Alas, Poor Yorick!

I am not one for celebrating Halloween really. As a Christian, I'm just not comfortable with the idea of children dressing up as witches and zombies and scaring the life out of people whilst demanding treats. So many of the customs which have come across the Atlantic seem unnecessarily gruesome.

Yes, I do know that the origins date back centuries to Celtic folklore, and apple bobbing and turnip lanterns etc started here in Britain, emigrated to the States, and returned again. It doesn't mean I have to like them! For many years I've been involved in 'Light Parties' arranged by church youth groups, providing safe, un-scary fun - and even tea parties for OAPs so they could be with friends for the evening, and avoid being home alone when the T-or-T mobs besieged their doors. 

But honestly, it seems awful that this week Britons will waste 18000 tons of food, in the form of pumpkin flesh [that's equivalent to the weight of 15000 double decker buses] No ZeroWaste there, then. And parents will spend a fortune on green facepaint and cheaply made, possibly flammable, costumes.

When my daughters were in Primary School, in the 1980s, their Headteacher banned 'general' Trick-or-Treating [except visiting friends or family members] . He said that he felt it was not a safe activity, as it worried vulnerable people in their homes, and it meant children were out crossing roads in the dark often not fully concentrating on the traffic. 99% of the parents back then were in full support. Maybe they would not be so supportive now. [spoiling their fun...]

But I'm becoming slightly more tolerant. A young Norfolk neighbour has mobility issues. A few years back, we were there at halfterm, and her Mum asked me 'Do you do Halloween? I know you're a Christian and I will understand if you don't. But she is desperate to do Trick-or-Treat and all the other people living in the close are OAPs who don't like opening their doors once it's dark." It was one of those WWJD moments.

I said that if she came at 6.30pm I would be prepared. I peeped through the window, and saw the wheelchair being parked behind the fence, and watched my friend - in a fairy costume, but with green make-up - struggling bravely up the path to the front door [Mum-the Witch close behind] I pretended to be scared, and handed over the chocolate, and there was much giggling. I was really impressed that Mum had begun by giving me an escape route - she'd obviously considered that I might not want to support 'pagan rituals'. It would have been churlish to take the high moral ground. This year she won't be able to do T-or-T, but I still left a bag of sweets with her Mum before we returned to Dorset.

Rosie's nursery asked that all the children went in Halloween costume yesterday.

Ever practical Liz decided my grand-daughter could go as a witch's cat. After all, her gran made her that splendid cape back in the spring. Why spend money in Asda on another outfit? And she can easily slip off the cape if it impedes her activities.

Here she is, preparing to go into Nursery yesterday morning, being a scary cat. "Cats have prickly feet, Grandma" she told me last week.

Here in Ferndown, people have decorated their gardens with pumpkins and hung banners on their doors. Further up the road, they've clearly been to Argos and wasted splashed out fifteen quid on a DIY graveyard, with bones and tombstones. Their front garden now looks like a neglected cemetery. The skull blew away down the street - I was rather amused to see someone come out of the house and retrieve it.

Sadly it was neither David Tennant nor Kenneth Branagh.

Now they would have been a treat worth opening the front door for!