By Marcy T.
With the changing colors of the autumn season, we look forward to one of America’s favorite holidays, Halloween. Celebrated on October 31, Halloween gives our children a chance to pretend they are someone else when they put on a costume and mask to assume a new identity. There is great excitement over choosing their costume for the day. They may dress like their favorite hero, whether it’s a character from a book, movie, or television show, or perhaps a real life hero like their Mom or Dad. Children might pretend to be a robot, a fairy, a dinosaur, an astronaut, or even a specific character from a book like Harry Potter. There is often a scary element to everyone’s costumes and decorations When darkness falls on Halloween, children, usually accompanied by their parents, go door to door in their neighborhood to ring their neighbor’s doorbell and announce “Trick or Treat”. The neighbors, after expressing great delight over the impressive costumes of their visitors, then offer a small treat of candy to the children. .
Decorating our homes for the occasion is another enjoyable part of Halloween. It’s common to carve pumpkins to make jack o’ lanterns which might be placed in someone’s living room window or on their front porch. A hole is cut in the top of the pumpkin so that the inside flesh of the pumpkin can be removed. (This could be used for making a pumpkin pie!) Then some kind of scary or funny face is carved into the pumpkin. A small candle can be placed inside the pumpkin and lit for the evening, and the lid including the stem put back on top. Then the face of the pumpkin will be lit from inside, making a delightful decoration. Sometimes neighbors hang cobwebs or images of ghosts from their porches. It’s all part of the scary theme of the holiday. I hope you will be able to participate in the fun this Halloween whether it’s at a small party at home or walking door-to-door within your neighborhood. It’s time to “trick or treat”!
