Happy Halloween/Super Samhain to ya

Whether you’re sincerely honouring the pagan harvest festival or merely taking

the opportunity to act the fool in public, have a good run at it tonight.  Jude and I

chose to celebrate early.  Saturday afternoon we went to a pot luck party, then to

a play at the community centre in the evening.

October 31st, in various ways,  is associated with contacting the dead, but I’ve had

plenty of that already, thank you.  Both the party and the play were designed with

children in mind.  The party was attended by many young families.  Our hosts 

Amanda, Lyra and Noah had games like “Pin the Face on the Pumpkin” and the

classic “Race from This Place to That One”.

Here’s the always-lovely Jude in her costume:

The sign says “Dick Whittington’s other cat”.  I’ll explain later.

Here’s me:

It was great to see the kids running around and squealing with delight.  One tot fell

during one of the races and came crying to her father.  “It’s not so bad, honey,” he

consoled her.  “Yes, it is!”, she corrected him.  I love the absolute certainty of youth.

The play, “Dick Whittington and His Cat”, was a local adaptation of an English folk

tale, presented in the pantomime tradition.  It was a wonderful presentation, full

of music, puns, political comment and cross-dressing.  It encouraged the audience

to cheer the heroes and boo the evil bureaucrat.  It even had an opera-singing sea

serpent.  The overflow crowd loved it.

Jude and I thought it would be fun to go to the play dressed like we were at the

party.  I figured a lot of other folks there would also be in costume.  Wrong.  Only

the folks on stage were.  I grew increasingly uncomfortable through the evening.

I’ll be more prepared next year.  I’m going disguised as a normal person.

CAUTION: Be careful if you go out tonight.  This would be the perfect time for the

Zombie Apocaypse to make its move.