Welcome to the Hallotober Tag! I was tagged by Maria, one of my favorite lifestyle bloggers over at Cherry Living. Thanks, Maria! What a great way to embrace one of my favorite months of the year. Let’s have fun with this!

Rules

• Thank the person who tagged you and link to their post.
• Put the rules at the beginning or after introduction
• Answer the 13 questions
• Tag 13 people to do the tag
• Delete Question 13, add a new number one question of your own
• You are free to use the tag image somewhere in the post 

My Answers

1. What’s your favourite thing about October? 

Libras! My family has a lot of October birthdays. My partner and bonus mom share the same birthday towards the end of the month, only a week and a half after my bio daughter and bonus son’s birthdays. I enjoy celebrations, especially when the cause for the special occasion is someone I love!

2. Are you a big celebrator of Halloween?

I’m somewhere in the middle. I don’t go all out commercially, but I do like to focus on honoring the rhythm of the seasons. Recently I reinstalled our nature corner. Rather than buying decorations in a shop, we’re making an Autumn Fairy and Pumpkin Child to add to our seasonal tableau. I’ll write another post about our nature corner soon.

Usually Halloween is centered around my children. The older 3 are too old for trick-or-treating, but we all get a kick out of dressing up our youngest family member.

3. What’s your favourite horror movie?

I’m a really big wimp. I can’t watch horror movies or I’ll have vivid nightmares worse than anything you’ll ever view on a screen. Even mildly scary movies freak me out. I remember taking my daughter to the cinema and she offered to hold my hand during a suspenseful scene because I kept jumping and squirming in my seat. Clearly she’s braver than me… I think she was only 10 at the time.

4. Would you rather a cozy night in watching horrors or a big night out in a costume?

On Halloween night I’d rather a cozy night in watching It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown or The Wizard of Oz because the films remind me of my childhood. After we go trick or treating, our tradition is to share the candy and watch a movie together. These days my teenagers usually have costume parties of their own to go to, but my partner and I like to pass out candy and watch something like an old Alfred Hitchcock film.

5. Which has been your most favourite costume to date? 

I love witches! My moon is in Pisces after all… Every Halloween I put on my hat, but I feel a bit witchy all year round.

6. Bobbing for apples or pin the hat on the witch? 

Pin the hat on the witch

7. How do you celebrate Halloween? 

We usually go to Nightmare Realm (haunted house experience) or the Terror Trail leading up to Halloween. It’s a scary walk in the woods at nighttime where actors jump out and scare you. We often go with a group of friends and the kids love it!

The Celtic festival of Samhain is celebrated around the same time and predates the modern concept of Halloween. Traditionally a harvest celebration took place in Ireland at the end of the growing season. Samhain also marks the beginning of a spiritual New Year as the plants die back for the winter.

Pagans believed (and still do believe) that the veil between the living and dead is thin at this time of year. For that reason, it’s a good time to honor ancestors. This year I’d like to light a candle beside a photo of my loved ones who have passed away and take some quiet time to remember them.

Observing the rhythm of the seasons helps me feel connected. We’re all facing into the dark, cold months together. As the earth enters into the period of rest in the northern hemisphere, I welcome the chance to slow down and go inwards too.

It seems unlikely that we’ll go trick or treating this year. It’s rumored we’ll return to a Level 5 lockdown by then. All of the usual festivities have already been canceled because of Covid-19. On October 31st my family will still dress up, drink hot mulled cider and light a bonfire in the garden.

8. What’s your least favourite horror? 

I don’t watch horror movies. As a child I watched Poltergeist and it scarred me for life!!!

9. Do you have a favourite trick or treating memory? 

Yes. I have lots of good memories of trick or treating in the Midwest as a child. In Ireland it’s not as big of a holiday as in America. 13 years ago one of my best childhood friends got married and we were asked to be part of the wedding. I flew to Cincinnati with my three young children and it just so happened to be October. That meant we were there for Halloween as well as the wedding. Another childhood friend was visiting from North Carolina with her children.

We all went trick or treating in our childhood neighborhood together with the next generation. (My mom still lives in the same house). Not only was it special to walk the same streets with the women who once went trick or treating with me as a kid, but it was also special for my Irish children to experience an American style Halloween. It’s so over the top- the smoke, scary music, the front yards decorated like graveyards, and so on… not to mention tons of children dressed up in every type of costume! My mom also enjoyed having her only grandchildren there for the occasion. We usually miss out on celebrating holidays together because we live so far away. That Halloween was definitely a memory to treasure!

10. What’s your favourite thing about Halloween?

I have a sweet tooth so that’s easy… looting my kids’ bags when we get home from trick or treating.

11. Scary costume or Silly costume? 

Silly

12. What’s your favourite Halloween candy?

Candy corn. My mom used to send it to us since we can’t buy it in Ireland. This year she mailed a hamper instead.

13. Would you dare to play the Ouija board game?

Yes

My Questions

1. Do you carve intricate pumpkins or go for a simple jack o’lantern?
2. Would you dare to play the Ouija board game?
3. What’s your favourite thing about October? 
4. What’s your favourite horror movie?
5. Would you rather a cozy night in watching horrors or a big night out in a costume?
6. Which has been your most favourite costume to date? 
7. Bobbing for apples or pin the hat on the witch? 
8. How do you celebrate Halloween? 
9. Are you a big celebrator of Halloween?
10. Do you have a favourite trick or treating memory? 
11. What’s your favourite thing about Halloween?
12. Scary costume or Silly costume? 
13. What’s your favourite Halloween candy?

Nominations

1. Justyn
2. Fiona
3. Vee
4. Mare
5. Sheree
6. Rachel
7. Liberty
8. Christy
9. Kirstie
10. My Forty Something Life
11. Lisa
12. Kim
13. Eleanor