a great american export

People from home ask me a lot if Halloween is “as big here”. I am never sure how to respond but the easiest answer is no. Not even close.

You will find candy in the stores and pumpkins for sale and even a spiderweb decoration in a store if you’re lucky. Adults have fancy dress parties (costume, achem) and a few places make lackluster efforts to do events for kids. Actually, the ones that do are American, like Whole Foods and those weird social clubs I refuse to join that are like sororities for grown-ups.

The best way I can explain that it’s just not the same is to tell you that when I asked the nine mothers from my prenatal class if their kids were dressing up, they all said no and seemed confused. When I brought Jonah to Gymboree dressed as a pumpkin, the staff and other mums had coniptions of cuteness. Because they had never seen such a thing. When I saw a little girl at a store dressed as a lion, I knew she was American before her mom even proved it when she spoke out loud. And so, no, it’s not even remotely the same. In America, I am pretty sure it is illegal to not dress your child up. And if it’s not against the law, I am sure there is some other parent in plastic devil horns willing to extract some vigilante justice on your a**. I miss that about my homeland. I do.

I also miss my dad’s roasted pumpkin seeds. I made some myself with Jonah watching from the bjorn. He seemed totally unimpressed with my carving abilities and seed-baking. His favorite part of Halloween was the 30 times I stuck the pacifier back in his mouth.

It also appears that the British take a more traditional approach to the holiday and favor scary costumes like ghouls and goblins and witches and monsters. This bit from a news article here made me laugh:

The other day I was perusing the Halloween section of an American fancy-dress website – as you are probably aware, Halloween in the US permits dressing up in non-spooky clothing, which is just one of the many things I have filed under Things I Shall Never Understand About America, alongside the national passion for Twinkies and the precise point of Los Angeles.

Apparently, Slutoween is an American concept. So, I don’t know- chalk that up as another +1 for the U.S.A. I’ve never been prouder.

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Also, three of my friends ran the New York Marathon yesterday and got amazing race times. You know who you are friends and you just rule.