Passing Through the Graveyard on Halloween Night

I aimed for an old fashioned Halloween this year, with creative handmade costumes, lots of jack-o-lanterns, a party, bobbing for apples, homemade cupcakes, and a bonfire. In keeping with this idea, we began and ended our trick-or-treating at the old Masonic pioneer cemetery that sits on a forested hilltop with winding paths lined with native plant ID plaques, and interpretive historical plaques at each of the founding pioneer family plots. It’s one of my favorite urban green spaces in our town. Passing through the graveyard on Halloween night felt like a fitting way to bring the awareness of the celebration back to the theme of remembering and honoring the dead, during this time of the cycle of the year, of Autumn, Halloween, All Souls Day, Sawhein, and Dia de los Muertos. So the whole bunch of us; Super Botany Woman (myself), Calvin and Hobbes, the Jedi Night, the princess, the vampiress who lost her teeth, the mad scientist, the scandalous Frenchman, the furry minion of Death, and her red demon sister all wandered along the paths on our way to the University neighborhoods for trick-or-treating, and back to our cars in the dark when we were done. The wildness, and focus on native plant restoration and education of this particular cemetery, reminded me of this poem by Brian Patten.