Gourds, Hallowtide, and Snow (Oh My!)
October/ November Update
Our First Year Growing Gourds
Gourds were a last-minute addition to the garden this past Spring. My mom had saved some seeds and a couple of our kids wanted to grow gourds for fun. Since the kids are essentially in charge of our seasonal decorating now (a job I gladly passed on, since I’m, well, good at other things), I agreed to give up garden space to their decorative viny oddities. And I have to say, they grew very well. We had a good harvest of varied, funky gourds, with plenty to share. The vines wound themselves all through the garden, so that most of the gourds were found as a surprise when picking something else.
Apparently one of my farmer great-grandfathers refused to grow gourds, as he wasn’t going to waste soil on growing something you couldn’t eat. I can’t say he was wrong, but our gourds were pretty fun to find! Of course, gourds had utilitarian purposes throughout history. Indigenous peoples used gourds to make utensils, dishes, containers, musical instruments, rattles, and the still-popular birdhouses. Maybe next year we’ll try our hand at gourd-craft, rather than limit them to table decor.
Holidays in 3’s
In the liturgical calendar, there are a few annual feast days that extend over more than one day. Best known is probably the Paschal Triduum, that starts on the evening of Holy Thursday, includes Good Friday and the Easter Vigil on Saturday, and ends at sunset on Easter Sunday. There’s also Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve to Epiphany on January 6 (the traditional 12 Days of Christmas). Lesser known, mainly because it was demoted from Triduum status in 1955, is Hallowtide, October 31-November 2: All Hallows Eve (Hallowe’en), All Saints, and All Souls.
I’ve always loved Halloween. Oh, not the gory stuff, because I’m a wimp who can’t even watch trailers for horror movies, but the costumes, food, kids roaming the neighborhood in search of fun and goodwill, and just-enough-fright-to-shiver ghost stories; hot cider, leaves blowing in the wind, and candles in jack-o-lanterns. And as a former emo teen, I still appreciate a little societally and religiously sanctioned time during the year to meditate on death. So when we started incorporating more liturgical feast days into our home life, it was a no-brainer (is that a zombie reference?) to celebrate Hallowtide.
Though Halloween came to us here in the Midwest via Irish Catholic immigrants, of whom I am a descendant, I most likely have distant ancestors who celebrated Samhain (pronounced Sau-ihn) at this time also. Samhain was the Celts’ New Year, and for those who still celebrate, it is recognized as a time when the veil thins between the worlds of the living and the dead. Dia de los Muertos celebrations are fascinating as well, and I love me some sugar skulls and flower headbands. Let me know in the comments if you celebrate any holidays like these, and what traditions you honor. I’ll focus here on how our family celebrates within our faith & cultural heritage, but I love to learn about other customs. I also respect if you don’t celebrate Halloween; I’m not fond of the glorification of violence that gets amplified around the holiday in our society.
On Halloween, we host family and friends at our house for hot food, drinks, and trick-or-treating through our suburban neighborhood. We give out handfuls of candy to anyone who knocks at our front door, no matter the age, costumed or not. We display lighted Jack-O’Lanterns that we carve the preceding weekend (which is a whole party in itself, because Feasting!).
November 1 is the Feast of All Saints, which is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, so we go to Mass. Our parish celebrates with a “hall of saints’ where children dress up as a saint of their choosing and the parishioners visit their stations to learn about holy people who lived before. (While noshing on donuts and coffee, because that’s another time-honored Catholic tradition.) Our youngest was St. Lucy this year, and since she loves to bake (our girl does, I don’t know if St. Lucy did), we brought homemade traditional Swedish Lussekatter (“Lucy cat”- because they look like curled up cats) saffron buns to share. December 13 is St. Lucy’s Day, and I’ll share more about that next month.
November 2 is the Feast of All Souls, when we remember all the dead and pray that their souls will go to Heaven. There is Mass again, with some remembrance- candles, bells, names read out- of those parishioners or family members who have died in the past year. We’re encouraged to visit cemeteries throughout November, and to pray for the dead therein. I generally make an effort, with my mom & grandma, to visit & tidy the graves of family members, though I have to admit it’s easier to do in sunny May, when we visit them on Memorial Day, then it is in chilly November.
Our special food for All Souls is soul cakes, another Irish tradition. We’ve tried a different recipe each year, and this year’s were the best so far. Cookie-like, filled with dried fruit, and spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In exchange for eating one, we pray for someone who’s died. Whatever your feelings on the afterlife, it can be healing to take a moment to remember loved ones who’ve passed away. I like traditions around food; it’s a very human thing to share, and it links us to those who came before.
First Snow
We woke today to the first dusting of snow. A little early for our area, and rather a shock after a particularly warm week (St. Martin’s Summer, which I mentioned in this post) in which we could go without coats. It pretty much melted away, but it was a good reminder that colder days are coming soon.
The garden is about as tucked-in as it’s going to get. We’ve raked leaves from the driveway and spread them in a blanket over the former Littlest Cornfield. Roots and the bases of stalks were left to harbor insects and nourish the soil. We’ll burn the vines and leaves that have powdery mildew and blight, once we get a less windy day. The gardening tools are shelved and the harvest complete. The beehive is winterized and the bee yard stacked with strawbales to block the snowdrifts and the bitter wind.
How is your November so far, friends? Is your garden asleep? Have you had snow yet?
I’m excited to let you know that you’ll have a little something different from me in your inboxes soon! I’ll be trading guest posts with a fellow midwestern suburban gardener… Until then, happy November!
— Erin, in Michigan
The gardens are a wreck. We got one field block prepped and planted out with garlic, but everything else is so so tragic. Every April I wonder why I didn’t do any November cleanup, because it tacks weeks on to spring chores, but have I learned yet? No I have not.
Love the 80s Halloween photo! I dressed up as a princess w/ a homemade crown once, too, probably around '79! That holiday has changed so much since we were kids.
BTW, I used to be just like you re: horror movies, but about 5-6 years ago, I decided to dive in, and now I love the genre and can handle at least really good quality horror, as long as it's not gratuitous slashing.