Who doesn't love getting dressed up, pretending to be someone - or something - else? Years ago it was called a masquerade but that word isn't used too often anymore.
Holidays were often an opportunity to memorize poems. One I can still recite:
Five little pumpkins
Sitting on a gate.
The first one says,
"Oh my! It's getting late!"
The second one says,
"There are witches in the air."
The third one says,
"I don't care."
The fourth one says,
"Let's run and run and run."
The fifth one says,
"It's Halloween fun."
Then WOOOOO went the wind
And out went the light.
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight.
Another Halloween tradition was reciting poems of Edgar Allen Poe. What a fascination with the dark side of human nature. Do you remember:
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly nappy, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more...'"
Taken from The Raven, first published in 1845.
What are some of your early childhood memories of Halloween?
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