"A pumpkin tree," someone said.
"No," said Tom.
The wind blew among the high branches and tossed their bright burdens, softly.
"A Halloween Tree," said Tom.
And he was right.
It was a small town by a small river and a small lake in a small northern part of a Midwest state.
[incipit]
Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve.
Would the sun be reborn next year or stay murdered? Egyptians asked it. Cavemen asked it a million years before. Will the sun rise tomorrow morning?"
"And that’s how Halloween began?"
O autumn winds that bake and burn
And all the world to darkness turn,
Now storm and seize and make of me...
A swarm of leaves from Autumn’s Tree!
"What does the word ‘witch’ truly mean?"
"Why—" said Tom, and was stymied.
"Wits," said Moundshroud. "Intelligence. That’s all it means. Knowledge. [...] And so, anyone too smart, who didn’t watch out, was called—"
"A witch!" said everyone.
So much was going on that Tom said: “My gosh, so much is going on!”
They found themselves in the middle of an abandoned graveyard with no people, no lights. Only stones like immense wedding cakes, frosted with old moonlight.
Dust sifted out of windows to greet them. Shades flapped in yet other windows like ancient tongues lolling to be diagnosed by wind-borne small doctors of strange medicines. Ghosts withered like white flowers, furling and unfurling in moldered flags which fell to ruin even as they shot by.
A billion voices wept. The wind of time shook the vast house. The windows rattled and broke like men’s eyes, into crystal tears.
Night and day. Summer and winter, boys. Seedtime and harvest. Life and death. That’s what Halloween is, all rolled up in one. Noon and midnight.
Moundshroud
And still more doors were slamming to lock all around town.
And with each slam, one more pumpkin and then another and another and another on the huge Halloween Tree snuffed out.
Well,” asks Moundshroud at journey’s end, “which was it? A Trick or a Treat?”
“Both!” all agree.
And so will you.
The Halloween Tree, Ray Bradbury
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