Friday, October 31, 2008

Dictionary Friday: Halloween

Halloween
An international holiday celebrated on the evening of October 31; today it is often celebrated in the morning and afternoon as well. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, and at times in parts of New Zealand. In Sweden the All Saints' official holiday takes place on the first Saturday of November.

There's more than a little excitement in our house about the holiday. Dixon completely grasps it this year - he's obsessed with all the pumpkins we see, and he's been talking about his costume and going trick-or-treating for at least 10 days straight. It's a triple-exciting day for him: he gets to dress up in a funny outfit PLUS we're going to a party at Mike and Alicia's (he loves parties) PLUS...candy. He's so excited about the candy.

I'm excited, too. Like Dixon, I love parties (especially at Mike and Alicia's house, where Halloween is especially Halloweeny). And this year, since it's Friday, we're all dressing up. I've been working on the costumes for a few weeks now (mostly sourcing materials, all the actual construction happened yesterday) and I feel comfortable saying that the Pollards are going to be the most incredible superheroes ever:Don't we look good?

And this is, actually, about food other than candy. Alicia makes soups and spiced wine and we have Andy Nelson's for Halloween. It's very, very seasonal and festive, and I'll definitely report back fully on Monday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

mmMMMMM Andy Nelson's!
Can I come too? ;)

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