Chris, thanks so much for posting that one by Schnackenberg -- I'd never seen it before. I love this celebration. Perhaps it's my pagan Celtic blood, but my birthday is the day before, and always, always growing up, the cake was black and orange, with bats or cats, or the like. I don't know if Millay wrote this with anything of Halloween in mind, but if she didn't, she could have:
How healthily their feet upon the floor
Strike down! These are no spirits, but a band
Of children, surely, leaping hand in hand
Into the air in groups of three and four,
Wearing their silken rags as if they wore
Leaves only and light grasses, or a strand
Of black elusive seaweed oozing sand,
And running hard as if along a shore.
I know how lost forever, and at length
How still these lovely tossing limbs shall lie,
And the bright laughter and the panting breath;
And yet, before such beauty and such strength,
Once more, as always when the dance is high,
I am rebuked that I believe in death.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Costumes... I haven't decided yet. The kids and I will be making rounds of area churches and civic groups who don't get too awful with their celebrations. It's either my long black wig and the Oriental empress disguise, or my long blonde one, black boots and vest, and pink "Pirate Barbie" disguise!
Jennifer
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