HALLOWEEN 2015

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

I realise it is somewhat controversial. Some of my religious friends believe it is not a healthy thing to watch horror movies, or participate in what they believe is a remnant of pagan traditions.

An electric Jack 'O Lantern above, and a carved pumpkin below. From last year, 2014.

I have a friend in Norway who says that only the younger people enjoy Halloween there -- many others think it's a bad American tradition that Norwegians should not adopt. My friend there carved a pumpkin ('gresskar' på norsk) last year and carved a first one the year before, and apparently had a lot of fun doing it.

The modern American Halloween holiday is mostly an Irish and Ulster-Irish tradition. We got it from the Ulster-Irish immigrants, many of whom migrated to Pennsylvania and in Appalachia in the 1700's and 1800's, and migrated from those places to other parts of the country.

My Cat Pumpkin from last year, which I kept lit until late November.

The custom of carving pumpkins evolved from the carving of turnips in Scotland on All Hallows' Eve. Many of those Scots migrated to Ulster (Northern Ireland), and from Ulster they migrated to the U.S. in the 1700's. And their customs followed with them.

When I was a kid I was fascinated by Halloween. The pumpkins, especially. I was crazy about jack o' lanterns. I still remember burning my thumb on a jack o' lantern candle when I was 3 or 4.

Three excellently carved Jack 'O Lanterns.

In my area of the U.S. the leaves are usually mostly orange and yellow during Halloween time, and it's a mystical feeling time of year.

A mix of carved pumpkins, factory made window decorations, and homemade Halloween decorations.

To me it's a time to carve a pumpkin or two, put out a few electric jack o' lanterns, and give candy to neighborhood kids who trick-or-treat. It's one of the few times you get to interact on a fun, positive level with the kids and their parents (who always accompany the kids when they trick or treat in my neighborhood -- I give the parents a candy bar, too).

Last year a neighbor carved an Owl Jack 'O Lantern. Really cool.

Not even the Fourth of July or Christmas get neighbors into such one-on-one interaction. But with trick-or-treating, most children out in the neighborhood are accompanied by their parents. It's a cool way to meet and engage in a fun tradition.

Some of my neighbors go all out with their Halloween displays.  Others turn off their lights, lock their doors, and hope the trick or treaters will just go away. :-( Happily, there aren't too many of them.

A family's carved pumpkin collection, Halloween 2015.

Last year (2014) we had a really good Halloween. The weather was cloudy but dry, and there were at least 15-20 trick-or-treaters that came to my door. In other parts of my neighborhood people had as many as 50 trick-or-treaters.

This Halloween it was awful. Pouring rain. I only had 10 trick or treaters -- that's including the parents. It was just the neighbor kids from across the street, and next door. I hadn't put up as many decorations as last year. I guess it didn't make any difference.

Most of the pictures I've posted here are from Halloween last year, and a couple years before. I only have a couple pictures from this year, because there weren't that many Halloween decorations out in my area.

A neighbor's Alien Vampire graveyard.

Now it's the major holiday season here... Thanksgiving has just passed, Christmas and New Year's are on the way. I don't include Black Friday because I never have participated in that commercialised custom.

Strobe-lit Halloween ghost window decorations.

Of course, right now it's way past time to put all the Halloween decorations in their boxes and dig out the Christmas lights. But I thought I'd post a little snippet of Halloween memories here on the blog.

Happy December. :-)