Trick... or treat...???

Belated Happy Halloween everyone!



Halloween is a strange thing. It's not as most people see it now an American thing. It's celebrated in different shapes and sizes by many different cultures, and has been for centuries. The Scots called it All Hallows Eve, the Irish called it Samhain, the Welsh had Nos Calan Gaeaf, the Romans had Palantalia, the Spanish had the Day of the Dead. The underlying theme is very similar in all of them. It's basically a pagan celebration of the autumnal equinox - the passing of the light half of the world to the dark. It is the opposite of Easter - which of course is the festival of the Spring Equinox, a festival of the new light, and of new birth and fertility. The Celts thought of it as a time when the living and the dead came closer together and they would get a chance to see dead ancestors. The wearing masks and costumes was to scare off any bad spirits that may come with them. It was also a celebration of the end of the harvest and bonfires would be lit to burn off the carcasses and inedible waste after storing food for the winter.

The church of course tried to rebrand the festival like they did with Christmas and Easter, to All Saints Day - which is also a celebration of the dead.


Back at home I always felt it was more of an irritation. A night when extortion and minor vandalism was encouraged and of course for supermarkets to cash in on sweets, costumes, party gear, etc. I have to say I've never really thought much about it's Celtic roots and meanings before.

In America though it is huge. They really go mad for it here. It's a bigger thing than Christmas to some people. People decorate their whole house and garden - starting from the end of September, with ghosts and ghouls, skeletons, cemeteries in the garden, lights, spiders webs, fog machines and strobe lights. Speakers playing haunted music when you walk up their drive. Pumpkins and scarecrows are everywhere. It's also a big party time. There are lots of fancy dress parties for both children and adults, and the University students (in particular the girls) use it as an excuse to dress up and go out in Ann Summers gear.

We really got into the spirit this year on Halloween - (When in Rome...) - we had Pumpkins and scarecrows and decorations, and costumes, and we went Trick or treating with the kids, and spent a small fortune on Candy for the trick or treaters.

We had a great evening, but we were totally unprepared - despite being pre-warned by some of the previous rotators and our neighbours. The really nice thing was that it was a big family orientated community celebration. Our street was closed off, all the houses participated in some form. Some of the neighbours had parties. People gave out free hot apple cider. Some of the neighbours hosted a "haunted house" to explore. All the kids got dressed up and went round collecting candy in little orange pumpkin faced buckets. We met lots of neighbours we had never spoken to before and it was all very nice. Well - at the start of the evening at least. There were no "Tricks" at all. No egging of windows, or flour on cars, or general misdemeanours. It was just about giving out candy to the kids.

Now it just so happens that where we are living is a popular place for trick or treating amongst the local kids. So popular in fact that children from poor areas of Detroit get coached in by charities to our street for the evening to take part in trick or treating. This of course is very admirable but resulted in us being somewhat swamped and overwhelmed. So it wasn't a case of how many times did the doorbell go off.... We took it in turns sitting on our front porch while kids queued up to 30 deep by our door to get sweets and then move on to the next house!! Our neighbours counted 700 children had been through their front door in the space of a couple of hours. Our street was flooded with little ghosts, witches, superheroes and buzz lightyears. There was a papier mache procession at some point, but we didn't really get to see it because unfortunately we had bought not nearly enough sweets, so when the inevitable awkward moment came when we ran out and I had 30 kids at the door looking suddenly slightly more menacing, we bailed, turned out the lights and pretended to be out.

To anyone who has never experienced Halloween here - it really is strange. I definitely liked the street party atmosphere and the decorations, the family orientated activities, and the fact that the whole community participates - but I couldn't get my head round the candy-grabbing fest. The vast majority of kids were very polite and controlled and had a small bucket of sweets, but there were some who had bin liners that they were stuffing with as many sweets they could get their hands on and would grab from our supply without uttering a single word. It was an experience that I was very glad we took part in, and am very glad we won't be next year...

Oddly enough the passing of our world from the light to the dark and the beginning of winter occurred simultaneously with it getting pretty cold here. It is now minus 2 centigrade in the morning when I cycle to work, and the first snowfall is forecast for Friday. I am planning to cycle to work throughout the winter and have just invested in some good thermals. I think it is something that only the Brits do - sort of a badge of honour, but as we only have the one car I don't have much choice. I'm actually looking forward to it in a funny way.

Work goes on and I actually feel like a proper attending now. It's still hard work at times, but it comes more naturally, and my confidence has grown a lot after managing so many challenging cases. I look forward to difficult airways, and big liver resections, to super morbidly obese patients (as long as they are not too often). I lectured on an Airway course last week, and I've helped out with some human factors training in the Simulation Centre. The Sim centre here is incredible, and I can't believe I have only just found it. It is very well equipped, and has amazing resources. The only problem is a very familiar one - no-one is given time off clinical duties to go there and learn, so I think it is relatively underused for it's potential, but that is something they are trying to change. Simulation training is going to have a big place in the future of medical training and assessment, and at present I actually think that things are a little behind here than in the UK. The equipment and resources here are very impressive - but it is not being used. One of the problems of having a much shorter residency programme is that there are fewer residents around to do the clinical work, and less time available therefore for non-clinical activities. There are people who are very enthusiastic about it and are trying to change this however.

Till next time - Happy Divali - the light after the dark?

Drake.