A Food-lover’s guide to Halloween?
Even with the time difference between Australia and the US it isn’t Halloween here yet. I saw a few Halloween candles in my favourite candle shop today (when I need cheering up and chocolate won’t do it, I buy candles). Everywhere else is already selling Christmas stuff.
It got me thinking. Halloween wasn’t around here at all when I was a child. It has entered Australia in recent years mostly via pop culture. This means that most Australians only know (to be honest) limited amounts about Halloween. We especially know what horror movies and Buffy and US chat shows have to say about it. The only food associations I have are empty pumpkins and bags of sweets.
I’d like to know more, and, given there are readers of Food History on every continent except Antarctica, I rather suspect I‘m not alone.
North American readers, if you could tell me about favourite foods (and recipes!) from your childhoods and tell us all how you celebrate Halloween in your family, I’ll compile all your thoughts and post something on 31 October. If no-one gives me any cool anecdotes or great recipes or sad and sorry stories, then I’ll make something up.
Drabbit, I can’t even say ‘make something up’ without feeling guilty. I write fiction elsewhere, why not on this blog?! OK. I shall avoid that feeling of being harried by my historian’s conscience and I shall refrain from making anything up. If I don’t get anecdote and history I’ll link to it elsewhere on the web, or explore my book collection, or something. I can guarantee that the stories from you and your home recipes will be way cooler than anything my google fu will provide.
You can contact me by clicking on “Contact me” under the “About Food History” box, or by leaving comments in the comments section. You have until October 30. There are no prizes this time - the reward is showing the rest of us what actually happens in US families over Halloween. Just think, you could be correcting the historical record in the minds of vast hordes of people!
PS The picture doesn’t reflect Halloween. Candles and Anatolian kilims go together in my mind, so it’s purely for my own comfort. Tomorrow I shall be less in need of either candles or kilims because I’m off to a farmers’ market. Yippee!
October 19th, 2007 at 6:34 am
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptEven with the time difference between Australia and the US it isn’t Halloween here yet. I saw a few Halloween candles in my favourite candle shop today (when I need cheering up and chocolate won’t do it, I buy candles). … [...]
October 19th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Halloween isn’t exactly a family holiday — in fact, it’s a big celebration of children’s increasing independence from their families. Weird or wacky costumes stress the child’s individuality. Even the tiniest trick-or-treaters, still closely accompanied by mom or dad, themselves do the doorknocking and “Trick or treat!” yelling. The older the child gets, the further away mom or dad linger, until eventually the 12- and 13-year-old kids go out in groups with no adults. (To be completely accurate, that’s what happened in the 1970s, when I was 13. Parents may be more cautious now, even with their older children.)
And then — the loot! Everything your parents don’t want you to eat! And in absolutely obscene quantities! Not so much recipes, as even in my day home-baked, unwrapped things were viewed with a bit of suspicion, as piles and piles of store-bought candy.
Darkness, spookiness, uneasy glances and raucous, slightly panicky laughter, not to mention the gluttony and mischief — no, nothing of the family there. At least, one hopes not.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
[...] from The Oregonian [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 am
[...] more here Filed under: halloween [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
[...] more here Filed under: halloween [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:02 am
[...] the full story here This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 6:17 am and is filed under australia [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
[...] reminds me, two readers have sent in their cool narratives about Halloween – any more you care to email or put in the comments to posts will be much-appreciated in a few [...]