By HEATHER CATHLEEN COX
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Halloween, now a fairly Americanized day for children (and adults) to play dress-up and eat too much candy, has been referred to as the following: All Hallows’ Eve, Witches Night, Lamswool, Snap-Apple Night, Samhain, All Saints Day and Summer’s End.
Between antiquated stories of witches, ghouls and goblins, urban myth and audacious claims as to why bonfires and trick-or-treating are associated with the day’s festivities, I scoured the depths of the Internet, which can be scary enough on its own without mixing Halloween into the equation, on a quest to pair consistency with the legend.
My search was fairly broad and covered some of the following: What is Halloween, really? Where and how did it originate, and why do Americans celebrate it by carving pumpkins and giving candy to strange children?
To begin, Ireland is widely accepted as the birthplace of Halloween. Interestingly enough, however, both Salem, Massachusetts, and Anoka, Minnesota, are self-proclaimed Halloween capitals of the world.
What Americans call Halloween, which is generally celebrated the night of October 31, was adapted from All Hallows’ Eve, also known as Hallowe’en. According to Halloween.org, Halloween originated with the ancient pagan Celtic festival known as Samhain. “The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.”
During the celebration of Samhain, bonfires were lit as an attempt to ensure the sun would return after a grueling winter. Animals and even humans (in addition to certain crops) were slaughtered as sacrificial rituals during this time, and often Druid priests would throw bones of those sacrificed in a large “bone fire.” Over time, bone fire became “bonfire.” Also during this time, people would wear masks and costumes to mimic alleged evil spirits or to appease them, sometimes while dancing around the fire.
If you are wondering how any of this could possibly translate into cause for celebration in a country adopted by its founding fathers as “One Nation under God,” keep reading.
By the 9th century, it was widely accepted that the Catholic church selected November 1 as the Feast of All Saints Day (All Saints Day). The feast, originally held May 13, was moved for unknown reasons to November 1 during that century, which on some level is accredited to Pope Gregory III (731-741).
According to The Catholic Education Resource Center, “The primary reason for establishing a common feast day was…desire to honor the great number of martyrs, especially during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), the worst and most extensive of the persecutions…There were not enough days of the year [to hold a special feast] for each martyr…so a common feast day for all saints, therefore seemed most appropriate.”
Now that food has been introduced, we can discuss the concept of trick-or-treating – not unlike begging, with the stipulation of repaying kindness by not inflicting misfortune onto the giver. Contrarily, if a trick-or-treater approached a house with no treats to offer or that did not wish to provide treats, children felt justified to perform a trick, or inflict havoc, on said house. In other words, if you lived in “days of old” and someone knocked on your door demanding your food, candy or other goods and you neither had or wished to distribute said goods, the beggar would in turn do something mischievous…at your expense.
Perhaps an example of this concept still being perpetuated is children who throw eggs at the front doors of houses where no treats are given.
It has been common for trick-or-treaters to wear costumes since the late 1930s, when mass-produced Halloween costumes, first hit retail shelves for that purpose; however, sugar rationing which started in 1942 with World War II and didn’t end until 1947 temporarily froze trick-or-treating efforts.
“Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children’s magazines Jack and Jill and Children’s Activities, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show…in 1948,” according to Halloween.org. In 1952, Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, Ozzie and Harriet, at which point the commercialization of the holiday was eminent. Even UNICEF conducted a national campaign for children utilizing trick-or-treating as a means to raise funding for the charity.
With its root in begging, Halloween.org explains, “Sometimes even the children protested (trick-or-treating): for Halloween 1948, members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read ‘American Boys Don’t Beg.’” Places in Ohio, Iowa and Massachusetts still refer to Halloween as Beggars Night.
The rationale behind cutting the tops off, scooping seeds out of, and carving faces onto pumpkins – creating Jack O’Lanterns – is somewhat controversial. Most legends depicting the origin of Jack O’Lanterns stem from Irish folklore and include some rendition of a story about a thief named Jack. Jack, by legend, was a sinner who wasn’t able to go to Heaven. Neither was he wanted in Hell, by the Devil, so Jack became destined to walk the Earth for all time. Suffering such a grim plight, he is said to have derisively carried some form of lantern at night. He thusly became known as “Jack of the Lantern.”
While the tradition of carving pumpkins is not strictly American, using the term Jack O’Lanterns to denote such a pumpkin isn’t as prevalent in other countries.
At least part of the reason Halloween has become so commercialized in the States likely has something to do with the fact that, after Christmas, Halloween is the second highest grossing commercial holiday. A 2010 consumer report indicated that the average American would spend $66.28 on the holiday, in between costumes, cards and candy. That amounts to approximately $5.8 billion, or a lot of candy corns. (Does anyone actually eat those?)
So from research, it appears as though yes, the holiday does have origins in pagan rituals; however, little proof abounds that the Americanized version of Halloween has as much to do with the sacrilegious Samhain festival or feasting with Catholic saints as it does with the almighty buck. Whether you celebrate or not, and all joking aside, be very careful as you and your loved ones venture outside this Halloween night. Mischief is statistically much higher on Halloween, and demonic and pagan groups generally feel freer to practice rituals publicly. Additionally, there is always a risk of danger when juxtaposing food products with strangers.
Some cities, including San Benito, do their part to help keep the streets a little safer on Halloween night by hosting an authorized, controlled enforcement predator meeting of registered sex offenders from 6-10 p.m. The session has a mission of keeping registered sex predators off the streets during festive Halloween night.
To know the whole truth behind Halloween’s history, we’d have to learn how to pluck facts from urban myth. Well, we could always corner Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, demanding answers. Until then, I leave you with this list of five things I learned about the holiday while conducting my research that although interesting did not otherwise gel in paragraph form.
1. The first Jack O’Lanterns were allegedly made from turnips.
2. It has been said that Scottish girls believed they could see images of their future husband if they hung wet sheets in front of the fire on Halloween.
3. The largest pumpkin ever measured was grown by Norm Craven, who broke the world record in 1993 with an 836 lb. pumpkin.
4. The Village Halloween parade in New York City is the largest Halloween parade in the United States. The parade includes 50,000 participants and draws over two million spectators.
5. Children are more than twice as likely to be killed in a pedestrian/car accident on Halloween as on any other night.
Read this story in the Oct. 31 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
Recent Comments