Halloween has always sent shivers all over me, mainly because I've always scared really, really easily. I'm a product of the 70s, when even the most conservative parents saw no harm in their kids running the streets in cheap plastic costumes depicting some super hero or underworld creature. The masks that came with the costumes were hard plastic with holes for eyes, tiny holes for breathing, and a little slit at the mouth which served no rational purpose; these masks were held very UNsecurely around our heads by a single, thin rubber band stapled to Spiderman's or whomever's cheeks. We ALL used plastic pumpkins with black eyes, noses and mouths which we held by the black plastic handle. And we kept them from year to year, just like we did our Easter baskets. We did not replace them with disposable WalMart crap every year, as there was no WalMart. Those really were simpler times, at the risk of sounding like my grandparents. No one took it too seriously, it was just kids begging their neighbors for candy. Nowadays people are afraid of everything, and many parents don't allow their kids to celebrate Halloween in the belief that it is an evil, Pagan holiday. Pagan in history, yes. Evil, NO WAY! There's a very interesting and rich history behind Halloween and I thought I'd look it up for myself this year, so I could stop the goosebumps that plague me every October 31st. The ancient Celtic culture that thrived in more parts of Europe than I ever imagined was especially active in Ireland. It was a Pagan culture which was still very agricultural, and their lives depended on their crops and harvest. On one day of the year they believed that since the crops were in, and the green around them was turning to brown, there was one night when the season of life met the season of death. It was on this night that the dead could walk among the living and wreak havoc if they so chose, and this day was held in such importance that some say this was celebrated as the Celtic New Year. Samhain, the Celtic word for summer's end, was the name of this celebration which was also feared. So to try to scare off or placate the spirits walking among them on this night they wore demonic disguises, or scary costumes and burned great big bonfires to ward off evil. Well, as the Celtic culture gave way to Christianity, the Irish kept their Halloween traditions and beliefs. The Catholics, feeling the need to bring religion to the people, took a feast celebration formally held on May 13 (which was also the date of an earlier Pagan holiday known as Feast of the Lemures) called All Saints' Day and moved it to November 1st, the day after the old Pagan holiday. Halloween is so named because now it was the Eve of All Saints' Day, and became All Hallows Eve, or All Hallows Even, both Eve and Even short for evening. So All Hallows Even became Halloween. In early America Halloween was not celebrated, due to the Puritan values upon which it was built. But in the mid-nineteenth century, thousands of hungry Irish descended upon New York City and brought with them their old traditions, including Halloween. The bonfires turned into the burning of carved gourds, or pumpkins, and children became the primary practitioners of the holiday, still enjoying the costumes. Some believe that trick or treating came from the old Irish practice of peasants going from house to house praying for its owners in exchange for a small piece of cake. By the mid-20th century Halloween had become one of the most profitable holidays in the US. This history lesson has given me a whole new outlook on Halloween, and an appreciation for a culture of which I was totally unfamiliar. I've done some reading on the Celts and they seem like pretty awesome folks. So now you know!
