Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. A) You get to dress up in fun costumes and pretend to be someone –– or something –– else for a little while. B) It’s my birthday.
I’m 48 this year. Yep, I did, I told you how old I am. I’m proud of how old I am. I’m proud that I’m not on a dozen meds. I’m proud I can still run around with my kids and have fun and act like an idiot and still have fun. I never really grew up. I suppose once you reach a certain age, acting like a kid becomes synonymous with senility. I hope that doesn’t happen. I mean, maybe it will. PROBABLY it will happen some day. But my mind is still clear and I still have lots of energy and I’m still planning and dreaming for the future. Heck, I didn’t even start getting REALLY serious about this writing gig until just this year after all.
I know we still have a few more days until the big day. I imagine a lot of people have already done Beggar’s Night and had their parties and have probably packed their costumes away for another year. I walked into Menard’s two weeks ago and they’ve already got all the Christmas decorations out. Pitiful. There was still weeks left to keep milking Halloween, but they’d already moved on.
For all you people who decorate your houses and yards with witches and tombstones and orange lights — THANK YOU! I love seeing those decorations at Halloween time. If you come to my house you’ll find skeletons hanging from the trees and spooky faces hanging in the windows. This from the guy who always had his bedroom in the basement with the concrete walls and spiders, and who couldn’t go to sleep at night without reading at least one chapter of IT before turning off the light and pulling the covers up over my head.
Thanks to everyone who hosts Halloween parties and still hands out candy to the neighborhood kids on the 31st. Another year has come and (almost) gone. It’s been a good one.
I’ll be traveling to New Jersey for work this year on my birthday. Something about sitting in a hotel room at night looking out over the Hudson at the NYC skyline makes me want to write. Maybe I’ll run into Uncle Guido while I’m there, and Aunt Georgina and I can share a pint of Ben & Jerry’s together.
What’s your favorite holiday and why is it so special for you? Leave a comment below and let me know. Stay safe out there this week and watch out for all the little (and bigger) trick-or-treaters.
I loved Halloween as a kid growing up in N. Ireland until the ‘Troubles’ started in 1969 and firework were banned (sounded like gunshots to the authorities).
Japanese are always up for a festival and Halloween has made its mark here too – google “Halloween Shibuya” for some wild and wacky costumes and revelers… I’m a bit old for that malarkey.
My favorite ‘holiday’ is the end of December in Japan where Xmas Eve is ‘branded’ for kids and couples (Xmas day is not a thing here at all) and is kind of a ‘warm up’ for the Japanese New Year period.
It’s a time when I like to recycle the old and ring in the new. It helps that weather here on the Pacific coast side (Tokyo) is often sunny and dry – maybe in the mid-50s. Wonderful time of year.