Halloween, also known as Samhain wasn't always, the freaky, fun, Hollywood monster filled spooky holiday we all love. No, it was a serious time of year, one for observing the last of the harvest days, as well as remembering our dead ancestors.
Celebrated by the Celts over 2,000 years ago, this festival marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It was believed that on this night, the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits to roam freely on Earth.
With the advent of Christianity, the Catholic Church sought to incorporate pagan traditions into their religious calendar. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day. The evening before, October 31st, was known as All Hallows' Eve, later shortened to Halloween.
One of the most iconic aspects of Halloween is the tradition of dressing up in costumes. Dating back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, people believed that wearing disguises would protect them from wandering spirits. This tradition evolved over time, with costumes evolving from scary and supernatural beings to include a wide range of characters and themes.
Trick-or-treating, a popular Halloween tradition, has its origins in both Celtic and Christian customs. In ancient times, people would leave food and treats outside their homes to appease and ward off evil spirits. In medieval Europe, "souling" became a practice where poor individuals would go door-to-door, offering prayers for the deceased in return for food or "soul cakes." This custom eventually transformed into the modern-day tradition of children going door-to-door, dressed in costumes, and collecting candies.
One cannot talk about Halloween without mentioning the iconic jack-o'-lanterns. Originating from Irish folklore, the tradition of carving turnips or potatoes into lanterns began with the tale of "Stingy Jack." According to legend, Jack was a mischievous man who tricked the Devil himself.
As punishment for his trickery, he was forced to roam the Earth with only a carved-out turnip filled with a burning ember. When Irish immigrants brought this tradition to America, pumpkins were more readily available and became the preferred choice for carving these Jack O' Lanterns. It wasn't just "Stingy Jack" that brought this custom to life, it was also linked to the visual phenomenon ignis fatuus (lit., “foolish fire”) known as a will-o’-the-wisp in English folklore. Used especially in East England, its earliest known use dates to the 1660s. A will-o’-the-wisp is a phenomenon that is often seen in marshy areas at night. It is a light that appears to disappear as you approach it. The phenomenon is caused by the combustion of gases emitted by organic matter in the marsh.
There is also lore of using round fruit or vegetable to depict a human face goes back thousands of years in some northern European Celtic cultures. “It may even have had pre-Christian origins that evolved from the custom of head veneration, or potentially even represented war trophies taken from your foes,” says Nathan Mannion, senior curator for EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, in Dublin. “It’s quite macabre, but it may have symbolized the severed heads of your enemies.” on October 31, spirits of the dead were thought to mingle with the living. To ward off restless souls, people donned costumes and carved frightening faces into root vegetables such as beets, potatoes, and turnips—usually plentiful after the recent harvest. A practical purpose also evolved, says Mannion. “Metal lanterns were quite expensive, so people would hollow out root vegetables,” he says. “Over time people started to carve faces and designs to allow light to shine through the holes without extinguishing the ember.”
And of course we can't NOT mention Jack O' Lanterns without mentioning “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. It is one of the most famous stories about Halloween. Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is considered one of America’s first ghost stories and one of its scariest. The story takes place in the New York village of Sleepy Hollow, in Westchester County. Irving may have drawn inspiration for his story while a teenager in the Tarrytown region. He moved to the area in 1798 to flee a yellow fever outbreak in New York City, according to the New York Historical Society. He “would have been introduced to local ghost stories and lore at an impressionable age,” according to Elizabeth Bradley, a historian at Historic Hudson Valley. Washington Irving’s inspiration for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is not clear. However, he was particularly mesmerized by the Catskill Mountains, which he described as having a “witching effect” on his imagination, according to his biography. That infatuation greatly influenced Irving’s creation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in a number of ways.
Candy corn was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company. The tri-colored confection was designed to look like chicken feed and came out at a time when about half of Americans worked on farms. Candy corn’s origins are basically unknown, but it seems most likely to have appeared around the 1880s, a time when candy companies were creating mallow crème and molding the confection into the shape of pumpkins, chestnuts, turnips and other food items. At the time farmers made up about half of the American labor force, and companies marketed food-themed candies to children in farm country all year round. Hence candy corn, was morn which which featured the innovation of three hand-layered colors. People didn’t start calling it candy corn until the 1940s, when trick-or-treating began after WWII. The candy’s harvest hues and low price point made it a popular choice for trick-or-treating, and it quickly became associated with Halloween. With the innovation of many other candies candies, including the mass success of chocolate, candy corn though still a must have Halloween staple lost it's top spot. As a matter of fact, according to grocery retailer Kroger, which sells millions of pounds of candy each year, the top selling candy for Halloween 2022 is Hershey’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And tell me darklings, who doesn't love a good Reese's, they even make Reese's peanut butter pumpkin shaped versions of their cups ?
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