Halloween in my Australia isn’t much more than a bunch of kids, hopefully under adult supervision, knocking on the front doors of neighbours asking for lollies.
I remember when Adam was little he and some of the local kids would go around our street trick or treating (Adam called it trickle treating) and would invariably come back somewhat disappointed that we lived in a neighbourhood of grumpy old people with no joy for children. We just didn’t do that Halloween thing back then, much to the kids dismay.
In fact in Oz there’s a culture of dislike towards things Halloween because of the American influence, and there’s nothing like American influence to get us Aussies going. We’re funny like that, we embrace it and reject it all at the same time.
But here in Morpeth, as we are house sitting, we’re doing as the Morpethians do, which means we’ve been totally enraptured by their love of Halloween. After all, it did all start in ancient England. All week we’ve been seeing the shop windows with their Halloween displays.
Hey, even the ladies looking after the toilets in the bus station are right into Halloween. They told me that we should be here at Christmas because that’s when they go all out (in fact we will be back here in Morpeth for Christmas so we will have to look out).
Today in the local square it was fun for young and old. We immersed ourselves in watching the wonderful passing parade. Oh, it was so much fun, everyone was involved and I really don’t know when I’ve seen a local community so involved in just having innocent escapades.
And then tonight we watched and listened to the local kids squeal with joy as fireworks crackled and sparkled over our park. Brilliant day.
We’re not sure of the protocol of Halloween so we bought candy for kids that might ring our doorbell. So far the doorbell hasn’t rung so we’re going to bed. Maybe our door doesn’t look inviting enough. Not to worry, we’ve had a great day and we’ll eat the candy.
Dave says he won’t. He will.
