Halloween!
Do kids go trick or treating on Halloweens in New York City?I mean, I know we've got the Parade, but it just can't be as much fun as going door-to-door, meeting all your neighbors anew, and wondering whether the candied apples are poisoned or the cookies have razors in them. And getting lots, and lots, and lots, of chocolate.
The truth is, Halloween is an excellent holiday. It's an excuse to get out and walking around in the lovely, crisp, cool autumnal air before the great outdoors descends into an unpleasant coldness. It's quintessentially seasonal, too, featuring pumpkins and squashes and full moons--and this seems good to me. With the exception of Thanksgiving, I'd argue that it's the last seasonal holiday that remains to us. It's nice to be a little bit in tune with the natural environment, though. It keeps man-made life grounded.
Perhaps that's why it's hard for me to conceive of a proper Halloween here in New York, though. This is the city of lights! Of not sleeping! Of apartment flats and taxis and people and construction! But not really of trees or pumpkin patches, much less clear starry skies, it must be admitted. Even the weather is unaccommodating: it grows cold, but not crisp or clean that deliciously autumnal way that I so love.
Ah well. New York has a character all its own, and it's not a bad one.
posted by Skay @ 6:36 PM
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Update: kids DO go trick-or-treating. However, this does not mean what it does in the rest of the country. Kids trick-or-treat at commercial establishments (presumably because the apartment buildings are all locked). Nobody came to my door, but children were swarming the streets running in and out of this restaurant and that shop.
Growing up there must be so weird. Isn't half the fun of Halloween being terrified to go up to the door at the house where your middle-aged neighbors are dressed up as cackling witches?
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