Mark My Words: Late October

Holidays are always fun, but I've been taking them to another level by reading (and writing) academic books about them. So here's a brief overview of the history of Halloween as far as I understand it:

Ancient Celts celebrated Samhain on the eve of November 1. It was a time when spirits were said to travel into the land of the living.
As is the case with many of our holidays, the Roman Catholic Church moved the holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to November 1 and 2 to accommodate/reinterpret/replace/assimilate the Celtic festivities. It retained many of its supernatural elements and was said to be a night for witches and fairies. (Fairies were not the cutesy type we think of. They were mischievous, almost evil creatures, and people had to refer to them as "the good people" so they wouldn't offend them.)
In the late nineteenth century, Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the United States. After the turn of the twentieth century, Halloween was an evening for fortune telling, pranks, and vandalism.
In the 1930s, trick-or-treating began as an alternative to vandalism, and it grew after World War II. It amazes me that so many of our Halloween traditions are comparatively young!

Once the July holidays are over, there's not another major holiday until Halloween. To accommodate the dearth of festivities, I officially start the Halloween season in mid-September. But at that point, I've already been looking for autumnal candy to review for months. (My first Halloween review went up in July this year!)

Because of that, and because a lot of Halloween products are on store shelves in August, I often associate Halloween things with late summer. And the time of year doesn't seem very spooky.

But then by the time late October gets here, it really does have a bit of a spooky feel, and I can get why the Celts made it time for Samhain. (In truth, however, ancient Ireland probably feels pretty different from modern-day Utah at this time of year.

At this time of year, with the impending snow and darkness, I value trails more than at any other time. (The exception might be February/March/April, when there's been a hiatus.) Over just the course of a week, a lot of the trees lost their leaves. It is sad.

Good old default Wild Rose. Actually, this might be the Chukar Loop portion.

After work on Thursday, I ran on the trails behind This Is the Place. It's fun to see the park from above. Even though the location is convenient, I rarely go on those trails. There are a seemingly infinite number of trails, but I think few are meant to be trails, and they tend to be pretty steep. There's just been so much traffic that it's worn paths. I went up one steep trail that I'm pretty sure wasn't an official trail. It was OK.

Saturday was my last day of work at This Is the Place because it's slowing down for the season. It was the last day of Little Haunts, so I wore my old Fred Flintstone costume, which was especially fitting when we brought out Alice the dragon/dinosaur. There was an end-of-year party, and then I ran up the nearby trails again. This time, I ended up going up the trail where we had to bring handcarts down on that strange June day earlier this year. I felt like everything had come full circle: the end of the season, remembering everything that happened this year, the green of June replaced by the reds and browns of October.


This is where most of the handcarts parked when we had to rescue them four months ago.

Today I taught an elders quorum lesson using Peter M. Johnson's talk "Power to Overcome the Adversary." During conference, I was thinking that I should quit wasting time by looking at Twitter feeds (I don't have my own account, but I look at others), but then that talk specifically called out Twitter as a distraction. So I feel like the last three weeks have been a bit more productive without frequently refreshing a Twitter feed. In my lesson, I encouraged people to share how they can feel discouraged. For example, in a YSA context, I'm like a loaf of moldy bread—I've hit my expiration date, and it's time to toss me out. (It was said with a smile, so don't worry about me.) But then I didn't have enough time to talk in depth about some of the solutions. Oh well.

Then tonight my family carved pumpkins. I carved two, one I got from work and a green one my family bought.

I've seen a lot of cartoons that use green jack-o'-lanterns. Is that a thing? Carving the green pumpkin was really difficult. It didn't have a stem, which meant I couldn't pull the lid off. I had to carve the face without emptying the inside. Eventually I got the lid off, but I can't get it back in. It was surprisingly challenging. But I liked the green and orange flesh, and it smelled like a cucumber.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my next two days off before I start at Sundance again. It's not my favorite job. But happiness is a state of mind, so I'm trying to remain optimistic.

***
In news relevant to pumpkinundation roundup, I was shocked to learn this week that Last Course is closed forever! In truth though, their ice cream flavors were unique, but they weren't especially great. I loved the pumpkin snickerdoodle and key lime pie, but the turkey cranberry, candied yam, malted milk eggs, and cotton candy Pop Rocks were subpar.

Pumpkin Pie Larabars are fruits and nuts smashed together with some pumpkin and spices. They're fine. 6/10.

Some of my favorite finds are pumpkin versions of products I have never heard of, like this Bobo's Pumpkin Spice Oat Bar. I liked the spices of this, but the bar was like a soft brick of oats. Kind of weird. 6/10.

Pumpkin Pie Kit Kats came out two years ago, and I got them then, but I didn't have them again until now. I like them, even though they taste artificial. My family has discovered where I put them, so I doubt they'll last until Halloween. 7/10.

A friend made these apple cider donuts, which we had with both ginger and cinnamon seasoning. They were great! But I don't like the idea of making donuts myself because I don't know what to do with the oil afterwards. 8/10.

I was glad the friend had Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spiced Ginger Brew, because I had seen it but didn't want to buy it. I haven't had soda since 2015, and I can't decide whether this is soda, though I only had a few sips. It mostly tasted like ginger. I didn't taste the pumpkin, but it did remind me of something I might have at Thanksgiving or Christmas. 7/10.

I put milk to the fill line of this Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Kodiak Cakes Muffin, and then I added some more milk, but it still seemed a little dry. It's still good though; I was worried they had quit making these. 7/10.

Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts have been a favorite of mine since 2013. They're like the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon variety, only better, with actual pumpkin! 9/10.