Halloween Traditions

then and now

Halloween is my favorite holiday in my favorite season. I’ve always been entranced by the magic alive in the cold crisp air of the season. I first started celebrating all of the sabbats on the wheel of the year in the mid 90’s. I felt such a pull to honoring the seasons and immersing myself in them.

Last year I wrote about some of the origins of the day, you can check it out here:

This year I thought I’d talk about some of our traditions through the years.

From the times of our first home together, we carried on the tradition of my family, by picking out and carving a giant pumpkin. We would travel from our home in Las Vegas to Long Beach, CA for a weekend, go to the pumpkin patch and then put the giant in the back seat of my little Integra and drive it back to Vegas with us. We carried on this tradition until we moved to Wisconsin.

As our family grew, I decked the house out with all of Martha Stewart’s ideas (this is before they were mass marketed) so I’d gingerly cut the templates out from the magazine and use sturdy posterboard to have rats crawling up the stairs and bats illuminated in lamps. We always had a big pot of nourishing stew on the stove top on Halloween to enjoy with corn bread, hot apple cider and caramel apples for dessert….not that dessert was needed!

Wisconsin celebrated Halloween a little differently due to an event that happened in 1973¹, trick-or-treat is held the Sunday prior to Halloween between 4-6 pm. We were fortunate enough to participate in a great neighborhood over the years that made trick-or-treat so special for all of the kids; we did trick-or-treat for the neighborhood residents only on October 31st. We didn’t have the kids trick-or-treat twice, on the larger city trick-or-treat, a young Rhiannon would dress up as her favorite princess, hand out candy; the volume to each person was based on how much she liked their costume. The older kids in sweats and t-shirts had to endure her stare of disgust. 🎃

Even when we moved away from the neighborhood to the farm, where we were rural enough that we didn’t get trick-or-treaters, we were welcomed back to our old neighborhood with open arms! In fact, even though all of our kids have outgrown the event, in recent years we have still gone back to our dear friends house to hand out candy, and eat chili.

So many wonderful memories and adventurous costumes made, it warms my heart to think back on them all. Today we are a little less boisterous, yet it is still my favorite holiday. I think this year we’ll curl up on the couch with candles lit, sipping some spiced cider, remembering our loved ones lost with grateful hearts, and maybe watch a classic scary movie. What are some of your Halloween traditions?

Until next time,

1. Wisconsin trick-or-treating occurs on the Sunday before Halloween primarily due to safety concerns, a tradition that began after a 1973 murder of a child while trick-or-treating alone in Fond du Lac. This change, which is a response to that tragedy, makes it easier to see children in daylight and can be more convenient for families. While many communities now have separate days and times, some neighborhoods still prefer nighttime trick-or-treating on Halloween itself.