Sweet Potatoes instead of Sweet Treats on Halloween

This time last year I was in Ireland. It was a pure delight to be there for Halloween for the first time in years. Ireland is the home of Halloween, and it is celebrated quite differently there than in Japan.

However, modern Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a seasonal tradition closely tied to the agricultural calendar. In some ways, that connection to the changing seasons reminds me of Japan's microseasons and traditional harvest customs.

So it felt rather fitting that, although I was missing the atmosphere back home in Ireland, I spent today doing something connected to agriculture. That something was digging up the sweet potatoes we grew this year. My children may be too old for trick-or-treating these days, but you're never too old to dig sweet potatoes.

Last year I was handing out sweets to children who knocked on the door for trick-or-treat. This year I was handing out freshly harvested sweet potatoes to neighbours on the eve of Samhain, the traditional marker of the end of the harvest season.

The celebrations may have been very different, but both centered around the same timeless themes: the changing of the seasons, the gathering of the harvest, and sharing something with the people around us.