Fun Facts About Halloween

“Trick or treating” has its roots in the original Celtic Samhain festival 2000 years ago. During Samhain people would go door-to-door in disguise and they would sing songs in exchange for food. Poor children would go from house to house and beg for soul cakes and in return the beggars would pray for members of the family that recently had passed away. Soul cakes were round and were made from currants. Irish children went from house to house asking for food and money in the name of a terrible Celtic god. If a person wasn’t generous enough it was believed that the god would destroy that person’s home or barn. When Halloween came to America in the 1800s, young pranksters would wear masks  and play tricks on neighbors. But over the years the tradition of harmless tricks grew into outright vandalism. Back in the 1930s it really became a dangerous holiday of  hooliganism and vandalism. Trick-or-treating was originally a extortion deal – give us candy or will trash your house. Store keepers and neighbors began giving treats or bribes to stop the tricks. Children were encouraged to travel door-to-door fortreat as an alternative to troublemaking and by the late 30s trick-or-treat became the holiday greeting.

Many early Christian leaders in the 7^th century tried to outlaw the old Celtic customs and holidays but they were never completely successful and so we still see many Celtic symbols such as witches and black cats on Halloween. In some cases however the meaning symbols has changed over the years. In Celtic times for instance witches weren’t believed to be evil instead they were seen as healers who knew how to use herbs and other plants to cure diseases. As time passed however people began to see which is not as healers but rather as wicked magicians in days of old. Black cats another Halloween symbol were believed to help witches task their evil magical spells. Spiders a third symbol were also believed to be witches helpers. It was said that spiders to crawl to places where they wouldn’t be noticed gather information and then crawl back to their evil mistress to tell her what they had learned. Bats are still another Halloween symbol from the distant past. Ancient people saw bats as ugly and mysterious night creatures whose wings were often used in magical potions. Finally in days of old owls were believed to be witches who had changed themselves into birds . The creatures ghostly hoots probably had a lot to do with that superstition today

The original jack-o’-lantern wasn’t a pumpkin at all. The tradition traces back to an old Irish legend of a man called stingy Jack who invited the devil to have a drink with him. In a move perfectly befitting of a man with such a name at the end of the encounter stingy jack refused to pay for his drink. Instead he somehow convinced the devil to transform himself into a coin which jack would then use to pay for the drink.  However jack put the coin in his pocket next to a small silver cross thus trapping the devil in coin form. Jack eventually released the devil under two conditions that he would not bother jack for one full year and that when jack eventually died the devil would not claim his soul.

When a year had passed and the devil returned jack tricked him again. Asking the devil to grab him an apple from the nearby tree. While the devil was up in the branches jack carved a cross into the tree trapping the devil until he promised to leave jack alone for another 10 years.

When jack eventually died years later the legend says that he was turned away from the gates of heaven because of a lifetime of drinking, trickery and of course Stinginess. However the devil couldn’t claim jack’s soul at the gates of hell either per their original bargain and he told jack to go back to where he came from. Because the road back to the gates of hell is very dark Jack asked yet another favor of the devil. He asked for something to light his path. The devil gave him a single burning coal from the fires of hell which jack then put into a turnip (which was his favorite vegetable which he often stole) to create a lantern.

Ever since, jack’s restless soul has been doomed to walk the earth with only his turnip lantern. As the Irish legend was passed down the spirit’s name eventually evolved from Stingy Jack into Jack-of-the lantern and now jack o’lantern.  Irish and Scottish people began carving creepy faces into turnips and placing them by their windows in order to scare stingy Jack and other evil spirits away. They also put candles inside the hollowed our gourds and were placed on window sills to welcome home spirits of deceased ancestors. This helped guide lost souls home as they wandered the streets. Others used potatoes and in England beets were popular during the tradition’s early years. Finally the practice made its way to America where pumpkins were in abundance and used as a replacement.

Even a game as trivial as bobbing for apples once had more of a significance in Ireland and Scotland .Apple bobbing was used to tell one’s fortune as part of the divination game you would throw an apple peel on the floor and the shape of the peel would determine the first letter of your true loves name. Historically women would mark apples with their teeth while bobbing and if a man captured the same apple they were said to have found their perfect romantic match.

Happy Halloween from Flippysox!

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