ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN;

Halloween, like Christmas and other holidays, have in a sense lost their true meaning and become a cash cow for manufacturers and retailers. We all know Halloween as the night that kids, and grown-ups, play dress up and go to parties or walk the neighborhoods looking for treats. Donning costumes designed at first to drive away evil spirits at pagan rituals. Many, if not all of these dealt with death of saints or loved ones, hence the skulls and skeletons etc. depicted. All hallows or all saints day dates back to the druids when rituals of the dead rising were prevalent. As years past all hallows day became the first of November being moved up from the 13^th of May by popes of the ninth century. Originally called hallow mass, meaning the mass of the saints, it was popularly called hallow, even then hallow eve to its present name of Halloween. Originally an Irish pagan festival by the Celtic tribes of Ireland it was basically a day to celebrate the dead souls of their ancestors. The early churches celebrated the anniversary of a saints or martyrs death by an all night vigil hence eve of all hallows or saints day.

The custom of trick or treating got its origins in the Middle Ages when the poor would go from door to door receiving food and favors in exchange for prayers for the dead. This custom of souling, as it was called , is popular to this day in most of Ireland, and to a lesser degree in England and Scotland. In the United States trick or treating, as we call it, is a relatively recent ritual dating to around the 1920’s. Its earliest known reference was in fact in Chicago in 1920. Reports of this in 1915 are far from accurate. In parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland the custom of guising or disguising oneself has become popular in the 20^th century. There, children receive treats as they go from door to door and are expected to sing or perform in some way and be rewarded by candy or other treats. This ritual of guising is slowly falling out of favor as kids are becoming westernized preferring to stand still and let treats fall into their sacks. The church also considered this a day of fasting right up to as recently as the 1970’s. All in all, Halloween has now become an evening for the children. Because of the actions of a few some very dangerous situations such as razor blades and needles in apples and poisoning of certain candies, parents are becoming quite reluctant to allow their children out of the neighborhood and choose instead block parties and school carnivals. The days of turning over outhouses (early outdoor toilets) when refused treats back in the 30’s has since evolved into toilet paper in trees and front yards. For the most part Halloween has become a fun night leading to a lot of hangovers and tummy aches the next day.