The Halloween Origin

Halloween on the 31st October has its roots in Irish tradition. The following day, the 1st November is the official All Saints' holiday. In the USA, Halloween is the second most popular decoration festival, after Christmas.

Halloween was regarded as the Celtic New Year, when traditionally animals were killed and supplies stored up for the long cold winter ahead. It was also known as the 'festival of the dead', the night when the boundary between the living and dead is suspended. Many believed the dead caused problems for the living, such as damage to the crops, or sickness.

Originally the two holidays were celebrated on the one day. The first was called, All Hallows Day and was the eve of All Saints' Day. The name then became shortened to Halloween.

Symbols of Halloween:
The jack-o'-lantern has its origin in the Irish legend of a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer, named Stingy Jack. He fooled the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to wander the earth at night for ever. The only light Jack had was a candle which he placed inside a hollowed out turnip.

America chose to transform the turnip into the more readily available and larger pumpkin, which was placed on the doorstep to ward off superstitions.

From nearly a century now, filmmakers have given us the imagery of ghosts, spiders, witches, zombies, owls, mummies, crows, vultures, black cats, goblins, skeletons and demons to add to the Halloween symbolism.

Trick-n-Treat:
Costumes were worn so as to blend in with all the 'spirits' of the night, when you went outdoors. This evolved into trick-n-treat with children knocking on neighbour's doors asking for fruit, nuts and sweets for the Halloween festival. The children had salt sprinkled in their hair to protect them against the powers of evil spirits.

In England and Wales you would either receive a treat of food or money, or you would perform a trick. This often involved such things as removing the gate from its hinges and carrying it away to dump in a local pond. Unfortunately, this has led to antisocial behavior among older teenagers. In 2006 police surveillance of the festival had to be stepped up so as to keep law and order.

The Food:
Halloween comes at the close of the annual apple harvest, so apples also became a symbol of the festivities. Apples, rolled in sugar syrup and nuts, made candy apples, which were then handed out to the children.

In Ireland it is the time of the King Cake, or barmbrack, which is a light fruit cake baked in a ring in which coin and lucky charms are placed before baking. Anyone getting a ring from the cake will find their true love in the coming year.

UNICEF
In 1950 UNCEF began a program of distributing small boxes to schools, or through some stores, for the trick-or-treaters. The children were asked to solicit small change donations from the houses they visited. It is estimated the children have collected in the vicinity of $119 million for UNICEF. Sadly, the program has been cancelled in certain parts of the world, due to concern for the safety of the children.

Televison
The evening of October 31st is the traditional night to sit and view horror, or ghost movies. Perhaps this year, financial crisis and Wall Street has already provided enough horror stories for this year.