Halloween in the Northeast

October 10, 2010

Day 33

Halloween Decorations

Halloween decorations abound here.  Store fronts display weather worn graveyards, ragged witches bending over a terrible brew.  Bats are strong across the windows lit in colors of orange and purple.  Even more impressive are the various home and yard decorations.  Bales of hay stacked with pumpkins of all size a bamboo rake nesting a pile of leaves casually propped beside.  Scarecrows collect in groups with clustered pumpkins and bundled cornstalks standing guard in many a yard.  Front porches display various stuffed characters of the season – from scarecrows to weary men, women and children - all dressed in overalls,  flannel, calico and gingham sitting stoically in chairs watching tourists gawk and gape.  Pots of gold, burgundy, rosy pink, and orange mums are neatly tucked into any of the many displays or sit along on a front porch step.  I have not seen anything like this at home.  Even the simplest of efforts shows celebration as pumpkins sit on every step leading to the house or set as sentinels evenly spread across a fence line, yard or path.  As if all of this isn’t enough, fruit stands spill over with the abundant harvests of fall.   Halloween is collectively and jubilantly celebrated here.