Happy Halloween

Pumpkin

I barely recall any mention of Halloween when I was growing up. That’s changed in the last few years. It’s certainly being much more heavily promoted these days and I want to say — though I have no evidence to support it — that it’s at the expense of Bonfire Night. Presumably children asking strangers for sugary treats is safer than fireworks and piles of burning wood?

In any case, it’s big in America and has been for a long time and one of the traditions is going to a pumpkin patch. Since I was in California recently with family, including two children ((Only one mine if you’ve been keeping count.)), it made sense to check out what happens…

Pumpkin patch

There was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of activities from horse rides and hay mazes to eating grilled food and drinking lemonade. Oh, at there were pumpkins for the taking.

I never really got the idea of dressing up, but it’s a popular thing to do. Whatever my misgivings, Junior didn’t seem to mind being dressed as a pumpkin. His cousin wore the same outfit last year (this year he was dressed as a tiger). He spent some time studying his (almost) doppelgängers before moving on to the hay maze.

Junior examines the pumpkins

Away from the stalls, the pumpkins progressively lost their vivid orange colour and became yellow and then food for non-humans.

Pumpkin Patch

We didn’t take one in the end — suitcases being only finite in size and Virgin’s baggage allowance not being overly generous — but plenty of other people clearly did. Around the local neighbourhood were many examples of some fine carving… ((Complete with plenty of purple haze. Thanks iPhone 5.))

Halloween Pumpkins

Whether or not you celebrate Halloween, I hope you’re having a great day. Here it may not be such a big deal but I had a fun day seeing what the run-up is like across the Atlantic.