Halloween {And Makeup for Scaredy Cats}

We've never really done Halloween (this was the extent of my posting about it last year). When I younger I would only ever get dressed up if I'd been invited to a party, and we never went trick or treating. It does seem a bit odd to me, that for one night of the year we tell our children it's fine to knock on the doors of the same strangers we tell them not to accept sweets from the rest of the year, and ask for treats. 

As with so many things, I think the meaning of it all has been lost among the copious amounts of sugar, the egging and the flour bombing, the plastic pumpkins and the polyester costumes (which, as I'm sure anyone who remembers the awful accident Claudia Winkleman's daughter was in last year would agree, shouldn't be allowed anyway!)

Don't get me wrong, I really love this time of year. I love the passing of Halloween because it marks the beginning of the build up to the festive season, hunting out the best new slipper socks, bringing out all my scarfs for autumn walks and making hot chocolate for hibernating indoors. Sometimes planning Christmas is better than Christmas day itself for me, and early as it seems, this is the time of year when it slowly starts trickling into my agenda.

I'm interested in the history of Halloween and some of the other ways this time of year is celebrated, like the Pagan holiday Samhain and the Mexican Day of the Dead festival. According to the internet, Samhain falls on November 1st, and is the time of year when the connection between our world and the spirit world is at its strongest, so is the perfect time for honouring and connecting with our ancestors. It's also considered a 'Witch's New Year' and in a way it actually makes a lot more sense than thinking of January 1st as the beginning of a New Year; Harvest is over, animals have been brought in for the Winter, everything green begins to die, the leaves turn gold and brown and eventually fall away. I love the idea of celebrating the end of Harvest, having a final meal outdoors to mark the end of Summer, and then bedding down for the Winter months indoors.

The Mexican Day of the Dead festival is a three day celebration of those people who have gone before us. It apparently coincides with the Roman Catholic festival 'Allhallowtide' which is a three day honouring of the deceased. Beginning on October 31st, or 'All Hallows Eve' (where we now get the word 'Halloween' from) and ending on All Souls Day two days later. Mexicans celebrate the with the spirits of the dead, they set a place the table for them so they can join them for dinner, decorate with flowers and the familiar sugar skulls, and take gifts to their relatives graves.

It's all fascinating, and I've been enjoying reading about it all and learning a little more about where where trick or treating began and why we carve and light pumpkins. We've already heard the voices of various groups of children, walking up and down our road in their costumes and giggling, but there seems to be a unwritten rule around here that you can only knock on someones door if they have a pumpkin so we haven't had any visitors!

As for us, we'll probably get a pumpkin on Saturday because they're fun to carve (and I'm not a complete scrooge about it...plus these cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds look amazing) but no dressing up round here!

Saying that, if I were to dress up, I'd definitely go for something like this really pretty deer makeup I spotted on my Pinterest feed the other day. Theres a tutorial for how to do it here. I love the twig antlers, and I really love how its more about celebrating nature than scaring the living daylights out of your neighbours!

image from Cheap Frills and Thrills