Carole,

You should have seen my husband's reaction to his first American Halloween! He can't believe all of the fuss. He asked me why people are putting pumpkins and decorations out already and why there are so many costumes, etc. I told him that it's October and people usually put stuff up for the month. He couldn't fathom this and muttered, "you people are crazy!"

He has conflicted feelings about Halloween because of the way it is regarded in NZ - he is not a Christian, but his basic feeling towards the holiday is that it's evil. I know when I was there last year for Halloween, and the previous years, it was barely noticeable to me. I saw very few things in the shop, several articles on the evils of the holiday by very Christian groups, and one child dressed up on the actual holiday.

It saddened me because I LOVE Halloween. It's a chance to get in costume, and my brothers and I always put a lot of creativity into our costumes. We'd think about it for months! We also helped make a haunted house through Boy Scouts, and always enjoyed making a scare crow and decorating our porch and carving pumpkins for the holiday.

There's nothing sinister about this holiday, as far as I'm concerned. Never once had I or anyone else I'd known received anything other than candy. No razor blades, no weirdos. I don't believe I've ever heard of that happening in America. I believe Snopes.com dispelled the myth of the razor blade apple and went onto say how no such tricks have actually occured on Halloween. Not sure, though.

I think it's a great time to have fun, be someone different for a night and score some great candy!! It's more a celebration of the fall and an excuse to have some fun.