Halloween

Halloween should be called "Fun Day".  What original started as a celtic holiday, Samuin, (pronounced sow-an or sow-in), which mean roughly "summer's end".  It was also regarded as the Celtic New Year.  Halloween has evolved into a fun loving, playful holiday.

While the ancient celts thought it was a time allowing the "spirits" (both harmless and harmful) to pass through from this world to the Otherworld.  They thought if they disguised themselves in a costume of a harmful spirit, they could avoid harm.

It was also a time for harvest as they gathered their food for winter and often times they would gather in groups with a large bonfire and used as part of the ritual.

Halloween deriving from the name of All-Hallows Even (evening) is the night before All Hallows Day which honors the saints.   In ancient times, turnips were hollowed out to use as candles and it was in North America, that the pumpkin began to be used for lighting as it was in abundant supply.  Hence, the jack-o-lantern.

Ever wonder why the jack-o-lantern is called that.  It goes back to the ancient times when a man by the name of Stingy Jack was a mean and cruel man who played tricks on his neighbors and decided he was going to trick the devil by having him climb a tree and surrounding it with crosses.  Jack continued playing his devilish games and when he died, he was not allowed to enter Heaven and since he had struck up a deal with the devil after the tree incident, he was not allowed to enter Hell.  He was destined to roam the earth and used the carved out turnip as his light to find his way in the darkness.  When the pumpkin replaced the turnip, it was called the jack-o-lantern from the original Jack o' the lantern.

The colors of Black and Orange are the traditional colors as they represent the "darkness of night," and the "light of the bonfire, autum leaves and the jack-o-lanterns."  The traditional ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, demons, bats and black cats were part of the mythical celebrations, and continue today along with haunted houses, graveyards and scary monsters.

Movies become thrillers to scare us, along with ghost stories told around bonfires.  Trick or treating  began in the Middle Ages when the "practice of souling", poor people would go door to door receiving food for prayers to be said on All Souls Day.

In today's celebration, it is one where adults as well as children celebrate.  Wearing costumes to work or parties, they enjoy the holiday as much as the children who look forward to that special costume and getting a lot of candy.  It is a "Fun Day" celebration and all vestage of the original holiday has been lost through the years.

I can still remember as a child when I went trick or treating.  I lived in a small town and at the time, it was a safe time so I was allowed to go with my brother or friends without supervision as I got older and my parents knew that I could find my way home.  Don't laugh, many children had to have help.  I knew just about everyone in town and we all knew which houses had the best treats.

Our first stop was at the Tyler's.  They ran the Coca Cola Distributing in town and everyone got a 5 cent coke, (that was the days when they came in bottles), that we were required to drink there as they had a deposit on the bottle so we weren't allowed to take them with us.  We also received a 5 cent Hershey candy bar and at that time it was the full size bar.  Then we would go to the next house where they had the Meadow Gold Ice Cream Plant and we would get a small container of ice cream.  Again we would eat it there as it would melt before we could get it home.  We knew that the people who ran the Dime Store would give out bags of candy and the principal of the school would give out a package of gum (the kind with 5 sticks and we could choose Spearamint, Doublemint, Juicy Fruit or my favorite, Black Jack.), we also knew where we would get the candied applies all wrapped so they would be okay until we got home, the popcorn balls and so many other goodies.

So we might have to sing a song or do a little dance step, we knew we were going to be rewarded with something good.  We would return home with a sack full of goodies that my mother would put away only allowing us to choose a goody each day for a week later.  I think they also enjoyed some of our loot too.

As I turned 12 I wasn't allowed to dress up and go door to door for treats, I was allowed to go to the local movie theater and watch such horror shows as Frankenstein, The Werewolf and The Mummy.  I guess you could say they were mild to some of the horror movies out today, but I can tell you at the time, they were plenty scary for us.

I had a few years that I missed out on the trick or treating but as my younger sister began to go, both my brother and I got to share in the loot she brought home and it was fun being able to get out and see her have so much fun.

In my teens, I would host a Halloween party or go to one and natually thought I was a grown up.  It wasn't until I was a mother and able to dress my daughter up to take her trick or treating, that the holiday was really fun again and later when I had two daughters that would go out.  I helped with their school parties and we made it a special time for them.

Halloween may only come once a year, just as the 4th of July or Christmas, but it is one holiday that is everyone looks forward too.   There is something magical about getting dressed up and going out into the dark night with other ghouls and jack-o-lanterns staring at you from a door step.  It has become more commercialized during the last few years but the main idea is still there allowing us to pretend one night that we are devils or witches, skeltons or mummies to scare and be scared and just have fun.

Happy Halloween!!