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Know What I Love About Living in New England? Halloween.
Around these parts, Halloween is not just A major holiday, it's THE major holiday of the year.
It's bigger than Christmas, and almost as big as Thanksgiving.
Considering that I live within spitting distance of Plymouth Rock, geologically speaking, this should give you a pretty good idea just how big Halloween is in New England. Salem sets off fireworks on Halloween Night, fer Christ's sake!
Not for nothing is Stephen King from Maine, Nathaniel Hawthorne from Massachusetts, and H.P. Lovecraft from Rhode Island. Hell, New England Horror Writers have their own writerly association.
I mean, the online version of The Boston Globe has an entire online section just for Halloween. While other parts of the U.S. have there "XX days of shopping before Christmas", we've got the "XX days of shopping before Halloween" countdown.
Most people I know (at least those who are lucky enough to have jobs) have Halloween parties where they work, as opposed to other parties for other holidays.
*dreams of my company Halloween party and the delicious food everyone's going to bring while we completely shut down the company from lunchtime until close*
To prove my point about the awesomeness of Halloween in New England, I present to you a picture of the grave of Mercy L. Brown, Rhode Island's last vampire.
Okay, it was Mercy's corpse that was accused of being a vampire, which resulted in it being exhumed, the heart removed, burnt, and the ashes mixed with water. The slurry was then fed to her brother, whom everyone believed was a victim of Mercy's blood-sucking ways, as a cure. (It didn't work, in case you're wondering.)
Ummm, did I mention that this happened in 1892? As in "less than 8 years before the start of the 20th century".
Just to remind everyone, less than 12 days of shopping before Halloween!
Or in my case, less than 12 days to come up with something yummy for the company holiday party.
It's bigger than Christmas, and almost as big as Thanksgiving.
Considering that I live within spitting distance of Plymouth Rock, geologically speaking, this should give you a pretty good idea just how big Halloween is in New England. Salem sets off fireworks on Halloween Night, fer Christ's sake!
Not for nothing is Stephen King from Maine, Nathaniel Hawthorne from Massachusetts, and H.P. Lovecraft from Rhode Island. Hell, New England Horror Writers have their own writerly association.
I mean, the online version of The Boston Globe has an entire online section just for Halloween. While other parts of the U.S. have there "XX days of shopping before Christmas", we've got the "XX days of shopping before Halloween" countdown.
Most people I know (at least those who are lucky enough to have jobs) have Halloween parties where they work, as opposed to other parties for other holidays.
*dreams of my company Halloween party and the delicious food everyone's going to bring while we completely shut down the company from lunchtime until close*
To prove my point about the awesomeness of Halloween in New England, I present to you a picture of the grave of Mercy L. Brown, Rhode Island's last vampire.
Okay, it was Mercy's corpse that was accused of being a vampire, which resulted in it being exhumed, the heart removed, burnt, and the ashes mixed with water. The slurry was then fed to her brother, whom everyone believed was a victim of Mercy's blood-sucking ways, as a cure. (It didn't work, in case you're wondering.)
Ummm, did I mention that this happened in 1892? As in "less than 8 years before the start of the 20th century".
Just to remind everyone, less than 12 days of shopping before Halloween!
Or in my case, less than 12 days to come up with something yummy for the company holiday party.
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The Rhode Island Vampire? *cackles*
In all seriousness, you can't make some this stuff up.
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Everyone knows that any state where Cthulu is snoozing underneath the state capitol building most definitely has real vampires.
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If you are looking for recipes, I highly recommend BLT Bites (not Halloween specific, though - don't know if you are looking for a theme recipe)
recipe is at http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/BLT-Bites
Happy Halloween!
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I will have to keep looking.
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Small curd, of course. It would go with tomatoes, bacon, and green onions and would look roughly the same when stuffed in the cherry tomatoes.
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Oh, who am I kidding? Halloween totally belongs to New England. You and your crazy ass historical witch hunts and spooky dead looking orange trees. ;D
Also, I'm jealous. The Halloween party was cut from our budget, this year.
*sits on Black Aggie and sulks*
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Just a picture of Black Aggie gives me the freakin' creeps.
Maryland has it's own share of creepy. Actually, I'd argue that any of the Original 13 have some creepy-ass legends — probably because they're right on the fault line between the older European creepy-ass legends and the newer North American creepy-ass legends. Or at least that's my theory.
But in all seriousness, Salem on Halloween? They just close the damn city down to automobile traffic, have the commuter rails waive the ticket price so people can take the train for free into the city, and turn it into a giant roving party/outdoor costume competition/candlelite memorial service for the 21 dead in the Salem witch trials/Evangelical freakout and preach-a-thon.
Oh, and the local newspaper warns everyone to keep their cats inside (especially black cats) for the month of October. Sick-in-the-head tourists have a habit of kidnapping and killing Salem cats. Why? No one knows. :-(
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Salem on Halloween always seemed to me to be a bit like Boston or DC on the Fourth of July or Stonehenge on any Solstice or Equinox. Just kind of a crazy, crazy time that I'd probably rather avoid, for the most part. I'm told Georgetown is the "place to be" on Halloween in these parts, but that's more for it's mix of upscale neighborhood and slightly bohemian reputation. Adam's Morgan is said to be a big ass party, but then, that happens most weekends in Adam's Morgan (for reasons I'm not entirely clear on). And of course, there's those who decide to hit up the Exorcist steps or Poe's grave for Halloween.
Me, I'll stick to the tiny graveyard by my sister's museum for their "In search of ghosts" tour, and then, pretty much only when I'm one of the storytellers. I love Halloween, but I'm more of a stay at home and tell ghost stories or enjoy creepy movies/literature sort.
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