What's your costume this year?

[Andybev01]

Mirror man.

[Murfreesboro]

I noticed those, too. Very cute.

We had several groups of ToTers. I closed shop at 7:45, which is a little early, but not for a rainy school night. I also intend to extend celebration into the weekend.

[Andybev01]

One.

We had exactly 1 toter.

I'm perplexed to say the least.

[Murfreesboro]

Were you at your new apartment (condo?), or did you go to a sibling's home? I know that most kids won't ToT at apartments unless they live there.

[MauEvig]

Not a single soul came by our house yesterday. *sigh*

Maybe I made the house look too scary...

It's possible there just isn't enough interest in Halloween or trick or treating around here. But we do also live out in the boonies, so there's that.

But the plus side is...at least we got plenty of Reese's peanut butter cups to enjoy for a while.

I think it's a good idea Murf. Why not enjoy spooky season just a little longer and extend it through the weekend? It's just easier to do fun stuff on a Friday or Saturday night than it is when you know you have to turn around and get up early the next day.

[Murfreesboro]

Our church is doing Trunk or Treat on Sat, and the weather will be better than it was last night. So there's that. And today I watched my 25th anniversary performance of Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. It's a theatrical performance, and I much prefer it to the film that was made.

I think, when parents live in rural areas, they tend to drive their kids to decorated neighborhoods in nearby towns. Or they might just throw a party at home.

[Murfreesboro]

Remember how Mike used to talk about Hallowmas, a three-day holiday. Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls. I guess the Mexican Day of the Dead is going full-tilt right now. There is no reason to put it to bed before November 3.

[MauEvig]

Honestly I'm not sure. It's been a long time since we've seen Mike on the forums. But I do remember he started the "little halloween" tradition, and I learned about putting smoke balls in pumpkins to give them an eerie smokey effect. This is something I've done myself that I learned here.

I enjoy the exchange of information and ideas here.

But I don't see why not. We watched Panderum last night. I was pretty tired after that.

Maybe I AM getting old.

[Andybev01]

Were you at your new apartment (condo?), or did you go to a sibling's home? I know that most kids won't ToT at apartments unless they live there.

I'm at the family compound, surrounded by tidy little homes, well lit streets.

No reason why no one was out.

Toting isn't allowed in my building, it's a child-free, over 55 building.

[Murfreesboro]

Well, it's a puzzlement, then. I'm sorry y'all were disappointed.

Mau, Mike was/is a devout Catholic who attended parochial school as a kid. He told us that, as a child, he always got Nov 1 off from school, because All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation in that denomination. He said that the three days of Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls constituted "Hallowmas." As an Episcopalian attending a Lutheran church, I'm very familiar with the liturgical calendar and with All Saints/All Souls, but I'd never really heard of Hallowmas before, and I Iiked that term. It stuck with me.

In case these terms are unfamiliar to you, All Saints Day is set aside to honor all those Saints who don't have a special day dedicated to them (as, for example, Oct 4 is the feast day of St Francis, and Mar 17 of St Patrick). Nov 2, All Souls Day, honors everyone who has died, usually in the last year. Mexico, a mostly Catholic country, uses these two days as their Days of the Dead. I believe they devote one of them exclusively to children who've died, and the other to adults. Even though they feature skeletons and such, it's not supposed to be spooky or frightening. They use it to clean up their graveyards and teach their children about family members who've passed on.

The older Protestant denominations still observe the liturgical year, but since protestants reject the concept of purgatory, praying for the dead is not a thing with us. Consequently, even though we do observe All Saints and All Souls, it's not as big a deal with us.

[Andybev01]

If you haven't watched the movie 'Coco' you might enjoy it even though you don't believe in purgatory.

It's a visually stunning, animated story about a Mexican family's troubled history set mostly in and out of the afterlife.

If there is a purgatory I want it to look like pre-Castro, art nouveau Havana.

[Murfreesboro]

Actually, I do own a DVD of Coco. It is certainly a gorgeous movie, though I'm not sure I like the assumption that people's souls last only as long as they're remembered on earth. That doesn't even strike me as commensurate with the doctrine of purgatory. If I throw theology out the window, I can enjoy it, though.

The movie I do try to watch every year on Nov 5 is V for Vendetta.

[Andybev01]

I have never watched that one.

What recommends it?

[Murfreesboro]

It is based (I think) on a graphic novel I'd never heard of, but it's set in a dystopian London in the near-ish future. It stars Hugo Weaving, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask throughout the film, and who uses Guy Fawkes Day as the day to start a one-man terrorist revolt against the fascistic-style government that is ruling England and, perhaps, the world (America seems to be useless in this scenario; we've fallen, too). He rescues and befriends a young woman (Natalie Portman) whose parents were disappeared as political dissidents.

I'm not 100% on board with the politics of the film, as I tend conservative, and the writer of the story seems to fear threats from the right more than the left. But revolt against political oppression is a sympathetic story regardless, and it's well done. I use it to close the door on my Halloween season.

There is of course a mystery in it, about the identity of V (the Weaving character), his origin story, etc. You find this out pretty deep in the film.

[Murfreesboro]

I also generally watch three musical dvds prior to Halloween, although I forgot to do that this year. So over the last few days I've viewed them. They are the staged version of Phantom of the Opera, a 25th anniversary celebration at the Royal Albert Hall in London; the film version (2014?) of Into the Woods; and the staged version of Sweeney Todd from the 80s, a tv special featuring Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. I'm hard pressed to say which is my favorite. Every time I watch them, I think the one I'm watching at the moment is my fave.

I'll be interested to see if the film version of Wicked makes the cut. My daughter and I traveled to Memphis to see the touring production when she was 13 (14 years ago). I loved it on stage, but I don't yet know how well I'll like the movie.