All Saints' Day

Well, Halloween is officially over. Today is All Saints' Day in the Catholic Church, once known as All Hallows' Day. The night before was known, then, as "all-hallows-even", which became "Halloween" (or Hallowe'en). The holiday originates as a Celtic festival known as Samhain and is associated both with the harvest and the supernatural. (you can even check my facts on Wikipedia, which I am plagiarizing most abashedly right now).

Since I am neither Celtic nor Catholic, the holiday has had only had secular interest for me. As a child I looked forward with great anticipation to dressing up in a costume and getting lots of candy. This was our first Halloween as homeowners, and my wife and I decided to distribute candy to local trick-or-treaters. In the end, we distributed candy to about 25 children of various ages, and considered the night a success (although we now have too much candy left over).

In the spirit of the season, I read the Wikipedia article on Halloween and mined these interesting tidbits. Halloween is the sixth most profitable holiday in the U.S. right now. If I need to tell you which is #1, then I'd better say that there are only 53 shopping days left (yes, Sundays count nowadays). Halloween is also the second most popular holiday for decorating in America (for #1, see above). Once Halloween is over, Holiday #1 can be marketed with abandon. Still, I really enjoy this time of year, and look forward to that big day near the year's end, even though I won't yet mention it by name.