This year for Halloween I got a nice pumpkin well several really and carved the big one.
I have been doing this since I was a little kid 50 odd years. I put the pumpkins on the balcony, we are not expecting any kids at all, since our building is mostly older adults with no kids. There are some kids but I do not know if they are around tonight. Of course tomorrow is the Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead 1 November, a big tradition in Mexico and in many countries like Poland. Two countries where I have lived and saw their traditions. Very interesting, in Mexico people who got married on November 1 put skeletons and coffins on their wedding cakes. Tombs in cemeteries were ornately decorated with a multitude of flowers and candles. In Poland thousands of flickering lights would decorate family tombs and everyone went to visit the dead in the day time and also at night, the Cemeteries would be ablaze with candle light, quite lovely and a little spooky because of the many big old trees everywhere casting shadows. There was no Halloween in China or in Italy too foreign a concept, same for Egypt or Jordan. The concept of Halloween is very North American.
Here are some photos of the season.
I have been doing this since I was a little kid 50 odd years. I put the pumpkins on the balcony, we are not expecting any kids at all, since our building is mostly older adults with no kids. There are some kids but I do not know if they are around tonight. Of course tomorrow is the Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead 1 November, a big tradition in Mexico and in many countries like Poland. Two countries where I have lived and saw their traditions. Very interesting, in Mexico people who got married on November 1 put skeletons and coffins on their wedding cakes. Tombs in cemeteries were ornately decorated with a multitude of flowers and candles. In Poland thousands of flickering lights would decorate family tombs and everyone went to visit the dead in the day time and also at night, the Cemeteries would be ablaze with candle light, quite lovely and a little spooky because of the many big old trees everywhere casting shadows. There was no Halloween in China or in Italy too foreign a concept, same for Egypt or Jordan. The concept of Halloween is very North American.
Here are some photos of the season.
Citrouilles 2014
By the way for those who might wonder how do you say Halloween in French, well you say
L'Halloween, simple yes?
Here are other photos of our neighbourhood
Our neighbours pumpkins
Here is our pumpkin for this year, next to the Chicago Drake Hotel ceramic pumpkin I bought in 1994 with the 3 little pumpkin of this year, including the blue gray one called Sweetmeat pumpkin.
Nice carving on that pumpkin -- it looks like a face of the damned. Sweet!
ReplyDeletethanks
DeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see Hallowe'en continues on.
Come get your candy.
We celebrate Halloween, having an 8-year old who just loves it! My wife and I actually like it too, as we get to share in eating all the candy! We also celebrate Nov. 1. We do not get to visit the graves of our loved ones though, as they are all oversees. We do think about them a great deal though and we light a candle at home in their memory. Nov. 2 is also All Saints Day. I guess we do not celebrate that one a great deal, other than maybe think about it...
ReplyDeleteFabulous pumpkin!
ReplyDelete