Creepin' It Real:
Hundreds Descend on Ledgelawn This Halloween
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Swan Agency Real Estate.
BAR HARBOR—”Duct tape!” one woman called across the grassy front lawn on Ledgelawn mid afternoon on Halloween. “I need duct tape. Stat!”
“There is always a need for duct tape,” said another woman scurrying across a lawn that was festooned with a massive Mr. Potato Head, pigs made of painted boxes, and a giant bed, all creating a massive bedroom scene part whimsy and part Halloween. This front lawn was Andy’s room and everyone needed to keep out.
Someone mumbled something about Mainers always needing duct tape and someone else laughed merrily. “You know it!”
Marie Yarborough had distributed donated Halloween candy on Tuesday to Ledgelawn residents, and around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, home owners and renters on the .46 mile stretch tacked up the last of the skeletons, bats and ghosts, checked on inflatable pirate ships, made sure that spider webs were spread out just right, and prepared for an onslaught of Buzz Lightyears and Harry Potters, princesses and pirates, demons, ghouls, and unicorns, and a few inflatable alien abductions.
“I love it!” Yarborough had said earlier in the week after explaining her candy disbursement system that she volunteers to do and organizes year after year.
Her husband, Kyle, had sat behind the steering wheel nodding. “She does.”
It sounds like a lot of work and it is, but for many it’s also an act of joy.
“Look out! Go out on the street and look at how many people there are,” one woman on a porch told the woman next to him.
“Holy swear words.”
Holy swear words indeed. This year the street hosted well over 1,000. The official accounts are still trickling in.
“I love Halloween,” Bobby Glover said back in 2022, smiling on his neighbor’s lawn. He said the same thing from his front porch this year.
So did Steve Lambert right before he threw a rope over a tree at his house on the corner. A grandchild bouncing around past an inflatable pirate ship.
They all said it again this year. Neighbor waved to neighbor. Families, friends, and even strangers, walked together, holding hands, some skipping, some trudging, some running so gleefully their feet barely touched the ground.
“This is Halloween,” one speaker declared.
Indeed, it was.
Marie Yarborough, a Ledgelawn resident, has organized the candy drive since 2016. She distributes the candy to each resident that has requested some. Everyone gets an equal share to help them meet the demands of those 1,000 or so trick-or-treaters. In the past, homeowners paid around $100 and more for candy without the help or donations.
There were at least 42 houses that received candy donations from island residents, an increase of four since 2022. Hannaford donated candy as well.
The trick or treaters trickled in around 3:45 and police were stationed at various places to make sure that cars and trucks didn’t use the road during the prime trick or treating time. By 7:30 a lot of houses that had about 1,000 pieces to distribute were running out, lights were turning off, and some decorations were pulled inside.
For a town where people have argued in courtrooms, newspaper opinion pages, and in Bar Harbor Town Council pages, it was a reminder of something: that a community is more than headlines. It’s more than outrage at social media posts. It’s also about celebration, recognition, and the good feeling that comes from seeing your friend walking down the street dressed up like a taco.
According to History.com, “Trick-or-treating—setting off on Halloween night in costume and ringing doorbells to demand treats—has been a tradition in the United States and other countries for more than a century. Its origins remain murky but traces can be identified in ancient Celtic festivals, early Roman Catholic holidays, medieval practices—and even British politics.”
Most believe the tradition is rooted in Samhain, a Celtic festival in Ireland, parts of France, and the U.K. that began before Christianity, about 2,000 years ago. It was the night the dead came back. So, people gave their respects via bonfires and sacrifice, sometimes wearing animal-skin costumes to get rid of some of the less savory phantoms that were visiting. Eventually, people would sing or perform in costume and receive food or drink. One teenager continued this tradition in Bar Harbor, beautifully playing a short tune on an Irish tin whistle as she went door to door.
“Trick or Treat” is a phrase where the origins are unconfirmed, but was heard up and down Ledgelawn along with “Merry Christmas.” It’s believed that it was fully cemented in the US by 1951. It was featured in Peanuts’ comics that year. The next year Disney created a “Trick or Treat” cartoon that starred Donald Duck as well as Huey, Dewey, and Louie, his nephews.
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Photos: Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story
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