Halloween has never really been my thing. I think the magic was drained for me in the 7th grade. A lot of adults deemed kids as “too old” for trick or treating when they got to be about 13. Some would even peer disapprovingly out their front window, and not open their door if they thought you had outgrown the occasion. These people decided Halloween was only for cute little kids. When I grew to be this age, I must have stuffed the magic of Halloween in a trunk with Santa and the Easter Bunny. I hadn’t really looked inside since.
This year, Halloween was more of a question than a plan. How would going door to door and collecting candy from strangers fit into the social distancing model we have been accustomed to? Was it even going to happen? Compiled with the void COVID-19 has left in so many other normal aspects of life, it seemed Halloween was also to be sucked into the black hole of 2020 containing all of our lost dreams for this year.
Cold weather started blowing in early for my prairie city. Here we use Halloween as a timing point for ensuring snow tires are on, and mittens are out. Once November 1st hits, we can expect snow (the kind that will stick around) shortly. In the 2 weeks leading up to Halloween, it felt like early winter; and with it, its evil sidekick: Seasonal Affective Disorder. For many of us, this hit heavier than usual due to the bleakness of the pandemic.
In any other year, Halloween on a Saturday with a full blue moon is a perfect setup. My partner was going to have his now 8-year-old son for the first time on Halloween since his separation. While it would have been an easy year to duck out of Halloween completely, I felt we needed to embrace it for whatever it might be and somehow make it memorable, for the kiddo.
We live in a community in Edmonton, AB, called Summerside. It’s a newer neighborhood with mostly cookie-cutter homes full of young families. In some ways, it reminds me of the pastel suburban neighborhood in Tim Burton’s: Edward Scissorhands. It’s almost eerily idyllic and stylized that way. Interestingly, Halloween has been adopted as Summerside’s holiday. Residents, (particularly along Grande Boulevard), put in great effort to decorate their homes and most years, give out candy to hundreds upon hundreds of trick or treaters.
Brainstorming what we might do to make it special this year, I came up with an idea to do a Halloween themed scavenger hunt in our house. We also decided we’d go check out Grande Boulevard, even if it might not be what it had in previous years. At the very least we could do a drive-by.
We chose to walk the boulevard with our COVID-19 face masks. While many houses were shuttered, others offered fantastic Halloween displays that nightmares are made of. Some stuck to decorations only. Some gave candy though shutes. One used a hockey stick to lift the candy from the bowl and drop it into the bags. Yes, there were people. We really tried our best to keep our distances.
It’s that cautious dance we’ve been doing since March. Considering the potential risk of exposure versus an experience. An experience that can only happen on this date, on this blue moon. Not unlike mitigating the risk of enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner with my 70-year-old mother who lives alone when case numbers in my Province are the highest they’ve been. I’m sure the residents of Grande Boulevard grappled with risks too. Considering the crowds their displays might draw, in a time when crowds are supposed to be avoided. We all have our own circumstances and considerations that factor in. For us it was, to go out while taking precautions? Or, forget it this year?
In a year when reality has become surreal and I’ve felt more disconnected than ever, this crisp walk down Grande Boulevard was just what I needed. I was impressed with the creative scary scenes some residents set up, and just the overall ambiance of celebrating amongst Halloween worshipers. Groups of people dressed in elaborate gothic and steampunk type clothing pulled up in brigade of hearses to walk the strip. It was as if people who embrace darkness in their everyday life came to give their stamp of approval for the Halloween festivities on this “Grande” walk.
How mysterious this holiday steeped in the occult and eeriness, commingling with this neighborhood and all its engineered charm. It just worked on this crisp night, on this blue moon, in this pandemic. Like magic.
When our mortality has been the main concern, celebrating the dark, the scary, the dead was inspiring. I realized, 2020 and all of its bad news is part of us now. Each of us will get to decide what memories and ideas we carry forward from it. This holiday that blurs the lines between the living and the dead, and illuminates what beauty can be found in darkness has been resurrected for me.
