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Every Halloween, my family serves spaghetti for dinner. No one really knows why the tradition got started, except that my Gramma Zell used to do it every year. Maybe it's because all of us grandchildren came over to her house, and it was an easy meal to make for a lot of people. We never thought to ask her, and now she's gone.

The year she died, I insisted we continue the tradition, and began following another tradition that my grandmother had believed in as well. It was an old European holiday custom to host a "dumb supper", or a silent meal to honor the dead, and leave a plate of food out for the ancestors and family members that had passed away. Although this was usually done on Christmas and New Years, etc., I decided that was what I was going to do. Gramma had always had spaghetti on Halloween, and many cultures believed that Halloween was the time of year to honor the dead. Combining the two, I decided that to remember and honor my grandmother, I would set out a plate for her.

It's been nine years since my Gramma passed away, and every year my family continues to have spaghetti on Halloween. Every year I set out a plate for her. Even though all of us grandchildren are getting older now and starting our own families, we still carry on the tradition. This past year, someone invited me to dinner on Halloween, and I told them that I couldn't, as I had to go home to make spaghetti and meatballs. As I soon as I got home, as the trick-or-treaters were just starting to show up and the water was just starting to boil, the phone rang. "I just finished making spaghetti," my mom said. "Have you started yet?"

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