Welcome to All Saints' Day

It's Day Light Savings Time (for the places that observe).

Also Happy Half Price Halloween Candy Day!

Of course the grocery stores were out of the candy that I wanted. I ran out of candy again last night and even gave some of my lunch chocolates to trick-or-treaters who kept coming to the door while I was heading inside. My neighbors felt that it wasn't a huge turn out this year and some of the parents didn't think that many houses were set up to give candy.

I hope that it was just because it was a Saturday. I also heard more kids after I turned out the lights at the front of my house. 

Before I went inside, I did accidently scare a little girl. It is difficult to see me sitting on my front stairs outside my house. I have two large hedges that obscure the view. A little girl was running ahead of her parents, trying to keep up with her younger brother. I was sitting on the stairs with my candy and jack-o-lantern, dressed all in black and in a featureless mask except for two large eye holes. As the little girl caught sight of me, she froze with her mouth hanging open in fear. I tried pulling off my mask and explain I wasn't a monster, but she had already turned and bolted back to her parents. Her parents promptly started laughing. By this point, I had stood up, so they could somewhat see me with my mask on top of my head. I apologies for scaring their daughter, but they thought it was so funny that they were sad they hadn't been able to film her reaction. 

I kept my mask off when her parents brought her back for a piece of candy.

Overall, I had a nice Halloween and All Saints' Day - which is today by the way. Halloween means Holy Eve, like Christmas Eve. I went to a small party and handed out candy on Halloween, then ended the night with the first two Halloweentown movies. My tradition on the 1st of November is to rewatch all ten episodes of Over the Garden Wall, an old (over ten years ago now sheesh) Cartoon Network show with ten episodes about 15 minutes long each.

It's a nice, somewhat melancholic show about two young boys lost in a strange, yet fantastical world. The aesthetic is very Victorian, turn of the 20th century. It has a similar art style to Gravity Falls (if you are familiar with that 2010s Disney show) or Steven Universe (another 2010s Cartoon Network show). I didn't grow up with this show, but I have found it soothing to watch the day after Halloween since the majority of the show takes place on and after Halloween.

(WARNING! THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD)

There's a lot about life and death in Over the Garden Wall. Death and danger as constant specters are right in the first episode and follow the boys until the very end. My favorite episode, the second one with the gourd people, has a twist on life after death. When the boys and their blue bird friend show up at the town, they interrupt the town people's harvest celebration. They are asked "aren't you a little early to join us?", after they cause some minor pumpkin destruction and are then sentenced to help with the harvest. While digging holes, the boys discover skeletons. The boys think the towns people are going to kill them, until (SPOILERS) the skeleton's jump out of the holes, put on their gourd clothes, and thank the kids for digging them up.

All of the people in the town were already dead, but they were still living their best lives. 

Halloween is a holiday celebrating life and death. We build haunted houses to scare ourselves silly and get our heart rates up. We dress as monsters and ghosts to party and collect treats. The leaves are changing colors and many plants are dying in the cold weather, yet there is a promise of life returning in the Spring.

The first year I started this blog, my grandfather died on Halloween. I have a lot of fond memories of my grandfather during the holiday season, but especially Halloween. There were a few years he was at our house and took us trick-or-treating. One year he did my make up when I dressed up as a vampire. He insisted that I have blood dribbling down my chin - as all good vampires do - and I scared the neighbors' kid so bad, he refused to go trick-or-treating. I gave him some of my candy.

One of my parents was also very ill during the Halloween season before they died. That year, I dressed up as a Beatnik since I had to go into work. I took some time to go visit them at the rehab hospital they were at. They couldn't open their eyes or see my costume. I'm not even sure they were awake while I was there. But I wanted to give them some holiday cheer. 

Sadly, that parent died 15 days later.

Modern witches (mainly Wiccans and witches that follow the Celtic traditions) believe that Halloween or Samhain (pronounced sow-in) is a time when the dead can return to Earth, much like Mexico's Day of the Dead (which is November 1st through 2nd instead of October 31st). I like to light a candle for the dead and leave out some soul cakes (a kind of cookie/small cake) to welcome spirits who'd like to visit.

I enjoy the quite reflection between these holidays. Having everything fit on the weekend was a nice treat. It can be harder to celebrate everything when Halloween falls on a week day.

This year, I took some time to plan my celebrations of the season throughout October. I even selected a book for the season. I started reading William Peter Blatty's book The Exorcist on October 1st and finished the novel just before trick-or-treating started on the 31st. The movie is very close to the book with a few exceptions. It too focuses on life and death along with the main battle of good versus evil. I honestly didn't find the book all that scary, though it was a very good story. I've just seen the movie too many times.

I also went to a couple of farms to do Fall activities like corn mazes, hay rides, and over eating cider donuts. I watched my favorite movies (except the ones I couldn't find on streaming nor DVD). I cleaned and got rid of things that I no longer needed. I even carved a pumpkin - my cat was mystified by this activity. 

I love October, but it is a melancholic time for me. It's beautiful and fun, but also a time for me to remember those who I have lost over the years. The recent death of my aunt and Sir. Patrick Stewart are top of my mind. 

But with the end of the year coming up, there is also the promise of Spring and new life. 

Check out Over the Garden Wall for your last bit of spooky season and check out The Exorcist if you dare. It might be a horror novel perfectly suited to this time of year, but it actually takes place in mid-Spring.

Until the next week.

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