Halloween is not a big holiday here. You see a few decorations and a few pumpkins but no school parades, no trick or treating, no parties, with a few exceptions. Those who have spent any time in America know the holiday and love it. Of course we celebrated -- These children belong to our Manager of Training and they dressed them up and brought them over to trick or treat. Of course, we dressed up for dinner and told them a little about the Halloween traditions in America. A little comic relief in a very intense schedule!!! (the couple with us is from Austria and will be serving in Germany.) They are wonderful. We love having couples with us. They add a dimension and depth to the young missionaries. We wish we had more.
**********This is the city of Blackpool. It is a coastal city resort town with beaches and vendors. The "Coney Island" of Northern England. (of course I have never been to Coney Island so how would I know!) Each fall they have what they call "Illumination" which basically consists of a mile long street decorated with lights. These pix are blurry because we were riding on a trolley that was jerking its way along the tracks and had very dirty windows -- but you get the idea. People drive the mile or walk or ride the trolley. It has a touch of cheezy magic about it.
Check out this meal. On our "Best of Britain" night the missionaries eat fish and chips and the chef prepares a fancy meal for us and serves it in our china dishes. He gets so excited and goes all out to come up with something wonderful. He has promised to give us a cooking class before we go home, but I don't have high expectations as he never uses a recipe, just does everything by taste and looks! We would never eat like this in a restuarant because we would never pay the price!
In the meantime, the missionaries love the fish and chips!!!
And finally -- Guy Fox night, better known as Bonfire Night. This is a BIG holiday here. The story goes that in the 1600's a group of Protestants decided to kill the Catholic King. Their plot, under the leadership of Guy Fox, included putting 36 barrels of gun powder in the basement of parliment. When the king came to give his opening address, they would blow him up. But, somebody squeeled and the plan was aborted. Guy Fox was caught and killed. Today they celebrate that event by burning bonfires and lighting fireworks. So.......after we gave the missionaries a little history of the event, we stepped outside and waved our sparklers. As the evening wore on, the air became thick with bonfire smoke and we stood at our window and watched the fireworks display in the distance. (something akin to our 4th of July only not as big.)
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