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Halloween traditions

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Evening also known as

Hallowe'en or All Hallows' Eve.

Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting

"haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carriedversions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western

countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the

United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and

New Zealand.

Though the origin of the word Halloween is Christian, the holiday is commonly thought

to have pagan roots.

North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, near the The

earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking border of

upstate New York, reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street

guising (see below) on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to

be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs

Another isolated reference appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in

Chicago in 1920.

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples

(known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel or taffy apples are common

Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes

followed by rolling them in nuts.

At one time, candy apples were commonly given to children, but the

practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were

embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples. While there is evidence of such

incidents, they are quite rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless,many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass

media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's

Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known

candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.

The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works

of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula ) and classic

horror films (such as Frankenstein and The Mummy ). One of the earliest works on the

subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at

Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the

night, "Bogies" (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns' Halloween 1785. Elements of the autumn

season, such as pumpkins, corn husks and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are oftendecorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.

The tradition of wearing costumes at Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. In

ancient times, Winter was an uncertain and frightening season when food supplies often

ran low. For many people who feared the dark, the short days of Winter were filled with

constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that spirits returned to the earthly

world, people would wear masks when they left their homes during the night hours. In

this way, they would avoid being recognized by the ghosts and be mistaken merely for

fellow spirits. During Samhain, Celtic villagers would don costumes to represent the

souls of the dead and dance out of town, in the hope of leading the dead along with them.

Similarly, in Christian religions, parishioners would dress as their favorite Saints and

display relics of these departed souls.

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The use of witches and cats (together with ghosts) in the celebration of Halloween

originates with the Druids, who believed that ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches, elves

and all manner of supernatural manifestation emerged on Halloween night to

possibly harm the living. It was a common Celtic belief that cats (particularly

black ones) had once been human beings who had been transformed into felines

as punishment for their evil deeds or through coming in contact with bad magick.Black cats were often tied with silver ropes because it was thought such creatures

possessed the ability to protect sacred treasures. Catholic traditions blended with

the Celtic beliefs and eventually turned the cat into a witch's familiar, along with

the theory that the witch herself had the mystical knowledge to transform herself

into the form of a cat. The British once believed that elves rode upon the backs of

villagers' cats and would lock up the animals in order that the elves might not

catch them. At one time, the British believed that it was the white cat who

brought bad luck and not a black once, which was considered to be lucky.

With the arrival of European immigrants to the United States of America, came the

varied Halloween customs indigenous to their former homelands. However, due to the

rigid Protestant beliefs which characterized early New England, celebration of

Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited in that particular area of the country.

Halloween festivities were much more common in Maryland and the colonies located in

the South. As the customs practiced by these varied European ethnic groups meshed

with traditions employed by the native American Indians, a distinctly American version

of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public

events held to celebrate the harvest. At these gatherings, neighbors would share stories

of the dead, predict each others' fortunes, sing and make merry with dancing. Colonial

Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and general mischief-

making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th Century, annual Autumn festivals were

quite common, but Halloween was still not yet celebrated throughout the entire country.

In Austria, some people will leave bread, water and a lighted lamp on the table

before retiring on Halloween night. The reason for this is because it was once

believed such items would welcome the dead souls back to earth on a night which

for the Austrians was considered to be brimming with strong cosmic energies .

The Belgians believe that it is unlucky for a black cat to cross once's path and also

unlucky if it should enter a home or travel on a ship. The custom in Belgium on

Halloween night is to light candles in memory of dead relatives.

Unlike most nations of the world, Halloween is not celebrated by the French in order to

honor the dead and departed ancestors. It is regarded as an "American" holiday inFrance and was virtually unknown in the country until around 1996.