Loud Mouth Brown Girl

We made it! In 2 days it will be one year since I broke my ankle, and a year later…I’m still occasionally walking with a limp.

I am not “Disabled” in a way that’s obvious, but if you look closely at my ankles you can definitely see the difference.

All this being said it’s Halloween otherwise known traditionally as Samhain, so blessings to you all.

For those that don’t know there are many, many, many different versions of how Halloween came to be.

The following is the way I was taught:

The PURITANS were a race of farmers and villagers who lived in Europe.

They didn’t believe in using Witch Craft, but they sure liked to scare themselves into believing that we are the enemy. So they somehow convinced themselves – and each other – that once a year Witches would come and steal their children.

The purpose of this of course was to convince themselves that pedophiles don’t exist, but we don’t talk about that part.

To protect their children, the Puritans would dress their children in costume, to convince the Witches, that the children were really demons, so they could hide and be protected. 🙄

Going door to door, was more about food inequality, but as time past on traditions changed and fruits and vegetables became sweets and candies.

The one thing that remains true about Halloween through the ages is that it should be for the children. A time when they can suspend reality and become the fantastical creature or hero of their dreams so that they can look back upon those nights with the same sense of wonder and delight.

It is a tradition many of us around the world pass on without even thinking about why we do it. So many of us get excited about so many different aspects of the holiday, while the descendants of the same Puritans who started the holiday in spite of the witches they “Feared”, tell us all how evil we are.

Each of us is called to celebrate the day in whatever way we see fit, but I think what’s important to remember about today is that for more than 2000 years, girls and women have been sacrificed in the name of God, meanwhile those same girls were called evil for knowing which berries could turn a man’s dick green. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Halloween is also a time when women traditionally allow themselves a little more freedom with the way they dress and behave. In 2025 that may not mean much but in past years (and probably this one too if we’re being honest) it meant women often ended up in jail for acts of shall we say…indiscreet behaviour?

While I fully understand why Christians have woven themselves into a tizzy over our beliefs, it has always made me laugh that for decades as a Catholic, I was expected to drink the Blood of Christ. Meanwhile as a witch I’ve been often encouraged to seek a vegetarian diet.

Traditionally one only drinks the blood of one’s enemy, not one’s teacher, but that’s just what I was taught.

I don’t think, after much study on the topic, that Christians like themselves very much. I know that when I was raised in that demographic, I was never really taught to appreciate…well anything about myself.

I was taught that I was ugly, stupid, unwanted, unneeded, undesirable, un-everything worthy. It was only recently when a Black friend asked white people, if folks ever commented on their skin color that I learned the truth.

That was when I realized just how toxic white love languages are. Many of us – white people in particular – are not taught to move with grace and to give room for softness, and so they don’t know how to be kind. They move with cruelty because it’s all they’ve ever known.

That being said, lots of white right wing leaning people figure it out and learn to move with grace and kindness. They learn to look into the mirror and to divest themselves from centering their whiteness over their individuality.

Halloween is all about individuality. This is the one day of the year where you are invited to be the truest version of yourself.

Whether that’s as a famous horror story character who kills people for fun in a pumpkin head costume, or an Angel from above.

It’s the one day of the year, when everyone – regardless of age, race, creed, nationality, orientation – none of that shit matters.

All that does matter is “Is that Laila from Starwars?” Or maybe it’s an Oompa Loompa, or a well a pregnant five pointed star.

You can be ANYTHING today, but the one thing I ask you attempt to be is kind. Have fun, be safe, and check that candy before you eat that edible!

Sending all my love

Devon J Hall, The Original Loud Mouth Brown Girl