As a child, everyone I knew would get dressed up in costumes for Halloween. We’d go door-to-door yelling “trick or treat” and hold out pillowcases or shopping bags to get filled up with candy. At the end of the night, my siblings and I would compare what we got. I loved the costumes and the candy, but looking back what I loved the most was witnessing going up to every door and catching the vibe of that particular household. Behind every door there was a surprise.
In Northern New Jersey, where I grew up, it was one of the first nights of the season where I would notice it getting darker earlier. It was also seemed like the first cold night of the season. It was a challenge to show off my costume and still stay warm without wearing a coat.
When I got older, I stopped trick or treating. Every Halloween was something different. While living in NYC, I would sometimes watch the famous Halloween parade. Some years I’d dress up. Once I was the Tarot card Temperance. Another year I was the Holland Tunnel and another I dressed up as Sunny Bono.
When I moved to California, there were a few years where I took my niece and nephew “trick or treating”.
These days I mostly associate Halloween with Mexican holiday, The Day of the Dead, which continues onto November 1 (my dad’s birthday).