10.25
This is it. The big week. Many communities have Halloween activities planned. The hours for trick or treating for your community are usually posted on the town’s website, and if you haven’t looked yet, do it now! There are events scheduled for schools, local malls, parks and recreation centers. Usually, the hours for these events are early evening, to keep from interfering with school schedules. It’s time to make your plan for a safe and happy Halloween.
1. Choose age appropriate events for your trick or treaters. Make sure you know the times and locations ahead of time, to avoid disappointment, or a last minute rush that could compromise safety.
2. Plan your trick or treat route ahead of time. This will give you a clear idea of where your children will be at all times, and an idea of when they will be finished.
3. Feed your trick or treaters a good supper before trick or treating starts. This will make them less likely to snack as they go, before you have a chance to inspect their treats.
4. Stick to places you know. All year we encourage our children to be cautious of people and places they don’t know, yet, on Halloween, we send them to the doors of strangers. Stick to areas where they will be visiting family and friends, both for their safety, and for your own peace of mind.
5. Only visit homes that have a porch light on and never go inside the home of someone you don’t know.
6. Wear something reflective and carry a flashlight.
7. Cross streets only at crosswalks. Never walk between parked cars. Stay on the sidewalk.
8. Stay in a group, and never run off alone, or fall behind on your own.
9. Turn in all candy at the end of the night for parental inspection.
Just south of Mexico City, between the urban sprawl and the farming region known as Xochimilco (pronounced so-chee-meel-koh and meaning ‘place of flowers’) lie an ancient lake and canals. A semi-popular tourist attraction, the only way to travel through the canals is by trajinera, a wide, flat boat propelled by a pole, like the gondolas of Venice. There is much to be seen on a trip through the canals: swamps, islands covered with exotic plants and trees, and wildlife. There is one place on the canals, however, that is not on the regular route of the trajinera. You can hire one to take you there for about $100. It might be more affordable if you could find a group to travel with you, since the boat holds about 10 passengers, but you may not find others brave enough to travel to this particular destination. 
There is a small, isolated island in the vast, complicated maze of the canals. As your boat approaches the island, across the deathly still water, you cannot help but feel a sense of dread. Twisted, old trees with gnarled branches line the shore, but there is something very sinister about them. As you move closer, you notice that there are faces…hundreds of faces among the branches, staring back at you with dead eyes. Closer, and you see that they are children’s faces, infants with missing limbs, blistered faces, covered in cobwebs, nailed or lashed to the trees with rusted wire. Welcome to La Isla de Las Munecas: The Island of the Dolls.
Some say he was mad, fishing dolls out of the canals, thinking they were real children he could bring back to life. The real story is, that shortly after he chose the life of a hermit on this tiny island, he came to believe that it was haunted by the spirit of a poor little girl who had drowned in the canals. When he saw a lost doll floating by, he took it and put it up on a tree, to make the dead girl happy. One doll wasn’t enough. Soon Don Julian had turned the island into a shrine to the little girl. For decades he collected dolls he found in the canal and added them to his growing collection. 
Soon he would venture into the dumps and rubbish heaps of the city, scavenging lost and abandoned dolls. He brought them all back to his island for display. In his later years, local residents would trade old, unwanted or broken dolls for the fresh fruits and vegetables that Don Julian grew on the island. 
They are nailed to trees, wired to branches, hung from clothes lines, and jammed into knotholes and between branches. Some of them have smiles, melted by the tropical heat, into grimaces. Some have lost their eyes, or, even more disturbing, have eyes that flutter open in the breeze.
Dressed in black, with her pointed hat and broomstick, frequently accompanied by a black cat, the witch of our childhood nightmares used her magical powers for evil purposes. Her wicked cackle and bad complexion served as identification and emphasis of her cruel intentions. She could turn you into a frog, cause you to do things against your will, and throw fireballs at brainless scarecrows, among other horrific spells. And of course, we all knew that her power came from consorting, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with evil spirits. Naturally, since Halloween was a time when evil roamed the earth, she became closely associated with this holiday.
A practicing witch may be male or female. The word “warlock” is never used to refer to a male witch, because it is a term that means “oathbreaker” and indicates a traitor to the faith. This nature-based faith encourages its adherents to seek the divine in all things, all people. Their law is simple. “‘An it harm none, do as ye will.” It celebrates free will and the choice to do good without prescribing the manner or method. A witch will use natural remedies for common ills, sometimes brewing “potions” that are really home remedies for common ailments. They may actually cast spells, but their magic is usually used for healing, love, wisdom, creativity and other positive outcomes. Oh yes, witches do believe in magic. They believe it is a law of nature, and the science of using nature to produce change.
Some modern day witches use the name Wicca, to label their faith. Wicca is a relatively new term, introduced in the 1950′s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant to describe the Neo-Pagan faith. Since the 1960′s, Wicca has come to incorporate many “denominations” of practicing witches, who, although their methods may differ, their basic tenets of harmony with nature and all its creatures remain firmly fixed. Witches celebrate four to eight seasonal festivals throughout the year. These Sabbats include the Greater Sabbats of Samhain (October 31, Halloween), Imbolc (February 1st or 2nd, first signs of spring), Beltaine (May Eve or May Day, May 1 or 2), and Lughnasadh (Lammas, Harvest August 1 or 2). In many cases, the equinoxes and solstices are also celebrated.
Just for informational purposes, that pointed hat that is so often associated with witches, is called a steeple hat or “Hennin”. It was worn in medieval times by both men and women, to concentrate “wisdom from above” into the mind of the wearer. Remember, in some cultures and societies, the witch was far better known as a wise woman and healer.