blackmagicwoman:

Shelly was curious by nature.  It had gotten her into a ton of trouble as a kid especially when she turned her curiosity on her little brother, Dante.  Jericho had sent them both to pocket dimensions for time out and that should have broken her of her curiousness, but it hadn't.  Instead it taught her to be more stealthy about it which was why when she unleashed the ritual to sniff out Matt's birthday she expected a nice quiet result that she could then take to do gleefully naughty things with.  What she got was far different.

"You have got to be kidding me."  The ritual results ended up telling her the birthdays of everyone she'd been in close proximity to (save for her patients, she had a ward for that.)  Greg, Michelle, and Matt were all Halloween babies.  She actually facepalmed.

"Okay.  Fine.  Three birthdays.  Three cakes.  Then we all go to Mac's."  She'd have to find a more appropriate costume for this since it was going to be more than just Matt, but she could do that.  She could pull it all off.

***

Three hours later, there were three cakes, an assortment of beers, and some light snacks (and some special things for Michelle if she needed them) spread out in the expansive dining area of Shelly's penthouse.  Simultaneously, magical invitations alerted the members of the team to a pre-party at Shelly's.  Now all she had to do was sit back and wait.

nextgen_holiday:

All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween as it has been come to be called, is a popular holiday with children and adults alike. It is a holiday that had its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or Summer's End. Samhain celebrated the end of the "lighter half" of the year and the beginning of the "darker half".

On this evening the barriers between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be thin and the spirits, good and bad, of the dead could pass through. The spirits of the family's ancestors were welcomed in while evil and bad spirits were warded off by the wearing of masks and costumes. The costumes and masks disguised one as a harmful spirit and avoided harm from others.

It was also a harvest celebration and time to take stock of food stores for the winter. Livestock were slaughtered and the meat prepared for storage. It was the final harvest of the year and the crops were then stored for the winter. Celebrations included bonfires and tales of the family's ancestors.

It was a celebration of the dead and of the harvest.

Today we dress up in scary and not so scary costumes and masks and go door to door for candy or attend costume parties. It is a night for revelry, pranks and fun.