On October 19th., we invite 13 of our closest friends and
neighbors to gather in the backyard of
our house. Several dozens scented candles in vanilla,
pumpkin spice and harvest apple are arraigned around the backyard.
We burn pumpkin spice scented
incense to fill the air with the wonderful aromas of the Halloween season.
All together, these give off an intoxicating aroma of
Autumn that gets everyone in the mood. Check out this
article about
Halloween scents to find out where we get all ours
from.
We lay out a large
circle which is made from 80 plaster skulls that we cast years ago for a
skull and bone pile display. We use an old tree stump in the center to act as the
altar. Sitting on the altar is a large Jack o' Lantern. A long coffin
shaped table that we made and painted black on top with orange
legs awaits our group with apple cider, freshly baked pumpkin pie and other refreshments.
Orange and black paper plates, disposable tumblers and
reusable plastic flatware are provided. We also add two
lined trash cans at each end of the table paper waste
and cans and bottles and a small bucket for the plastic
flatware, which can be washed and used again. We can
take the cans and bottles to a local recycling place to
exchange for cash, which helps off set the party cost.
Our group, made up of thirteen Halloween
enthusiasts assemble at our house at 11:30 pm. All come dressed in black robes and each
brings a small pumpkin carved into a Jack o' Lantern for this occasion. Wraith and I stand on
opposite sides of our gate and as each member arrives we great them. "Welcome, (say
the person's name),
Son (or) Daughter of the Halloween spirits." until the last person had arrived.
Just before midnight, everyone lights a
candle and puts it in their jack-o-lantern. Silently, we all move into the circle. At
Midnight we play the sound of Big Ben type clock, large and booming,
chiming twelve chimes, it's midnight! The beginning of
our season of the 13 days of Halloween! The beginning of
the season we all live for and love so much!
I speak
first and welcome in the Thirteen Days of
Halloween and honor the glorious month of October followed by a few words about what lies in the haunting time ahead. We
then go around
the circle and each person says something about the upcoming celebration
and give thanks to the Halloween spirits.
Then we all form a single line and walk around
one or two blocks, wearing our black robes and carrying our lit jack-o-lanterns to
the graveyard. We usually do this around our own neighborhood since it
has a nice spooky ambience to it all year long. The
neighbors are used to it after so many years that no one
will be calling the police telling them that there's a
group of crazy people with Jack-O-Lanterns walking the
streets after midnight. They know it must be October
19th again.
When we return, we reform our circle and
then I say a few more words to close the ceremony and put on a CD of Danse Macabre. We all "frolic", i.e.
we dance around the circle, kicking up our heels and singing silly words to Halloween
songs. Just acting like the big kids that we are. That's how we stay
young around here!
We then
officially call the ceremony to a close
and it's time for Halloween music and food with pumpkin pie and a variety of Halloween
treats, all of which are surprisingly easy to find a few weeks before Halloween.
We also make a few of the
Halloween treats and
have others bring a few things with them to off set the
cost. If everyone brings something and it's planned out
ahead of time the load on one person isn't so bad. I
leave the delegation of party stuff to Wraith since
she's good at organizing like that.
