Fearfully Haunting Halloween

Now I understand the saying “Once in a blue moon”. Saturday night was the type of night that comes along only once every 40 years or so. The sky was clear, there was an autumn chill in the air but it wasn’t so cold that you needed winter gear. Leaves were falling. The moon was full. Fireworks lit the sky as trick or treaters darted gleefully from decorated house to decorated house. Families gathered in the park – at socially safe distance.

HeeHee and I painted our faces in ghoulish fashion and slunk out into the night to haunt our way through the neighbourhood enjoying this most perfect Halloween night when everything came together just the way it should for Halloween. We found our way to the big crowd gathered about BFG & Quicksilver’s place where they were about to enjoy BFG’s final annual firework’s show.

Sprite, Doc Disc, Peril and Dangers were there to enjoy what was a most spectacular pyrotechnic display. Everyone’s favourite was when one of the fireworks went out of control and started firing into the crowd in a vivid demonstration of why fireworks are regrettably being banned from this year forward. Remarkably, no one was hit and the kids went wild with excitement. Everyone agreed that was the highlight of the show because what is Halloween without a bit of fear and a hint of danger? It was certainly a Halloween fireworks display they’d never forget!

There has been so much fear in the world of late, so much anger and frustration, it was wonderful to see our neighbourhood happily celebrating beloved traditions. There was peace, joy and excitement in the air. I slept soundly through the night and woke to a beautiful sunny November 1st morning thinking about this acronym:

FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real

It can also be read as:

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

Our survival mechanisms have wired us to overreact to novel stimuli. When we feel threatened our amygdala takes over. And when the amygdala is navigating, rational decisions are hard to make. On both sides of the COVID response debate I see irrationality and overreaction driving people to make stupid decisions and to behave in extreme ways. And the media coverage of said behaviours makes it easy to believe that the world is going to chaos.

But that’s not what I’m seeing. At least not here in our beautiful corner of the world. On Halloween night, a night when we every year let loose a little bit of chaos, and embrace a little bit of fear, people embraced the evening with joyful AND responsible energy. People engaged in social interaction AND safe distancing. We celebrated AND we were careful.

There is a lot of fear mongering in the world these days so I’m proud that our neighbourhood refused to succumb to it. I’m happy that Vancouverites can be calm and self-possessed enough to be both cautious and yet playful. I’m grateful that fear was not able to cancel Halloween. And I’m reminded of FDR’s famous quote: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” There really isn’t. After all, in case you’ve forgotten, none of us make out of this alive anyhow. COVID, car crash, cardiac arrest, skiing accident, the how might be a surprise but not the inevitable outcome. So let’s not a let a little fear spoil our enjoyment of the limited time we have at this party.

But maybe be afraid of Thorn’s beautiful Halloween cakes. They are frightfully delicious looking!