Eye 2 (eye)

Halloween always played second fiddle to bonfire night when i was a kid. I remember getting very wet bobbing for apples once and have a vague memory of trying to eat more apples suspended from strings but really the short October/November nights are forever associated with stuffing the Guy's clothes and standing in a cold damp garden; frozen but at the same time almost burnt alive by the roaring flames of the bonfire.

Here in France the event is really about going up to the cemetery tomorrow and being with the family grave, preferably with some of the pots and pots of Chrysanthemums that colourfully decorate French provincial pavements for a couple of weeks before time. However a few kids straggled into the local supermarket and enticed a nervous giggle from the owner who dipped into a big bag of sweets even though neither he nor the passive ghosts and ghouls seemed to know what it was all about.

Meanwhile outside the house we honour our own tradition.