Everything Goes: Ghosts of Halloween Past

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My Halloween Memories

Everyone has some holiday memories from their past. These are some of mine.

Disclaimer: Halloween is not a Jewish holiday, but as American Jews we are exposed to many customs and celebrations that are shared in the United States. Because Halloween is not one of our holidays, our memories of Halloween are often more passive than active.

Halloween memories from my past

My first memory of Halloween was when I was about 4 or 5. My Mom dressed me up as a cat (a wild cat) with drawn on whiskers. We then would go to the door when the "Trick or Treaters" came and I interacted with them (most of the "Trick or Treaters" were older than I at this point). (My Mom said she did this because the year before I was scared of the costumed children and she wanted to show me that these were just other children under masks and with costumes.)

When we moved East from the Mid-West, into a four family house, our neighbors invited us to go "Trick or Treating" with them (my brother and I had never been "Trick or Treating") and we went out and came home with a lot of candy.

When moved to our own home, it became a bit of a ritual for us over the years to wait together and answer the door and give out candy to "Trick or Treaters".

But probably my strongest memory of Halloween was one year when Halloween was on Saturday or Shabbat (the Sabbath) for us. At the time, we were living in a 4 family house and our apartment had 3 doors, one in the kitchen, one in the dining/living room and one into my bedroom. We were going to be moving that night and into the next day and, because of that (and that I would be spending the night, while my parents were "directing traffic", with my best friend) I was trying to take a Shabbat nap that day (something I rarely did when I was that age). But the "Trick or Treaters" didn't know that the door on my room was part of an apartment they had already visited, so they kept knocking on my door (and waking me up).

For the most part, my memories of Halloween are good. In the past few years since we moved to our current residence, while we don't get many "Trick or Treaters", one of our neighbors puts out a lot of Halloween decorations. One of my favorites is a snake (since I love snakes) but he also has a lot of sound affects that I enjoy.

I'd love to hear other people's memories. Add yours in the comments section.