Soul Cake

Today is Halloween. Instead of dressing up in a costume and handing out candy to strangers, we kept to our usual schedule of attending Saturday Morning Physics. Today's topic was neutron stars, dead stars come back to "life". A fitting subject All Hollow's Eve (another name for this holiday). Although I remember less of this lecture than the others (I kept falling asleep throughout the talk), the speaker was quite good (spoke quickly) and the subject was interesting. Part of the talk was spent on waves in the universe (gravitational waves?). Other than that I can't make much sense of what I remember from the lecture, can't place them in order. But, really a good talk this morning.
For the rest of the afternoon we spent at home and my mom and I walked around the ponds and through the forest for a while.
But, because it's a holiday, we strayed from our usual a little. We went to the theater for an evening showing of the movie "Zombieland". It was a funny movie; a bit graphic for Eric, as it turned out, although it was his idea to see it. A good pick though for Halloween; the story line is 'the world has been overrun by zombies and the only four remaining humans try to stay alive'. It was a comedy, even though it doesn't sound like it.
We spent this holiday differently than we usually do, but I think it was well spent and we should do the same next year.

The ponds.

As for the title, I heard that the origin of "Trick-or-Treating" was in Medieval England when people would have cakes to set out for the returning spirits of their dead relatives called, Soul Cakes. But the ghosts didn't eat them, so the poorer people would walk from house to house and ask for the Soul Cakes and if they were given the food, the people would promise to pray for the returning souls. Interesting how this tradition from long ago has turned into what it is now.

じゃね。