Our first Halloween, 2 Nov 94

Our first Halloween... (Calgary, Alberta)

Well, we have made it to our friends, Val and Lorne, in Calgary, Alberta. Val and I have been penfriends since early high school, but only now are we meeting. It is certainly good for us to spend time with friends during our year away. Sort of a spiritual refresher, though of course there are obligations etc as well.

Bobsled at Calgary Olympic site Calgary is the site of a winter Olympics, and we spent some time at the site which is still used for sports such as bob-sledding. They travel so fast that my photographic skills were certainly put to the test.

Our first halloween is over, first for both our kids and ourselves. I still have to find a category to place it in under our home-schooling program. Pumpkins, masquerade parties, children's costumes ranging from little devils to martians to tin soldiers to the Blues Brothers. Justin became a ninja, and Cathy a pumpkin, and a very attractive pumpkin too.

Justin at Halloween We teamed up with Val's sister's family in a newer area of Calgary with more children. There seemed to be an element of safety in this decision, as well as the possibility of "better pickings". For younger children it appears normal for parents to follow them around the streets, staying on the footpath (oops, sidewalk) while their costumed charges run up to the doorways of those houses with lights on, either shouting "Trick or Treat" or just turning up with open bag at the ready.

Some of the stores had promotions involving the provision of special plastic Halloween buckets for the children to use to collect their loot, and we had obtained two from Macdonalds in San Francisco and somehow Kerry had managed to pack these in our suitcases - full of underwear etc no doubt. But we had been advised on good authority - Val's children - that these were certainly insufficient; we were provided with pillowslips to remedy this problem. Mind you even the weight of the filling pillowslip was a problem - accompanying adults were soon called in as pack mules.

At first Justin saw it as a race to gain candy, and I was hard put to catch up with him, but gradually the toll of the running and the carrying slowed him down, and first Cathy and then he were responsibly deciding that they had "had enough". Then it was return to base and parading and scanning of the loot.

Justin's Halloween loot Scanning was necessary, our hosts informed us, to confiscate any items that were not in sealed packets. Home-made cookies or candies, fruit etc were all put aside due to caution. Apparently there are cases, some sensationally highlighted each year, of laced candy and razor blades hidden in apples - delightful.

I gather there were special bags of Halloween Candies on sale, and so the easy way out for the householder is to buy these sealed sample-size like sweets ranging from caramel-coated popcorn through to lollypops and chocolate bars. Some houses, perhaps not so convinced with the delights of confectionary, gave away pencils - one even gave away toothbrushes.

When all the children returned to the home base and spread their loot on the floor, well it was either magnificient or a sight of despair, depending upon the viewer's age or stage. Either way most parents managed to halt the feeding frenzy after a while with the stocks returned to the pillow slips - in our case under parental control.

From the sidewalk soon after dark, when loads of young kids were on the street with excited parents as well, the effect was really quite warming. I think it was a combination of both the sheer delight in the children's eyes and the warmth in those opening up their homes to their young visitors. In this society that relies so much on cars, rather than walking, for transport, there was also an element of neighbourliness and a local festival about it. However later when the age of the children changed and little groups of ten year olds and above replaced the parent "protectors" and their young charges, the atmosphere changed. No longer was there a sense of magic, rather one of calculated looting, and though candy was still readily given - it was not done with the same warmth.

Our hosts admitted that they were not completely comfortable with Halloween, and that they had not followed the custom until their oldest child had reached seven, that is until social pressures became too sharp. In Australia it is easy for people to say that they do not agree with Halloween - there is very little cost in it. Not so easy in North America.

Haunted garden, Calgary Of course there are those who are fully in favour. I'm not talking about the children, or the commercial interests of the shops, but rather those who turn their suburban manors into haunted houses. One had all the variation of a commercial operation, with shifting gravestones, dancing skeletons, stereophonic chains and screams, and clouds of strobe-lit coloured fumes, portrayed on the front driveway and garden. It really was quite amazing - I hope the photos do it justice - and his reward was only the obvious appreciation of the many who came to visit on this one night of the year.

Both kids (and both parents) thoroughly enjoyed our taste of Halloween. But there was elements of judgement as well. Cathy, 6, was asked whether she thought it would be a good custom for Australia: "No, 'cause once it was there, it would be hard to get rid of it."

Bye for now - David, Kerry, Ninja and Pumpkin

Email a contribution? | Email a suggestion? | Disclaimer | To Austega index | To Farmyard