Halloween is not a Japanese tradition. So when trying to explain how we do things back home, I really have to think about how we celebrate or celebrated these special days.
Here are some of my childhood memories of Halloween.
A few days before Halloween, Mom would take us to the store or the pumpkin patch so that we could pick out a few big ones. On Halloween morning she would help my brothers and I carve our pumpkins into a Jack ‘o lanterns. Just before dark on Halloween night, we would put our candle lit Jack ‘o lanterns in our front window. This was a sign to other children that our house was a place where they could come to trick-or-treat. The seeds that we scooped out of the pumpkins would be roasted in the oven. They were very tasty when sprinkled with salt.
Trying to decide what to wear for a costume was sometimes difficult. There were a lot of laughs when my little brothers would dress up like old ladies. They would wear wigs, high heeled shoes, dresses and even lipstick!
I was very fond of a lion costume I used to have - a mask with a lion’s face and a brown one piece jumpsuit that had a tail attached to the rear end. I think I wore that costume for three years in a row!
When we were little, Dad would take us out trick-or- treating. When we got older, we would go by ourselves and pillow cases became the candy bags of choice. The goal was to go to as many houses possible so that we could fill our cases before the neighbours ran out of treats.
I think only those mean boys who stole other kids treats came home with full ones.
Hopefully most of their teeth have fallen out by now!
At home, our parents would be sitting in front of the crackling fireplace waiting for us to return with our loot! We would dump our bags out onto our family room floor so they could check all of the candy to make sure that none of it was tampered with. Stories of poison or razor blades put in candy were on the news...possibly only urban myths? My parents eagerly accepted any rejects - In my case, they could have all of the black licorice they desired!
It would take about a week for me to eat all of my candy. I ate most of it on Halloween night!
How on earth did those seldom few I knew save their sweet morsels until Easter? This I will never know!
Happy Halloween!
t
3 comments:
Hi Tam!
What a great story! But black licorice??? Dropjes!! In Canada? Were there some Dutch folk around, who were able to smuggle those into the country? What were your favorites?
And are you now introducing Halloween to Hokkaido? Licorice being replaced by seaweed popsicles, wasabi winegums?
Loved your story! Thanks,
Sallo
Anything chocolate of course!
Give me hagelslag (Dutch chocolate sprinkles) over dropjes any day!
Of course! And I know that a lot of non-Dutch feel the same way. I would not sprinkle dropjes on my bread either! Although, the combination chocolate and dropjes is awesome!
And soon there will be oliebollen again as well!!
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