"Haunting" Memories

It's Hallowed Eve eve. Ooohhhh ha ha. Ghosts and goblins; pumpkins and apples; candy and costumes; tricks and treats.

Earlier darkness falls upon the cooler, crisper evening. Fall leaves crunch below your feet as you wander the streets and alleys knocking on doors of strangers demanding payment of food for their freedom from pranks.

We send our children out into the darkness, in disguise, to collect sugar laden treats that will keep them up into the wee hours of the morning. Who came up with this idea?

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Sahmahin. The festival of Samhain celebrated the end of the "lighter half" of the year and the beginning of the "darker half" of the year. The Celts believed that this seasonal change thinned the border between this world and that of the Otherworld; allowing spirits, both good and bad, to pass easily from one to another. To avoid the "evil" spirits that might present themselves, people took to dressing as these spirits to avoid harm and scare them off.

As it was also time for the harvest, the Celts would take stock of food and livestock to store for winter. Thus, the search for "treats".

Halloween, clad in its colors of orange and black, costumes and disguises, has many traditional symbols: bonfires, Jack O'Lanterns, and candy apples.

The bonfires provided a symbolism of cleansing. The bones of the slaughtered livestock were tossed into the "bonefires". The hearth fires of the homes were extinguished and relit from the flames of the communal fire; providing a continuity for the approaching winter. In some of the clans, two bonfires were built side by side and the people and their livestock would pass through as a cleansing ritual.

The Jack O'Lantern actually began as a turnip. It became a pumpkin only in North America where the pumpkin was more abundant in late October (and easier to carve) than the turnip or rutabaga. The Irish legend goes that there lived a greedy, gambling, hard drinking farmer named Stingy Jack. Jack tricked the devil into climbing into a tree and then trapped him there by carving a cross on the tree. The devil took his revenge by cursing Jack to wander the earth forever, at night, with only a light in his head.

Candy apples and bobbing for apples were also part of the evolution of Halloween in North America. The festival came in the wake of the apple harvest. And the candied part was a result of the nuts and syrup also collected at this time of year.

Growing up in South Florida, my Halloween memories don't include those crisp, cooler evenings. More often than not, it was damp, rainy evening. I remember perspiring under the masks and had them off early in the search for treats. I remember being a sailor girl, a princess, a witch and a hobo. Mother didn't use too much of her creativity in developing my Halloween persona. I believe that came because I was the youngest of the six kids she raised.

As an adult, I have taken the guise of Cruella D'Ville, a very wicked witch who smoked a cigar, Ginger from Gilligan's Island, Morticia from the Adams' Family and Tina Turner (most people thought I was Ron Wood in drag). I love the thought of developing a unique costume; I just don't seem to get around to it in time for Halloween.

It's like all the other holidays. . .it just sneaks up on me.

Happy Hauntings and be safe out there.