*shocked* The H. fairy wouldn’t eat any candy that was earmarked for poor unfortunate sucrose-deprived children, would she?

Traditionally, the festival [the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain, from which All Hallow's Eve originated] was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

If anyone were to give kids fruits or nuts, which was also part of the festival’s earlier Irish and Scottish tradition, I’m sure the ungrateful wretches — at least here in the USA — would turn right around and pelt the kindly neighbor with ‘em. “Salt was once sprinkled in the hair of the children to protect against evil spirits,” says Dr. Wikipedia. At least I’m not that much of an atavist.

I do, though, appreciate that what we got going on here ain’t always been this way. Thus the sense of licence with novel additions to the holiday. My mom’s Halloween was very different than mine, or my kids’. She had stories mostly of mischief-making. As a girl in Santa Monica, she was cajoled by chums into being the one to ring Boris Karloff’s door. Relatively recently shot to fame as Frankenstein, he was very kind and invited her in for milk and cookies.

Great pics. The Mr. and I went out kid-watching in a nearby neighborhood last night, since our building is locked and we can’t hand out candy. Very fun!