Hallowmas

To step outside on Halloween dressed as someone—or some thing—other than yourself is to step into a narrative that acknowledges that the membrane between our workaday, material world and the unseen realm of spirits is far thinner and more permeable than many of us like to think.

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What their costumes are is less important than the fact that, for a night, my children will be people other than themselves: each of them will be someone who, regardless of real-life fears about the dark, is not afraid to step out into the night.  Armored inside their personae, they can laugh at the shadows, as well they should.  On the one hand, the powers of darkness are no joke; on the other hand, although Christians have no traffic with these powers, we do not fear them.

-- from "The Drama of Hallowmas," by Sally Thomas

The above article was written by the selfsame author of the poem I shared here.  I thought the name sounded familiar, and lo!--no such thing as coincidences.  ;)

Roan enjoyed his Halloween immensely.  He never did learn to say trick-or-treat, but he grasped the concept of going up to the candy bowl and getting goodies.  He usually reached to receive the candy, and it took some convincing to get him to drop it in his pumpkin pail.  He picked out some things himself, and by the end of the night, he was even trading the candy he was handed for the ones that looked more appealing to him.