Spooky Goings On!

 

I love Halloween. It was never big in England when I was a kid. I remember one party with apple bobbing and carved pumpkins but there were never many Trick or Treaters and we never really celebrated it as a family.

The only significant Halloween event occurred when I was about 16 when the great BBC in their wisdom transmitted the film Ghostwatch. If you ever see a copy of this grab it! It was a made for TV film which was presented as if it was a real, live documentary investigating a haunted council house inhabited by a single mum and her two daughters. It has only ever been shown once on TV as it caused so many complaints. People took it seriously and believed that one of the presenters had really been dragged into another realm!

It is hosted by the distinguished Michael Parkinson and ends with him becoming possessed. I watched it around a mates house and remember clinging to my then boyfriend for most of the evening. Its very scary and convincing. Unfortunately the 90s clothing takes some of the fear factor away now but its still worth watching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch

In New Zealand Halloween appears to be growing in popularity with most of the discount shops becoming full of scream masks and witches hats. So this year I thought I would hold my own Halloween party.

In preparation I painted my nails Thursday night and headed into work with trendy black finger nails. I received several comments on them including one lady who on hearing I was intending to have a Halloween party launched into a description of how it was a horrible tradition involving the burning of bones and the sacrificing of kids. A bit shocked by this I mumbled something about just intending to wrap kids in loo roll and bob for some apples, and I quickly changed the subject.

After some research (or googling and chatting to friends) I have found that there are still people who appear to think that kids running around dressed as bats and witches is dangerous and meddling with the occult in some way. Well I respect everyones views and certainly did not challenge this persons viewpoint. However I do find it hard to see any danger in eating donuts hanging from a piece of string and kids running around wearing false plastic fangs (even though one over enthusiastic five year old apparently did try to suck the blood of the three year old).

We had a great party and I am already planning next years night of horror :)