Halloween in California
Just a few “pseudorandom” ruminations about Halloween time this year:
Even Halloween is different in California! My part of California experiences TWO rebirths in the seasons each year: the spring, when longer days and biological clocks tell the natural world to “wake up,” and the autumn, when RAIN tells the natural world that it is time to GROW! (No, it’s not raining today. It is another sunny, beautiful, warm October day!) I was reminded of this fact when a friend in a Halloween costume representing “late fall’s change to early winter” came to a party that I also attended last night. The leaves of deciduous trees on the street behind me are turning yellow and red, and my geraniums are in bloom! One type of grass in my backyard is beginning to grow actively, as is the grass that is turning the hills green!
For someone who loves to watch things grow almost as much as my father did, it is like having two springtimes. My favorite time of year is doubled by living here!
Yesterday, I worked with some special education kids and helped the grandmother of a child in a walker to “bring up the rear” of a “parade” of elementary school kids in costume “around the block.” The grandmother reminded me that “all of us are disabled in some way,” and she is absolutely correct. I thought about some of the “highly successful,” driven, unfeeling, money-oriented folks I have known, and how truly disabled they are. The happy face of the child in the walker, whose costume was a car (complete with horn [inactivated 
] and rear-view mirror) constructed from a cardboard box, warmed my heart, probably for a long time to come. There is nothing like the sight of hundreds of elementary school kids in their costumes having a wonderful time.
Adults of the Bay Area also seem to celebrate Halloween far more and far longer than adults in other places I’ve lived.
Another difference: Halloween is generally “celebrated” on October 31, regardless of the day of the week! When we first moved here, we foolishly asked folks, “What night is “Trick or Treat” for the kids?” In other states, we have seen “Trick or Treat” on a weekend night NEAR October 31, much as the U.S. has moved to “Monday holidays,” rather than celebrating the actual date of the historical event.
Also, the change from Daylight-Saving Time to Standard Time occurs TONIGHT, in most of the United States, except Hawaii and parts of Arizona. We “fall back” and get an extra hour of sleep, but we usually mess up the biorhythms of our more time-sensitive residents! Benjamin Franklin, a truly brilliant member of the “Founding Fathers” and a bon vivant (what ELSE could you call a man who had that much fun in France? ) came up with the idea of Daylight Saving Time in 1784.
Happy Halloween, folks!
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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