Halloween: That day when you can dress up to be someone or something scary, or your favorite cartoon character, or something or someone other than yourself. A night when you can gather with your friends and collect bags full of candy while being safe and having fun.
And no where does it better than Kent!
Halloween began for the little ones on Saturday morning with a spooky story hour in the children’s library. Witches and wolverines, princesses and pumpkins, with parents in tow, descended on the library to show off their costumes, color Halloween pictures and hear children’s librarian Kate Zarin read some scary and not so scary Halloween stories and pick out a treat to put in their bag of childhood Halloween memories.
The Hunters Moon, full on the night of October 28 and 29, was in its beginning stage as a waning gibbous moon and came late on the night of the 31st; the night when the veil that separates the living from the dead is at its thinnest, according to ancient folklore.
Kent has taken the scary legends and turned them into a night of fun filled with large caches of candy and other treasures. Pirates and witches traveled the darkened streets with ghosts and other fanciful creatures.
The evening’s adventures started in the center of town where the folks at 45 on Main were toasting marshmallows over an open fire, fog flowed into the building and floated out side as well, a bag piper played scary music on the porch, and the Lions Club members handed out glow necklaces at Bain Real Estate to various costumed adventurers.
Then it was off to Main Street to visit the shops, and stop at the Town Hall to meet Uncle Sam. Those too young to register to vote got to pick out a candy treat or a pack of cards or a jump rope. Then it was Lane and Elizabeth Streets turn to host the scary, the beautiful and the funny, as they stopped at the brightly lit houses festooned with pumpkins, lots of spider webs, an occasional skeleton and costumed adults handing out treats.
Kent does this well, welcoming over 300 children every year from all over the area to trick-or-treat in a safe environment where just about everyone participates in some way to make it a fun and safe night.
Hundreds of bags of candy are distributed to the throngs of children, many of which are donated by people who do not live in the town center. The bags of candy are distributed by the library to the houses in town that request a little assistance. The Lions Cub and Park ‘n’ Rec work together to decorate and help provide for safe trick-or-treating with glow sticks and necklaces for the kids to wear.
The costumed characters from myth, comics, movies and video games are now home safe, sorting through their night’s haul and storing memories until next year when the veil lifts slightly and the center of Kent is once again filled with hundreds of strange creatures demanding their due from willing adults.
