Halloween Past

        The word "Halloween" actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. All Hallows Day, or All Saint's Day, November 1, is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife,(Panati). The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living, (Gahagan).
           Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish  the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish  costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess, (Panati).
           Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but  so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in  the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach, (Gahagan).
            Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought tohave already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits, (Panati). Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth, (Gahagan).
            The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, they abandoned any practice of sacrificing of humans in favor of burning effigies. The Romans, after conquering England and France, introduced their own touches to Halloween. They bobbed for apples and gave nuts to their neighbors. The Italians left bread and water, and lit lamps before going to bed to appease visiting ghosts. Other Europeans put out doughnuts and milk for returning spirits while still others placed empty chairs in a  circle, one for each member of the family and one empty for an expected ghost
            The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
            The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates, (Panati).
            The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes,"made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
                The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack,  who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an  image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if  he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
                According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
                The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
 

© 1995, 1997 by Jerry Wilson
References: Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997

 Halloween Present

Halloween has become an international Mardi Gras of sorts. It is  the perfect family holiday for parents and children enabling them to spend time together creating costumes, carving pumpkins,  planning trick or treat activities and participating in family parties.  Halloween is the one time of year everyone can act out their fantasies and become who they want to be. For children, Halloween is  an exciting time. It appeals to their  imaginations, stimulating any inner urges to be something or someone else, to do things they would never think of doing on other days, to dress up and have fun.
 
 

    A Halloween poem

                                         Let the Children Be

                         'Twas Halloween night and all through the sky,
                          The clouds hid the moon as the bats glided by.
                        I was dressed all in white in my mama's old sheet,
                       Walking with friends down the ghost-haunted street.
 
                        All the kids were dressed in bright costumed array,
                        While flashlights and street lights guided our way.
                       We giggled and laughed as we hurried to each door,
                         Ringing or knocking, then laughing some more.
 
                       There were pumpkins aglow and skeletons dangling,
                       Scarecrows and shadows and silver chains clanging.
                       Grownups in masked faces opened doors in greeting,
                        As we stood with our bags and waited for treating.
 
                       Some people say that we should not have this night,
                    That too many kids are harmed by the sights or the fright -
                      But it's the one time a year when we can pretend to be
                         Someone else for a while, not you - not even me.
 

                         Let them celebrate now, as the bats glide on by,
                          For childhood is brief, like the blink of an eye.
                          Listen to their laughter and let the children be
                       Someone else for a while, not you and not even me.