As Halloween approached I found myself missing home for than
ever. Not because I am not enjoying France, but particularly because Halloween
is one of my favorite celebrations, and it is not celebrated the same here. They do celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st
by going to church if they are religious and putting flowers and the graves of
loved ones. It’s a school holiday, which is awesome, but there is no trick or
treating… and that is the main thing… There are parties at bars for adults and
maybe parties at school for children, but like I said no big family celebration
and no TRICK OR TREATING.
As Halloween came nearer I began to think of how we would
celebrate here with our little family. Of course I am dreaming of when I have
children old enough to enjoy getting dressed up just for the fun of it, bobbing
for apples, making candied apples, and carving pumpkins, but this year Adrien
is still too little, so I had to come up with something else. I bought Snickers
and Twix, because they remind me of home, and some chocolate covered dinosaur
cookies and bubbles for Adrien, and made little trick or treat bags for the
four of us and put them out around our Halloween pumpkin to be discovered by
all. Kind of Easter-ish, but I did my best ;) We had them on the 30th
because Tristan had an interview on the 31st and his mom was going
to be out of town as well.
On Halloween it was just me, Adrien, and some great fall
weather, so I thought it would be nice to go out. We happen to live a three
minutes walk from Pere Lachaise Cemetery which is reputed to be the worlds most
visited cemetery. So, I thought, “Why not, it seems like a spooky thing to do on
Halloween.” It was anything but spooky, but we had a great time nonetheless. It
was hard to have an eerie feeling in a place so crowded by visitors. Alone in a
cemetery maybe, at night certainly, but we were not alone: far from it! and it
was not night. It turned out to be a
great idea. Adrien played in the fallen leaves and ran up and down the aisles.
He even climbed a few tombstones and entered a few sepulchers, although I did
TRY to keep him off. Try being the word, because I am raising a little monkey.
;)
After getting Adrien off to bed I ended my night by watching
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, before going to bed. In the cartoon the whole gang goes trick or
treating together and after each house they each recount how they got candy or
cookies or gum, but each time Charlie Brown says, “I got a rock.” All I can say
is this: There may be no trick or treating in France, but at least I didn’t get
a rock. ;)
