Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Sarah Austin Janesse, executive producer of the Moth, and your host for this episode.

Halloween is a time for a lot of things. It's a time for candy, scary movies, and spooky lawn decorations.

It's a time for kids trick-or-treating door-to-door and adults going to parties in perhaps hastily thrown-together costumes.

If you're in New Orleans, you may be headed to the Witch's Ball, or maybe you're happy to just stay at home and hand out candy.

Halloween can also be a time of exploration or declaration,

adorning yourself in a way to better show the world who you really are.

In this episode, we've got two stories about Halloween that bite a little deeper than plastic vampire fangs.

First up is Sophia Tamarkin.

She told this at a Philadelphia story slam where the theme of the night was appropriately spooky. Here's Sophia live at the mall.

So born in a Soviet Union, Soviet Union was criticized for many things. I personally criticized it for the lack of sweets, candy, and bubble gum.

So when I arrived in 1989 in November, I was really amazed how every office we went to had

balls of candy with amazing wrappers. And every time I ask, what's going on? Why there's candies

everywhere? I was told it's Halloween.

So I'm thinking, is this a person that just runs around

and distributes candies?

It's like Santa Claus.

I don't know what everybody's saying.

Then somebody had pite on me and explained

that there is a holiday in America where you're given candy.

I mean, this is like better than winning a million dollars today, for sure.

So I'm thinking, when is this going to happen?

So it's in November, so they're saying October 31st.

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