Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Halloween
Another season, another celebration - such is Canadian life. With autumn/fall, everyone starts decorating their houses with apples and pumpkins and leaves in red, yellow and orange. Kids go on hayrides and wander around in cornstalk mazes. Radio and TV ads start using lame Halloween puns ('It's spook-tacular!') and the shops are crammed with sweets in every conceivable shape and colour (including fingers and skulls oozing black goo that should come with the number of the nearest Poison Control Centre).
A couple of weeks later, Halloween arrives and everyone (including the adults) dresses up. This is the part I love. Hands up the number of people I know in England who would dress up, ever (I can see my sister's hand going up, and Milton's, and everyone's in my accapella group). I can basically count them on one hand. Here, you're considered a stick-in-the-mud if you don't at least put on a funny hat. I went as Batgirl, which was a great excuse to wear PVC : )
Then there's the trick-or-treaters. All the kids go around their neighbourhood getting candy from everyone, and all the neighbours chat to each other and the adults tell the kids how cute they are before giving them unfathomable amounts of E numbers. One of my friends even got cookies that looked like fingers (with almonds for fingernails - how cool??).
It's all good fun, and even the Christians join in rather than condemning people to another night in front of the TV because the whole thing is occult and you'll probably get psychos putting razors in your apples anyway. They realise it's a chance for fun and togetherness just like any other celebration (the mummy in the photo is my friend Nina, who's married to my pastor : ) I love this country!
Some other great costumes, by the way...
My friend Steve as Michael Jackson in 'Thriller'
Steve's mum as Dolly Parton (note the knockers)
My best friend Tammy (left) as a gypsy and Steve's sister Lindsey as a pirate
A couple of weeks later, Halloween arrives and everyone (including the adults) dresses up. This is the part I love. Hands up the number of people I know in England who would dress up, ever (I can see my sister's hand going up, and Milton's, and everyone's in my accapella group). I can basically count them on one hand. Here, you're considered a stick-in-the-mud if you don't at least put on a funny hat. I went as Batgirl, which was a great excuse to wear PVC : )Then there's the trick-or-treaters. All the kids go around their neighbourhood getting candy from everyone, and all the neighbours chat to each other and the adults tell the kids how cute they are before giving them unfathomable amounts of E numbers. One of my friends even got cookies that looked like fingers (with almonds for fingernails - how cool??).
It's all good fun, and even the Christians join in rather than condemning people to another night in front of the TV because the whole thing is occult and you'll probably get psychos putting razors in your apples anyway. They realise it's a chance for fun and togetherness just like any other celebration (the mummy in the photo is my friend Nina, who's married to my pastor : ) I love this country!Some other great costumes, by the way...
My friend Steve as Michael Jackson in 'Thriller'
Steve's mum as Dolly Parton (note the knockers)
My best friend Tammy (left) as a gypsy and Steve's sister Lindsey as a pirate
