Hallowe'en

Sonnet organises a Trick-O-Treat at our house and we pick up the kids and their guests for the afternoon. With Martha Stewart as her guide, Sonnet takes the kids through their steps: bobbing for apples, story-telling (me - frightening - ignored), dinner and finally dress up. Parents arrive at 5:30PM and off we go. I learn from Ashling that Hallowe'en was born in Ireland, where the early Celts believed that it is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Scottish and Irish tales of the Sidhe). The kids could care less about the history of course: it is all about C-A-N-D-Y and who has the MO-OST. The neighborhood is clued into the festivities with lighted pumpkins, cob-web decorations, witches and the like. Some go as far as speaker systems which blast haunting noises (think cackles and so forth). Finally, it is a joy to see the hundreds of kids dragging their parents around including us. It's all over by 8:30PM and Eitan and Madeleine busily count their loot: Eitan scores 52 pieces while Madeleine, mouth full, reports 47.