Halloween is a contraction of ‘All Hallow Eve’, that is the evening before All Hallows Day or All Saints Day, which itself is the day before All Souls Day when all the dead are remembered. In the Middle Ages this was a chance for the Church to pray for the souls of those who could not afford to or did not wish to pay for ‘indulgences’ whereby the clergy would shorten your time in Purgatory by praying on your behalf.
The festival may have had pagan roots before it became a Christian holiday for those preparing for All Hallows Day, but now represents a lighthearted celebration of all things ghoulish. Although long celebrated in Europe it seems to have largely died out here until recently being re-introduced from America in the form of ‘trick-or-treat’ where children dress up and collect small gifts from householders or threaten them with a bit of civil disobedience.
Trick-or-treat: Our next door neighbour Tabitha with daughters Sophie & Kacy
All the kids that came ‘trick-or-treating’ got a shock when Margaret came to door wearing this mask.
Later on the 31st we visited our friend Richard who is recovering from major surgery. He lives in the flats overlooking Holes Bay (see my comments about the Webs counts on 25th Oct) and this is the view from his window.
On the 1st the girls had a Halloween party. With the girls off school for half term, I spent a lot of the day ferrying Kara about getting supplies for the party whilst Amber stayed at home and decorated the house with fake cobwebs and cut out bats.
We called in to the party for about 45 minutes, mainly to give Janis moral support! Of course we had to get into character first …..
….. which is more than most of the teenagers did, they were more interested in playing ‘spin the bottle’ (again)
Amber dressed as a witch …..
…. whilst Kara kept to her scary doll persona.
The scariest thing about this Halloween was going to a teenage party!
‘You’ll always find her in the kitchen at parties’
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