So, it is that time of year. A celebration of an Irish-invented holiday. Yes, not many people know this but Halloween was actually invented in my little country. Of course, as with all things invented here it had to go abroad and be taken seriously there before we brought it home and ramped it up to the nines.
When I was young we used to celebrate it but on a much smaller level. We would dress up and go around people's houses with chants of 'Help the Halloween party' and be given a few nuts, an orange and maybe if we were lucky we would get a sweet of two.
Tonight my son goes to sleep with a sore belly after eating too many sweets and in the morning he will be hungover after the sugar rush.
Nearly every house is decked out with decorations and even in my house we went a bit crazy today and spent the afternoon cleaning the house of cobwebs so we could put up fake ones.
I also did a few pumpkin carvings, The first in this post was a collaboration between my son and me that he proudly brought to school and then we used to adorn our gate with. These other guys, sitting on the bench was a quick job I did for a client at the last minute.
My favourite was this guy who had his pumpkin face bashed in.
I also went a bit crazy and made Fintan a costume which was a character called Green from a new obsession he has. A hot glue gun had become my favourite tool.
We then brought him around two estates to fill his bags. Clodagh dressed up as the Maharaja and I as his grandmother wheeling a shopping trolly after him so he could dump his bucket of sweets after each house so that when he arrived at the next door he would be empty and taken pity on, We nearly filled the shopping trolly with stuff.
His costume lasted pretty well but you know kids and clothes.
It was a nice Halloween or Samhain as it was traditionally called in the olden days. It was fun making the house look inviting for our neighbours and trying to make Fintan some new friends in the area. Being able to see the world through a child's eyes again is the best thing about being a father.