Smell the Pumpkin in the Air!

My friends, it's that time of year again! The time of year when normal people decorate their houses with ghosts and witches. When pumpkins are carved and become jack o'lanterns. And when Starbucks puts out pumpkin bread. Can you smell the scent of pumpkin in the air? It's Halloween time!

I've posted before on my love of Halloween. But I feel it needs to be revisited. Because I really do love Halloween.

So I'm going to try to discuss different aspects of Halloween at least once a week. I want to discuss my favorite horror movies, whether not I believe in ghosts, how much I love costumes, and just in general how awesome Halloween is.

Today's aspect of Halloween to discuss is the food.

Pumpkin is undoubtedly my favorite vegetable. Hands down. I like it in bread and muffins. I like it in pie. And I like just its seeds when they've been baked. Yum. And yet, despite this squash's awesomeness, it only comes out once a year. Why? Why do pumpkins only reign from October to Thanksgiving. Come December, Starbucks will put away its pumpkin bread. Einstein's will hide away the recipe for pumpkin bagels. And good luck finding a pumpkin in a grocery store! I mean, I get that fruits and vegetables have their appropriate seasons, but modern technology means that most are able to be grown all year long. Why not pumpkins?

And speaking of pumpkins, does anyone else out there love those pumpkins that are made out of similar stuff as candy corn? You usually find them with the candy corn, and both are delicious.

After all, what is Halloween without the candy? I never buy straight up candy during the rest of the year. I'll buy ice cream and cookies, but candy? It's too dangerous to keep in the house. I would eat it all the time. But at Halloween, I buy bags of it. I have a bowl at home full of candy and one at my office. And let me tell you, the one at my office, I have to refill daily. So clearly I'm not the only one with a lack of self control when it comes to candy.

Oh, Halloween. How you bring out the best sweets and treats!

Anyone else out there have a love of Halloween food? Does anyone have unusual Halloween traditions when it comes to food and candy?

Why I Love Halloween

Growing up Southern Baptist means that my life was filled with a lot of Halloween Haters. It's the devil's holiday, you know. Many of my church friends didn't trick or treat, and many of my churches put on Fall Festivals or Harvest Festivals to take place of Halloween. And that's cool. I respect all that. Halloween does have a dark and pagan past, and I can appreciate that people still understand and see that.

However, Christmas also has a dark and pagan past. It's called Saturnalia.

Valentine's Day? Look up Lupercalia.

In both cases, Christians made these holidays their own, creating Christmas and Valentine's Day (not that Valentine's day is much of a Christian holiday anymore). Which is sort of what the church does with Fall Festivals. And I can get behind that.

But whether you call it Fall Festival or Halloween, it's really the same thing. We still dress up (or dress up our kids if we have any) and get candy. In a traditional Halloween, this is done in a door to door throughout the neighborhood fashion. In a Fall Festival, we go to the church and we play games from which we can get candy.

However, I love Halloween, including the horror, magic, ghosts, and witches. Why? How can a person who grew up Southern Baptist (and who still agrees with most of their doctrine) love watching horror movies and hanging ghosts in front of her house (if I had a house, I totally would)?

Because to me Halloween isn't necessarily a holiday of horror. It's a holiday of imagination. It's the holiday where we can imagine that anything we want is true. We can be whoever we want to be. We can pretend Martians are real. We can pretend that magic is possible. We can pretend that we're really a Jedi (my personal go-to costume).

But I said I loved the horror aspect of it too. How does this jive with my love of the holiday of imagination?

Well horror (or at least some subgenres of the genre) are speculative fiction, and I'm all about speculative fiction (that's Science Fiction and Fantasy, for those who don't know the terminology). Half of what we now call "paranormal" is really horror. Ghosts. Vampires. Witches. Wizards. Do I think vampires are real? No. (Though I'm not ruling out the possibility that they could be created by a super-virus in a very I am Legend sort of way). I love fantasy, and I don't think any of those things are real.

And I know there are beliefs and religions out there that do view some of the things I view as paranormal as real. And I'm cool with that. I don't think they're right, but it's their right to take Halloween more literally if they want. For me, I just get to take this day and pretend, like I do any time I read a SF or Fantasy book. But Halloween is more than reading a book. It's like acting. It's like playing make-believe. For this day, I can pretend. I can pretend that Jedi's are real. I can pretend that vampires might jump out at any minute, and I can pretend the world is magical.

I know its not true. It doesn't need to be true. I just like to pretend it is. Like when I was little, and I created worlds for my little sister and I to play in.

On Halloween, imagination reigns. And that's why I love Halloween.