Halloween

I will never forget the time I decided to introduce Halloween to the people of Bequia!  Jimmy Carville played Santa Claus every Christmas (until then Santa hasn’t existed) but Halloween, which had always been fun for me as a child, was at that point unheard of on the Island.

When the children were small It was easy to close the Pizzeria for the months of September and October.  Mac and I would head for Ontario to be with family for  Canadian Thanksgiving, something I always looked forward to.  We divided our time in Canada

between Muskoka and Toronto where of course, whenever the opportunity arose, I would go shopping.

The stores in Ontario offered Halloween decorations as early as August, which were quickly replaced with Christmas decorations  by November.  I was therefore looking at Halloween displays everywhere I went during the month of September, and regaled Vanessa and Rachel with stories about dressing up for “Trick-or-Treat”.  I told them about the costumes I wore as a child, such as dad’s white church cassock to dress up as a ghost,  and it made me nostalgic for Halloween.  I decided it would be fun to buy some Halloween decorations for the Pizzeria.

I bought all kinds of decorations and had fun doing it!  Witches on broomsticks, skeletons to dangle from the ceiling, black cats with glowing eyes, ghostly looking ghosts and lots of orange ribbon.  I bought bags of those wrapped candy kisses that no-one ever eats except at Halloween, figuring I could give them out to my customers as they were leaving the dining room.

We returned to Bequia in the middle of October and got ready to re-open the restaurant for the season. My purchases had arrived intact, and I was looking forward to decorating the Pizzeria with the Island’s first ever Halloween display.  Mac wasn’t as excited as I was, he thought it was a crazy idea, but I figured that was due to  his upbringing.  Bequia people visited graves with candles on All Saints Night, a custom I privately found weird due to my OWN upbringing.  MY kind of Halloween was a lot more fun and I was ready to show Bequians what it was all about!

October was always a very quiet time on Bequia; the home-owners would not start to arrive until November and the tourists would begin coming in late December.  Once the Pizzeria was up and running (always a chore after being closed for six weeks) I would have plenty of time to drape the orange ribbons and put up the witches, skeletons, black cats and ghosts.

Mac refused to help me decorate so I did it myself one afternoon shortly before October 31^st.  I explained to a very wide-eyed staff what Halloween was all about, that there was more to it than burning candles for ones relatives in a dark graveyard!  My staff were usually eager to help put up the Christmas decorations each year, but Halloween decorations were new to them and they left me to it.

Word got out quickly, and many local people passed by to see the decorations.  Those who came to see my display didn’t stay to dine and neither did anyone else.  My Pizzeria sat empty and I do mean EMPTY for several days, even after I had taken down my wonderful Halloween decorations.  Bequians, after seeing the spooky skeletons, decided that I had gone stark raving mad and had turned the Pizzeria into a “Jumbie” place.  I told Mac I would beat him if he said “I told you so” one more time and he eventually stopped, but Bequia people gave me funny looks for quite some time.

I never decorated the Pizzeria for Halloween again.  Today’s social media tells me about all the Halloween events happening around the Island …..parties, costumes, decorations and more parties.  I guess it’s OK to celebrate Halloween on Bequia now, but it sure wasn’t a good business decision back in the day!