It's The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange!

Time, once again, for The Great Neighborhood Candy Exchange!

The day of the year when we dress our children up in costumes and all the moms in the neighborhood trade candy through them.

Since i don't have little ones going door to door any more, may i turn in early?

Yesterday i put in a good, long day at work, with 6 loads of laundry and the whole place a wreck.  Since i forgot my mop, i had to clean the floors by hand.  Because i had so much to do, and i had to be out by a certain time, i didn't stop to eat, or take any breaks.  In fact, i didn't get breakfast or lunch because i was so busy -- running on adrenaline and coffee, which is unusual for me.

As soon as i left, i rushed to church where Sweetie and i met up, as we were ushering for a special performance.  The Senior Pastor co-wrote a musical play years ago, and in honor of his ten years as Senior Pastor, our musically talented people put on a show.  Handing out programs and making sure guests know where the restrooms are is about the extent of my ability to help with these thing.

It was a really fun evening, the book of Genesis from creation to Abraham's offer to sacrifice Isaac, set to music, with dance, and Satan played by a red-headed soprano!  We enjoyed it thoroughly, then had to go to find sustenance.

There was good news at home, as the children had rallied and done a lot of cleaning at the house!

Today, though, i'm a bit wiped out.  After i pick up Little Girl at school, and we take care of our shift at the shelter, i think i'll let someone else do the honors of handing out candy to the little goblins.  Red-Headed Alec is going to be a zombie and be in the kitten cage, and the pumpkins will have candles, and it's going to be a great time that i will enjoy watching but not so much doing.

Give them my regards, i'm off duty tonight.


Today is:

Admission Day -- Nevada, US

Allantide -- Cornwall, England

All Hallows Eve -- Christian

Apple and Candle Night -- Wales

Books for Treats Day -- San Jose, CA, US (give gently used books to kids, not candy -- feed their brains, not their cavities!)

Breeder's Cup World Championship -- Santa Anita Park, Los Angeles, CA, US (the world's best horses compete in 14 races; through Sunday)

Chiang Kai-Shek Day -- Taiwan

Day of the Seven Billion -- day in 2011 the UN declared the world population to have reached 7,000,000,000

Dias de los Muertos -- Mexico, esp. Michoacan and Oaxaca (through Nov. 2; ceremonies, sand sculptures, decorated altars, and parties through the nights in the cemetaries)

Dookie Apple Night -- Newcastle, England

Duck Apple Night -- Liverpool, England

Feast of Sekhmet Bast Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Fisher's Ghost -- Campbelltown City, Australia (ten days of celebrating the legends of Australia's most famous ghost, Frederick Fisher)

Festival of Inner Worlds -- Pagan (fight between the old and new year)

Founder's Day -- Girl Scouts of the USA (Juliette Gordon Low's birth anniversary)

Frankenstein Friday -- a day to celebrate the "mother" and "father" of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff

Ghostwriter's Day

Hallowe'en or Beggar's Night

Increase Your Psychic Powers Day -- originated in England in the 19th century, some celebrated on the 30th

Jounen Kweyol -- Dominica (Creole Day, one of the nation's biggest and most colorful celebrations)

King Father Nordom Sihanouk's Birthday -- Cambodia
 
'Makoshe's Holiday -- Asatru/Pagan Slavic Calendar (honoring Mother Earth)

Mokosh Day -- Ukraine (Slavic goddess of "women's work", a wanderer and spinner, still popular as a life giving force and protector of women, always associated with Friday; date approximate)

National Bandanna Day -- Australia (to raise funds for kids with cancer)

National Candy Apple Day

National Knock-Knock Joke Day
     Knock, Knock
     Who's There?
     Police.
     Police who?
     Police stop telling knock-knock jokes!

National Magic Day -- Society of American .Magicians (in honor of Harry Houdini, who died on this day in 1926, and who was president of the SoAM)

National UNICEF Day

Nut-Crack Night -- England; Scotland

Old Celtic New Year's Eve

Out of the Broom Closet Day -- Pagan, Heathen, and all earth-based and ethnic religions

Reformation Day -- Protestant Christian (trad.)
     Dia de las Iglesias Evangelicas y Protestantes -- Chile
     Official Holiday -- BB, MV, SN, ST, & TH, Germany; Slovenia

Samhain (northern hemisphere) / Beltane (southern hemisphere) -- Druids, Gaels, Welsh peoples, Neopagans, Wiccans (begins at sunset)

Scare a Friend Day -- just not so much that he/she isn't a friend any more

Senior Absurdity Day -- Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY, US (a day the kids look forward to each year)

Sneak Some of the Candy Yourself Before the Kids Start Knocking Day

St. Quentin's Day (Patron against coughs)

St. Wolfgang of Ratisbon's Day (Patron of apoplexics, carpenters, paralysed people, stroke victims; Regensburg, Germany; against apoplexy, paralysis, stomach diseases, strokes)

Thump-the-Door Night -- Isle of Mann

Trick or Treat Night

Vetmaetr -- Norse Calendar (Winter Nights; beginning of winter, the New Year, and the start of Odin leading the Wild Hunt)

Youth Honor Day -- Iowa, US



Anniversaries Today:

Mt. Rushmore is completed, 1941
Nevada becomes the 36th US State, 1864


Birthdays Today:

Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle, 1967
Adam Horovitz, 1966
Dermot Mulroney, 1963
Rob Schneider, 1963
Peter Jackson, 1961
Larry Mullen, Jr., 1961
John Candy, 1950
Jane Pauley, 1950
Deidre Hall, 1947
Stephen Rea, 1943
David Ogden Stiers, 1942
Ron Rifkin, 1939
Michael Landon, 1936
Dan Rather, 1931
Michael Collins, 1930
Barbara Bel Geddes, 1922
Dale Evans, 1912
Ethel Waters, 1896
Chaing Kai-shek, 1887
Juliette Gordon Low, 1860
John Keats, 1795
William Paca, 1740
Jan Vermeer, 1632


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Car Talk"(Radio), 1987 (national debut, ten years after their start as a local show in Boston)
"Jamaica"(Musical), 1957
"Capricio Espagnol"(Rimsky-Korsakov Op. 34), 1887


Today in History:

Ezra reads the Book of the Law to the Israelites after their return to Jerusalem from exile, BC445
First All Hallows Eve observed to honor all the saints, 834
Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door, marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, 1517
Georg Ludwig van Hannover is crowned as the English King George I, 1714
Execution of Girondins at Paris during the Reign of Terror, 1793
Sir Humphrey Davy of London patents the miner's safety lamp, 1815
A standard uniform is approved for US Postal workers, 1868
A tropical cyclone hits Bengal, about 200,000 die, 1876
John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tire, 1888
Arthur Conan Doyle publishes "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", 1892
Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across United States, 1913
The Battle of Beersheba of WWI marks the last successful cavalry charge in history, 1917
The first of 160 consecutive days of 100°F + temps at Marble Bar, Australia, 1923
World Savings Day is announced in Milan, Italy by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress, 1924
Mt. Rushmore sculptures are completed, 1941
The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal, 1956
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two security guards, 1984
EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board, 1999
Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted, 1999
Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station, which has been continually crewed since, 2000
Surfer Bethany Hamilton loses her left arm and 3 liters of blood in a tiger shark attack; within a month she would be back on her board, and competing again within the year, 2003
The NYSE reopens after its first weather related shut down since the late 19th century; the two-day closure was due to Hurricane Sandy, 2012