Halloween! Does it feel like one of your favourite holidays or a dreaded sugar-management exercise?!
Have you ever longed to acknowledge what this time of year
really represents? Or maybe you’d like to create some
special family traditions that sit alongside the cultural norms?
Here are 4 fab ideas to make Halloween more
meaningful and less treat-focused.
1. Acknowledge the veil
This time of year is when the veil between worlds is thinnest. What does this mean?
It is when the days shorten and the natural world prepares to withdraw from growth and the realm of life.
Samhain and the harvest represent the transition between seasons - from
life to death.
This means halloween is a strangely welcoming time to contemplate life and death. You might want to put up
photographs and candles of loved ones who have passed away. You can take time in the week before halloween to express gratitude for them and share stories about them.
2. Magical firelight
Autumn is a magical time for witnessing the passing of day into night.
This is a rare experience for a child who is usually indoors at dusk.
Get outdoors into the most light-unpolluted place you can. Let the moonlight or starlight rest on your faces. If you have access to a garden, light a campfire on halloween - it can be a wonderful tradition.
Firelight draws our our extrasensory capacities, our more mystical nature.
One beautiful candle can do the job just as well. Here are some other simple but beautiful
Halloween decorations.
The fireside is also the perfect place to reflect on your year or tell stories of the previous halloween. You can toast marshmallows or read
campfire ghost stories.
3. Create a Halloween journey
Collaborate with other families to create an interactive halloween trail which isn’t all about the sweets and horror! Using the woods, a park or community space the children follow the
atmospheric light of a ghostly Jack O’Lantern. This unhappy-faced lantern was originally used to
ward off malevolent spirits.
At each stop a different part of a story is read to them.
If you’re a particularly creative bunch of adults/older children you can re-enact the story in costume!
Here are some fun books to read at any time or part of a journey:
Pumpkin Moonshine
The Vanishing Pumpkin
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Moonlight the Halloween Cat
You could also hold a
treasure hunt and include Halloween treats this way if trick or treating isn’t possible.
If you want to make it extra sensorial you could include some
blindfolded games involving bowls of jelly, peeled grapes, cooked spaghetti. Tell them it’s monster brains and weeny-worms!
4. Zoom-o-ween
It’s 2020! If you can’t meet up with anyone in person you can hold an online event. Maybe grandparents can get involved? Invite everyone to wear a costume, ask 5
Halloween quiz questions and tell 1 Halloween joke!
There can be some spooky music (check out this spooky
Halloween playlist!) and seriously spooky dancing.
Or you could create a red (or orange) carpet costume fashion show.
Home made Halloween treats or certificates make for fun prizes.
You could also create an online photo booth - set up a ghostly background and use some fun props!
Enjoy creating new traditions that build even more
connection with your child. The effort now will create
cherished memories to last a lifetime.
