‘Tis Halloween night and little ghouls and goblins are set to roam the streets of Jasper looking for a treat or two.
But it won’t be just the little trick-or-treaters knocking on your door tonight as the older youth will be going house-to-house collecting for a cause.
Students from Jasper High School are taking part in Trick or Eat to gather food to donate to the town’s food bank.
So get over to the grocery store or raid your cupboards, good donations include personal sized containers of peanut butter, canned fruit, canned soup, canned tuna, ham, chicken or salmon, oatmeal and juices - just check the expiry date first.
This is a frighteningly brilliant take on trick-or-treating and a wonderful initiative put on by Jasper teens.
I looked into the history of Halloween in Canada this week and found that Alberta lays claim to the earliest recorded usage of the phrase “trick or treat” thanks to a newspaper article in Lethbridge in 1927 that reported that pranksters were visiting houses demanding either a “trick or treat”.
Other Halloween customs, such as wearing disguises to ward off ghosts and offering food to appease malevolent spirits, were brought to Canada in the mid-to-late 1800s by Irish and Scottish immigrants.
Before that, Halloween is believed to have originated as a Celtic celebration marking the division of the light and dark halves of the year, when “the boundary between the living and the dead was at its thinnest”.
Now, it is the second most commercially successful holiday behind Christmas.
But we love to buy into a night of spooky fun each year, with pumpkins, candy and costumes.
And this year, Halloween in Jasper today promises a horrifyingly good time.
There is a Parent Link Halloween bash at the Activity Centre from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and spooky face painting at Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Jasper High School held a Halloween dance last night and the elementary and French schools are in costume today.
Plus, the Legion, 4 Peaks and the Whistle Stop Pub are holding Halloween parties with live music tonight. See more in the community calendar in this week's edition of the Fitzhugh.
I hope you have a spook-tacular time!
Fuchsia Dragon
