Halloween

What does trick-or-treating look like in the mountains? In the early dark, people come out into the streets. They swing through drifts of leaves on the sidewalk. The night smells and tastes of fall — pumpkins and hot beeswax, apples and chocolate.

What does Halloween look like in small towns, in the early dark? As the leaf season wanes, the ghost season comes in. Family events celebrate the fall. We have pumpkin patches, music and classic films, Haunted houses with a touch of theater.

Children can walk in costumes and feel that shared excitement. Halloween parties invite adults to dress up and dance, and conversations at night ask them to face their ghosts and fears. And on the hill at Naumkeag, hundreds of jack-o-lanterns are lit.