Friday, November 01, 2013

Sewing~Painting~Carving~Borrowing~Creating Halloween

Hundreds of pumpkins, grown locally by the SRF and carved by the monks, were on display all over our main street. There were some astonishingly beautiful ones, and silly ones, and simple ones. I only took two pictures, but I like them. A lot.

Our plans for Halloween were not easy to pin down, and it wasn't until after sunset that we were decided. There was homework to complete, classes to come home from, and costumes to finish. Sometimes these last-minute-no-plan plans can really leave me primed for anxious stressyness, but I did not go that way... I made breakfast burritos, I snipped and stitched, to help with costumes. We found gloves. We secured the kitties. And we left the Bird House, en masse, eager to find treats and fun. And. It was a big success. We joined the happy crowds downtown.

William is dignified, Maria is fairyfied, Max is a plague doctor, Alex is Jack of the Lantern, and Bambi is missing a potato... but her manga cosplay looks cool anyway.

Alex worked on his shepherd's crook~stilt all week, and even got some help from his grandmother Delia, who held it steady so he could carve the staff with vines and leaves.

Downtown merchants shared treats, and up and down the streets were revelers of every age, awesome costumes, and funny pets. The restaurants were overflowing, and a band was playing. It was a bright, cheery, fun crowd.

Back home, we turned off all the lights and had a flashlight candy hunt! That was a worthwhile bit of inspiration, and funny, too. Earlier in the week Alex admitted he really wanted some trick-or-treats, that he could very well buy himself some chocolate, but that it felt unsporting, empty. I jokingly suggested that I could hide candy from them... but even as I said it, we realized we were on to something interesting.

You see, some boys, girls too, get tall very soon, even when they are still quite young, and it's so disappointing how many people make nosy, or mean, or pointless comments, or how some towns even ban trick-or-treating for anyone considered "too old, or too big." I've never agreed with this idea of cutting-out young people from the fun. There are these lousy trends in our culture of kicking young people out and giving them no place in the activities and traditions that they would like to enjoy, like trick-or-treating. Our youth get rushed into a false limbo-adulthood too soon, and creativity is squashed... it's tragic, really. Janece shared a commentary on this same subject.

Well, Halloween, and any celebration or tradition is what you make it, and we wanted to make it fun! I stashed and hid chocolates all over the kitchen... clever, sneaky me! Laughing, sharing hints and clues, squealing at their finds, everyone found treats, enjoyed tricks, and made Halloween fun. This will definitely happen again! We'll be inviting all of our tall, shy, treat deprived friends over for some flashlight candy hunting next Halloween!

4 comments:

judy in ky said...

Those are the COOLEST costumes I have ever seen! Your kids are so creative! I love the monks' pumpkins, too. Wow, you really do Halloween right around there.

Lady Cordelia said...

oh....those pumpkins.
I feel like I haven't visited in so long.
nice to see you again.
XO

CJ said...

Wonderful photos, and great sentiments too. Glad you had such a good time.

Janece said...

Wonderful! The costumes, the downtown revelrie, the pumpkins, and new celebratory traditions... they are all wonderful! Thank you for sharing!!