Traditions

Jack-O-Latern

It is said that the Jack-o-latern came from old Irish folklore. An old myth says that a drunk man how was notorious for fooling people had tricked the Devil into climbing a tree. After which he did, Jack carved a picture of a cross into the tree's trunk, this then trapped Satan in the tree. Jack proposed a deal that if the devil would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

The tale later tells that when Jack had died he was denied access to Heaven because of hiw evil, sinning ways and was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil, but the Devil gave him a ember to light his way in the darkness. The ember was orginally placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep the ember glowing.

The Irish used turnips orginally as their "Jack's laterns", afterwards when the immigrants came to America they discovered pumpkins were more plentiful than turnips. So it became America's tradition to use a hollowed out pumpkin, lit with a ember.

Trick or Treat

Trick or Treating is thought to have originate as a 19th century European custom called souling. On Nov. 2, All Souls Day, early Christinas woul walk to differnet Villages begging for "soul cakes." The Cakes were square shaped pieces of bread with currents. The objective was that the mroe soul cakes thery had they more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At this point in time it was belived that the dead remained in limbo and prayers would expedite a soul's journey to heaven.