"Who are you?" I was six years old and it was my next-door neighbor pretending she didn't know who I really was. It was a night for witches and some of my friends went all out to look like one. Where I lived, street lights were not in abundance. This was good. Imagination works better when it’s dark.
It's time again to decorate our front porch with a smiling plastic Peter pumpkin as against the old-fashioned kind that grows in the field and waits for its harvest. I emphasize "smiling" because who needs a frowning pumpkin?
Everything has a beginning and Halloween is no different. It began as an ancient Celtic festival when giant bonfires signaled there were significant supplies ready for the upcoming winter. The Gaels also believed that on this day the boundaries between the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased came back to life and created all kinds of catastrophe.
Masks were worn not for the fun of it but to scare away and confuse any energetic evil spirits.
Geography plays an interesting role in the celebration of this celebration of All Hallows' Eve. In Germany they hide their knives to avoid an unpleasant encounter with malicious bent on mischief spirits.
In Ireland they play a game in which cards are placed at the table face down with candy or coins underneath. A child chooses a card and gets to keep what he or she then finds.
In Czechoslovakia, two chairs are set by a fireplace; one for each living family member and a second for each family member's spirit.
In my teenage years we took hayrides to view the various Halloween scenes. Then there was the inevitable haunted house. And best of all, some imagination put in play – such as a pumpkin carving party. And with a little advanced planning some pumpkin cookies to munch on during the event.
These days some couples rent a hearse for a night out on the town. It would not be my cup of tea.
Ah well, variety is the spice of life.
Halloween is as old as a thousand yesterdays but still each year one or more new countries join in celebrating this October 31st time of the year. The young people who, nowadays, show up at our door crying out "Trick or treat" are echoing a medieval practice called "souling" when the poor would go from door to door and receive food in exchange for their prayers for the dead.
Of course, there are the inevitable warnings that have nothing to do with ghosts or other Halloween imaginings. Dentist and doctors warn us that the results this overabundance of sweets is tooth decay and obesity.
Or as one wit wrote: “Eat, drink and be scary."
Whatever thoughts or memories wander through your mind at this time of the year I’m wishing you a happy Halloween.