lore of yore

Why Halloween, Don?

A question I’m asked every year when people

drop by and see my house overrun by pumpkins

and ghosts and leaves and skeletons and

haystacks and zombies and....

....well, you get the picture.

 

Why indeed? It’s FALL-oween! That’s why.

The earth starts settling into its yearly hibernation and sends us toward winter with one last glorious blast! That’s why.

Brisk inhales and steamy exhales. Homecomings and goings. 

An Indian summer butting up to a first freeze. That’s why.

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Fireplace fires and bonfires and leaf fires, the sweet smell of decay.

That’s why.

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The cozy aloneness of ravens and scarecrows, winds and whispers, songs and singers. The festive togetherness of pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hayrides, haunted woods or houses. That’s why.

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And death itself. Mysterious and inevitable, as glorious as birth.

A chance to see life die, to become a sepia toned zombie then come back more vivid than ever in the butterfly months to come.

And maybe give us a little insight to our own demise. That’s why.

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Like all the Zombies before us, and those yet to come, we have a short time to have a cry, share a laugh, to run off, to walk on, to sleep in, to hang out, to drink up, to chow down, to long for love, and to love long.

AND to trick or treat!

So, “why Halloween, Don?” THAT’S why!