Spooks, it’s Halloween

I got the fright of my life early one morning last week.  I’d just  stepped out from my son’s apartment in the West Village, New York city, for a coffee and a pumpkin cupcake – and when I looked up, I saw a wizened old man hanging from the fire escape. He’d suddenly appeared overnight, and because I was still a little bleary-eyed, I almost jumped out of my skin. It’s not just Hurricane Sandy that’s hit New York, it’s Halloween.  All over Manhattan, apartment buildings and shop windows have been decorated for this pagan celebration with cobweb windows, mock corpses, fake spiders, hay bales and Jack O’Lantern pumpkins.   Even those wealthy Manhattanites who live on the upper East side have been busy competing with each other for the spookiest display. According to The New York Times, Marc Lasry,  co-founder of Avenue Capital, has decorated his mansion on East 74th Street with bloodied bodies hanging from the balcony, skeleton heads, a giant inflatable ghost, swinging bats and a life-size, clothed skeleton affixed to a tree on the sidewalk. One afternoon last week, tourists and children gathered to take pictures of a dancing skeleton beside the front door. It was singing “Super Freak.” On 91st Street, a townhouse between Park and Lexington features a giant inflatable coffin from which a vampire pops up every few seconds. On top of the stoop, guarding the front door, is a 2.5 metre tall plastic witch. Skeleton heads are submerged in the landscaping. Before you all howl, Oh not another American custom, it’s worth remembering that Halloween (or Samhain, as it was then known) had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celts, who once lived all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored and people gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits and vegetables. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle. Halloween is deeply nature-connected. Even the foyers of hip hotels such as the Crosby Street Hotel in the heart of SoHo have stylish displays of pumpkins, flowers and chillies. At Eataly, an up-market Italian food market on 5th Avenue, pumpkins, corn, squash, apples and bales of hay greet you at the front door. Pumpkins are transformed into cupcakes, cookies, mousses, bread, soups, fillings for ravioli and tortellini – and flickering Jack O’Lanterns with amused expressions. At Magnolia Bakery in the West Village, I saw pumpkin pecan cupcakes. Boo! cupcakes, Devil’s Food cupcakes, red velevet cupcakes and Bug cupcakes. And at the entrance to one of the elegant mansions opposite Washington Square Park, I found this bemused fellow. I just hope Hurricane Sandy doesn’t wipe that smile off his face today.