and was I ever sorry when they came home with a pillow case full of candy.  After that I felt I was not too mature to go into costume!

 You see Hallowe’en is not a holiday in Denmark and so we didn’t know anything about this event.  When we first immigrated to Canada we lived in Little Italy and for whatever reason we were not exposed to it there.  It wasn’t until we lived in Grimsby in our own house that my parents learned about trick or treating.  So I never experienced it until I went out for the first time at the elderly age of eight.  I went out as a witch.  There weren’t very many homes in our neighbourhood but we were allowed to go along Applebyline on “our” side which had a sidewalk so we managed to get quite a bit of candy.  In those days it was safe to eat homemade candyapples or popcorn balls.  I loved the old-fashioned molasses candy which I believe is now banned.  We didn’t start getting mini chocolate bars until I was maybe 11 or 12.  Mostly we just got a piece of candy or 2 or some 2 piece boxes of chiclets.

            Hallowe’en  is my nephew’s favourite holiday and has been since he was a little kid.  He loved it more than Christmas which certainly is rare considering how much we all love presents!  Christopher had the greatest Hallowe’en parties which became more elaborate with each passing year.  I’m sure the whole town lamented when he went off to university and had to stop holding them.  Today I would give $50 to be a fly on his practicum classroom’s wall.  I can only imagine what sort of costume he will feel compelled to wear today and wonder how the children will react. 

            Happy Hallowe’en Everybody!