Mysterious joy of Halloween is renewed

As October creeps along there are signs of Halloween everywhere.  Enormous displays of candy deck the aisles of the grocery store, neighborhoods are decorating their houses, the air is getting chillier and the darkness of night is advancing quickly.  I find children all over town giddily anticipating the festive night.  But it’s not just the children of the area that are looking forward to Halloween—it’s adults too. 

What is it exactly that adults love so much about Halloween?  Perhaps it is the chance to revisit a creative and silly side of our own childhoods.  Imagining that a dark autumn night holds something mysterious or scary is thrilling, even to those of us who are all grown up.  Or perhaps it is simply the fun of handing out raw sugar to other people’s children and imagining the good times that follow.  One night a year, children on a sugar high are adorably endearing.

Before we moved to Grand Coulee we lived in a section of our town in New Mexico where everyone had a couple of acres of land; beautiful, but not conducive to small children walking between houses on a dark October night.  The first year we lived there, fresh out of youth, my husband and I excitedly put out the Halloween decorations and filled bowls with candy, eagerly awaiting the first trick-or-treaters.  Sadly, we were sorely disappointed.  Not a single costumed child showed up and we were left alone watching scary movies with far too much candy to split between two adults. 

The delightful mystery of Halloween was lost from our lives for a few years.   Halloween is a holiday seemingly created strictly for children, and until we had one of our own it was too easy to treat the day as a non-event, a day to simply get through on the way to the more monumental holidays of the next few months.

Consequently, after a hiatus of many years, Halloween celebrations have reentered my life as an important date on the yearly calendar.  As a parent, I feel it is my solemn duty to give my daughter the simplistic childhood version of what a holiday may mean.  Therefore, for Halloween I give her pumpkins, costumes, and candy.  Unlike other holidays, the child version of Halloween is not much shallower than the adult version.  What is Halloween other than a guise for a night of fun and indulgence?  All that’s required these days is a costume, however simple or elaborate it may be.  Even the idle threat of the “trick” has long been discarded among most American children who rightfully assume that it is their due, without any sort of song, dance or entertainment, to receive their “treat.” 

I’ve been told that we live in an area of town that gets an enormous amount of trick-or-treating traffic.  So, for the first time in many years, we have pulled out the old decorations and stocked up on massive bags of candy.  They mysterious delight of Halloween has returned, even if I don’t expect any kind of “tricks” to entertain us during the night.  The guise of it all is enough to find the night alluring and special.  Keeping the bulging bag of raw sugar closed until the big day is, alas, a challenge reserved for the adults among us.

Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, Washington. October 19, 2011