A little bit about Hallowe'en

This past Wednesday, October 31st, we celebrated Halloween here in North America. It's only recently that I learned that Halloween or Hallow e'en isn't celebrated in too many countries around the world. How do the kids in those  countries survive without it? :)

I've posted some pictures of the evening on my profile page. Basically, kids dress up and go around to the different houses in a neighbourhood, knock on the door and say, "Trick or treat!" The home owner, or apartment dweller, then hands out some candies or fruit or bags of potato chips which the children put into their sacks and scurry off into the night. 

As you will see from my pictures, some home owners go all out and decorate their front yards with massive Halloween displays. Two of my neighbours do this. One, south of my house, tends to concentrate on scaring the children. Younger kids won't even walk on the other side of the street from this house but older, braver children clamour around the wild and woolly decorations.  Each year they have a coffin in which one of the homeowners lies very still until the right moment when he or she pops up and scares the bejeezus out  of any kids who are close by. Cobwebs and gravestones abound on the lawn and there is always scary music playing. They have recently added a fog machine which adds a whole other element to the display. 

Contrasting this, my other neighbours on the west side of my street concentrate on the fun part of Halloween. Their yards is festooned with pumpkins, lights, some blow up ghosts waving in the wind and a few slightly scary but obviously fake people standing at the end of the driveway. These are the same people who go absolutely wild at Christmas and decorate their lawns with literally hundreds of lights and decorations. It is a spectacular sight on a cold December night to wander by and be amazed by the sights and sounds on their lawn. The two houses are owned by Filipino sisters and the question we all have is : Where do they store all of this stuff when they are not using it? The  houses are very special places in our neighbourhood and we are all proud that they go to so much work to entertain us. 

I've used some words in this blog that you might not understand. Look them up in Google first but if you can't figure out what I mean, just ask me. Don't be shy! If you don't ask, you will never know. Right?