11/02/2007

Beggars Night Gone Dixie


This was really our first Halloween we celebrated down South. Our first year we didn't know anyone and lived in an apartment and last year Erin and I were home for my uncle's funeral. Last year it was about 30 degrees in Iowa and Erin was freezing cold (and probably a little young to understand the concept) and didn't enjoy herself too much.

Last Friday we went down to the Kemah boardwalk. You could go trick-or-treating in the shop stores. There is nothing more nerve-racking then attempting to herd a dozen kids though a glass specialty shop without them breaking a $200.00 vase just to get a tootsie roll.
This year she showed little fear. She would run up to a door, ring the bell three or four times, knock on the door, ring the bell again, get her stash and run to the next house. We went with a group of friends and we all have little girls - they were fun to watch.
When we moved here it kind of surprised me that a lot of Christians down here don't celebrate Halloween at all because its a pagan holiday. I just thought, hello, do you put up a Christmas tree? But the ones that do take it pretty seriously. The weather is still warm here and so a lot of people set up a few chairs and a table with candy in their driveway and just sit outside their houses and chat with people as they come and go to trick-or-treat. Its a great tradition, I really enjoyed talking to people.

3 comments:

Brenna said...

I had never heard of someone not celebrating Halloween until I became a teacher. Still, I have only had a couple that didn't. It does seem kind of ironic what holidays people choose to celebrate when pretty much all of them can be liked to paganism somehow.

One Artist a Day said...

Odd. One of our employees at the paper is from Texas and she had not heard of Christians not celebrating Halloween until she got to Iowa. 2 people in our office grew up never having trick or treated. How cruel to exclude your kids from great memories. I am a youth minister and Halloween is my all time favorite holiday.

Kari said...

You know, Irene didn't do Halloween. It was very weird to me when I was younger, but now I recognize that the whole thing is a ploy to get us to buy candy (and I fall for it every year). Doesn't mean I don't like it though. Brings back memories of a certain Halloween night of mischief, eh Em?