C'est Toussaint -- That good ole' Day of the Dead

The demographic of our neighborhood has changed. We were away for Halloween last year, so I don’t know what the situation was then, but this year I could count the tiny tykes who arrived at the door on one hand. I am a sucker for dressed up cute li’l kiddies and will happily give them all the tooth-rotting confections they want. Their parents, after all, have to deal with the dental costs, not I.

What I don’t like is the arrival at my door of a cadre of 14-plus-year-olds. What is wrong with them? They’re teenagers. The idea of trick-or-treating when I was their age would have been mortifying. T-or-T was then considered baby stuff. Yet, there they were at the door. “Hi girls – dressed up like overly made-up tarts, I see. So, how is that different from what you wear when I see you wandering over to the middle school down the way each morning?”

One blogger suggested she wouldn’t accommodate the older kids. I agree that one shouldn’t. I also don’t want to clean up the crap if somebody eggs my house after I have sent them on their way candy-less. So, I accede to their slothful greed.

Last year, as I said, we were away. We were in France on Halloween. They don’t do Halloween in a big way there. Hints existed, but it’s nothing like what it is in North America.

What we weren’t prepared for, however, is the fact that France is ostensibly a Catholic country (even though where we were living, Grenoble, was traditionally the epicentre of the Huguenot realm) so the big deal is All Saints Day – Toussaint – on Nov. 1. Halloween is a contraction (I only know this because I wrote a newspaper story about it one time) of All Hallows Eve, as in the eve of All Saints. Therefore, Halloween is when the ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night make their last foray into the realm of the goodly and godfearing before they are smitten down by the triumphant saints the next day. All Saints Day is also the 'Day of the Dead' in diverse countries, such as Poland and Mexico. If you're familiar with Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, then you know of the Day of the Dead. Among other things, it seems, it's a good excuse to get really, really drunk.

Toussaint in France is quite a big deal, I found. I mainly found that damn near all the shops were closed on the morning of Nov.1, and couldn’t quite figure out why. What I mean is that more shops were randomly closed than normal. French work ethic seems to dictate that if you don’t feel like opening up, you just don’t You don’t need to give a reason. Keeps the consuming public on their toes. But, on this day more than the usual 25 percent were shut down. A sign on the door of one shop explained why. Aha!

Problem was, there were things I needed like milk, eggs, heavenly croissants, and even more heavenly mousse au chocolat. Damn and drat.
Fortunately, however, our hotel was situated just down the street from the lively Arab Quarter. Since most of them are Muslim, Toussaint meant diddly to them, so business was as usual.

Anyway, enjoy your Toussaint.