Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history and memories through photographs. This week's theme is Ghosts, who we associate with Halloween, so I have chosen to look back at my own memories of this holiday weekend.
Ghostly figures here
Halloween was almost a non-event in both my childhood and my daughter’s, as traditions took a long time to reach Britain from across the Atlantic.
Turnips were used to to create lanterns, as pumpkins were a rarity here.
Image courtesy of Pixabay
Witches were always a popular theme at fancy dress parties throughout the year and my daughter (and now granddaughter) enjoyed reading the "Worst Witch " books. As for chants - it was
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
(As proclaimed by the witches in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth").
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| Image courtesy of Pixabay |
"Trick and Treat" has never caught on much in my experience, with reservations about youngsters knocking on the doors of people they don't know. In the years we have lived in our present home, only once have we had visitors - two very polite little groups (with mothers in the background), who regaled me with jokes e.g. What does the Chinese skeleton order in a restaurant? Answer: Spare ribs!!
What I do love about this time of year are "Pumpkins"! My daughter even gave me a pumpkin candle for my birthday in September. They are such lovely, cheery symbols and I could not stop photographing them when I was in the USA.
We just had to pull into this huge display, so I could take this photograph!
A pumpkin dominating this display at Boston market.
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I put a couple of electric lighted jack-o-lanterns on my front porch every year. When we lived up the hill in Soulsbyville I went all out decorating my gazebo with all manner of scary Halloween things because we had 300 trick-or-treaters coming to the door begging for treats who could admire them. :()
ReplyDeleteI remember playing those same apple eating games when I was at Girl Guides in Australia!
ReplyDeleteOur kids enjoyed a holiday to Canada October 2001 as they were able to participate in Halloween Trick or Treat. It is an experience they will always remember as it wasn't something that we did in Australia when they were kids.
Thanks for the pumpkin shots! For the last 2 decades I’ve lived in apartments where no kids trick or treated. But a whole street was closed off and all the Black Mountain kids would go there for treats for several years. Trunk or Treat is now a way people can decorate the trunks of cars, park all together in a parking lot, and kids and parents come gather together in costumes. But I hope some neighbors still share from front porches…a fine tradition that my kids had.
ReplyDeleteLovely pumpkin photos! Glad the holiday has somewhat caught on there. Halloween was a big event in my childhood. I lived on a street with 52 children (Baby Boomers) and before Halloween we did the "tricks" part of trick or treat by ringing doorbells then running and hiding (to our parents chagrin) or drawing designs on the outside of house windows with a bar of soap ("soaping windows"). This merriment went on for a few weeks before Halloween, when we finally got to dress up and go door to door for "treats." Today, in NYC where I live, children go store-to-store for treats out of safety concerns, but still dress up and have a great deal of fun!
ReplyDeleteThe turnip lantern detail really stayed with me — I had never stopped to think about pumpkins being a rarity, and carving a turnip sounds like hard work by comparison. And Apple Dookin at Guides sounds like such a wonderful autumn tradition. It is lovely how a few small details like that can bring a whole childhood season back so clearly.
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