Wow. Kay and I were hoping more people would weigh in with comments on Cribsheet. We certainly got that with my Halloween post…

I’m still amazed how my gripe about candy and consumerism turned into an apparent attack on fun, childhood, family, neighbors and America. I guess when it comes to what’s right for kids, everyone and no-one is an expert. And when it comes to parenting, all of us are in a Foreign Land.

Turns out I did get the Hungry Ghosts reference wrong. This, according to my dear mother, who e-mailed from Malaysia:

“The hungry ghosts are said to be roaming around during the seventh month of each year - so people put food by the roadside for them to eat. It is also advisable not to go out so much so you do not accidentally bump into them.

It is during Chinese New Year that you put food on the altar for the gods from heaven to eat when they come down and make a report of what you have been doing throughout the year - you put the sticky lin-koh out for them so that their lips will get stuck so they cannot go up and tell tales on
you, especially the naughty things you have been up to.”

For those who haven’t had enough, a few related thoughts: how the New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast deals with her dread of Halloween, why writer Harlan Coben thinks organized snacks must go, the Mexican/Catholic/Aztec roots of the upcoming Day of the Dead, and Strib co-blogger Roadguy’s look at Halloweens past, which includes the year he went as a stretch of the Interstate 35W. 

And for those who still haven’t had enough, yes, my kid has a costume (a hand-me-down frog) this year and yes, we have pumpkins on our front step.

PS: Thank you to my co-worker Tom who left a Tootsie Roll on my keyboard. It gave me the sugar high I needed to keep reading blogger comments throughout the day…

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.