All Hallow’s Eve

And once again we come to that time of year where everyone can pretend to be someone/something else for a night and let loose. Unfortunately for many women this means dressing as provocatively as possible…or simply wearing as little as you’re comfortable with and calling it a costume.

Halloween has had many names through history, cultures, countries and various religions. It is also known as:

• Autumn Equinox
• Fall Solstice
• Cornucopia
• Festival of Dionysus
• Harvest Tide
• Night of the Hunter
• Wine Harvest
• Witch’s Thanksgiving
• Hallow Mass
• Hallowtide
• Hallows
• All Hallow’s Eve
• All Saint’s Day
• Hallowe’en
• Halloween

I fondly remember pumpkin carving, costume making and party planning. And on the 31st festivities would begin with trick-or-treating (although I never fully understood the “trick” part of that saying) with my sister or with friends, and then going to the local community fair grounds. There would be a haunted house, a themed candy walk and finally fireworks.

For those that don’t know what a candy walk is, its basically what it sounds like. Some local volunteers would decorate the inside of a building (in our case a barn) after a theme such as the ‘Wizard of Oz’ or ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and then wear costumes in-line with the theme as well. They would open it to the public for a small donation and the children would walk through, admire the decorations and at various stops receive a small handful of candy. It was…in a word…awesome. I remember trying to spot the kids I knew in both the candy walk and the haunted house. Then we’d all stand around drinking hot chocolate, eating candy and waiting for the fireworks to start.

I loved Halloween as a child and still do as an adult (young adult?) The costumes have changed somewhat…and though I still refuse to go out in next-to-nothing, I do like dressing up in tighter than normal outfits that are cute/sexy instead of dead. This year I finally bought myself a new costume…since I’ve been recycling the same one for 3 years now.

I quite like my new one although I will be wearing a few changes such as nylons and black heels.

For the Halloween weekend I’ll be returning to the Island and attending the Anderson Annual Party (although they didn’t host the party last year). The Andersons are a family I have known for a while, but only become close to since I’ve been dating my boyfriend, Patrick. I went to school with their son Geoff and his younger sister Jessica but never really knew the rest of the family that well.

They usually have an enormous Halloween bash and this year I’m rather excited to go! Hopefully it doesn’t end up as messy as last year’s Halloween ended up for me! I definitely drank too much in too short a time frame. This year I plan to have fun.