Today is Halloween. I hope that it won’t be too spooky for you and that any frights are delightful.
I have had an evolving relationship with Halloween. As an elementary school kid I loved to dress up in costumes and collect candy. In junior high school I would escort my younger sister and the neighbors still gave me candy even though I wasn’t wearing a costume. I didn’t think much about Halloween during college and law school. It was just another day and unlike Labor Day or Memorial Day we didn’t even get a day off if it fell on a weekday.
Things changed fast a few years after our son was born and he wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and other characters. And unlike me, when he went to high school the kids hosted Halloween parties that he attended with mostly other kids from the marching band. Then he went away to college and I took joy in subscribing to a care package service that sent him goodies for Halloween and other occasions.
He died on July 17, 2006 and I really didn’t give Halloween much thought. I didn’t buy any candy. I turned off the lights at my house. I didn’t think about it. I was just trying to avoid it completely. But I didn’t avoid it because I got home while kids were out and about trick or treating. So I heard the sounds of their feet crunching the newly fallen leaves as they ran from house to house. And I saw the masked ghouls, goblins and caricatures of their favorite heroes and heroines! At first I felt a little creepy. Then I remembered Aaron and imagined that he was among the trick or treaters. Suddenly Halloween didn’t seem creepy any more. And I understood that the Irish with Halloween and the Mexicans with Dia De La Muerta had the right idea to remember and memorialize their departed ones as they once were in this life mainly seeking treats.
Then I smiled.
Leave a Reply