Thursday, October 30

Happy Halloween

Having already bought my first set of Halloween candy – the bags that get eaten well before October 31st – and moved on to my second, I wondered a bit about the holiday. A bit of intrepid research revealed the following facts:

1. Halloween didn't really exist in America until the great waves of European immigration began in the 1840s. It had its start as a Celtic holiday (and quite the pagan one at that; Druids believed that the night between summer and fall was an unsettled time during which spirits wandered the earth), and so we can really credit the Irish fleeing the potato famine for bringing it to the United States.

2. Halloween is now the second largest commercial holiday in the United States, behind Christmas. It is anticipated by the National Confectioners' Association that Americans will spend $2 billion on candy alone this year – that figure does not include the amount spent on costumes, parades, and parties. Incidentally, that figure would be roughly one-tenth of what is spent on candy all year.

3. Snickers are the most popular candy to give to trick-or-treaters. An informal and totally non-scientific poll found that sunflower seeds, raisins and trail mix are the least popular items received by trick-or-treaters.

4. In recent years, candy manufacturers have begun making not only "treat-sized" versions of classic candy bars, but also catering specifically to the holiday with special seasonal treats. Witness the Peppermint "Batty" and Spooky Black Cat Peeps.

5. Did you know that two other candy holidays fall in the last days of October? October 30th is officially "Candy Corn Day," while Halloween itself is also "Caramel Apple Day."

As a child, I loved Halloween, partly because it offered the opportunity to gorge on sugar but also because I loved getting dressed in costume. My mom went through an insane period of indulging our every wish for Halloween and sewing the costumes herself; one year I was Cinderella, complete with slightly bustled full-length gown and a tiara lent to me by the former Miss Peach Queen who lived across the street. A couple years later, when I was about ten, I played Scarlett O'Hara in a RENTED HOOP SKIRT (did I say my mom was nuts)?

I fell out of Halloween for a few years, and only recently have gotten back into dressing up and going to parties (the grown-up version of trick-or-treating). My most recent foray into costuming was with my sister, when she and I dressed up as the Sweet Valley High twins. We were Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, complete with long blond wigs, frosty pink lipstick and Flashdance-style off-the-shoulder sweatshirts. Nice.

While I am much much too old to trick-or-treat now – we stopped in early high school, after a particularly grumpy neighbor said my friend looked bowlegged in her sixties hippie outfit – I do enjoy seeing the kids that come to my door dressed as pumpkins and pirates and princesses. I give them their individually wrapped and hermetically sealed candy: Milky Ways, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Sweet-Tarts this year. And I think about an older couple who lived next to my family in Texas, back when you didn't have to trick-or-treat at the mall and you could trust your apples not to have razor blades inserted in them. Odie and Jo Ruth were sweet as could be and good friends and neighbors, and every year Jo Ruth would make up a big batch of caramel apples to give out to kids who came to her door. It was my favorite Halloween treat - sweet and sticky and of necessity eaten right away. The recipe to the right is in honor of Jo Ruth's lovely tradition.