Halloween: A Time When Spirits Walk

Monday is Halloween, or All Hallows Eve. Children and even adults will get into the holiday costumes, parties, jack-o-lanterns and Trick or Treat. Here are some of Halloween’s origins and superstitions. One superstition says that children born on Halloween are able to converse with fairies, witches and other supernatural beings.

Converse County Herald, Lusk, Wyoming, Oct. 1903 – Halloween, Old And New: We are again on the threshold of another Halloween – “All Saints’ Day,” or “All Hallows,” as it was called in olden times. Then it was customary to observe the eve preceding All Hallows. It was called, consequently, Halloweven, and in time Halloween. Perhaps it was because the saints were thought to be in the ascendancy on November 1 that the superstitious folk of ye olden days imagined that the mischievous fairies and all the other imps and gnomes held their highest revel of the year on the night before.

Anyhow, all the witches that ever were heard of were looked for on Halloween, and from time immortal the eve of All Hallows has been the particular night of all the year when “high jinks” of the weirdest and uncanniest sort prevail. Every year of late years all the popular publications of the day have devoted more or less space to telling over again the old Halloween rites, but not one of them gives so good an account of the Halloween mysteries as Robert Burns’ poem, “Halloween,” which any and everyone may read for themselves. One who does not know old Scottish dialect must read an edition of Burns that has footnotes or a glossary.

The ancient Halloween customs are dying out in part, even among the Scottish peasantry, where they were most firmly entrenched but Halloween parties, in which some of the more modest of the old games are played, are given each year by young people all over America, England and Scotland.

Halloween, which is always on Oct. 31, falls mid-point between the fall equinox, Sept. 22, and the winter solstice, Dec. 21. Halloween got its spooky aspect because the Celt’s believed that at Halloween the doorway between the spirit world and the physical world would open and ghost and spirits could cross to harass the living.

One theory about why people dress in costumes for Halloween was a part of the Celt’s belief that if they dressed in costumes, they could confuse the spirits and fairies, who might want to kidnap them on Halloween. Many dressed up like animals, believing the animal’s power could be transferred onto the wearer, and could even ward off any evil spirits that might try to disturb the night.

This from the Thermopolis Record, Oct. 1922 – Hallowe’en Greetings. This festival, which is assigned to October 31, is sometimes known as “All Hallows Eve” or “All Saints Day.” It is the most nearly universal of all festivals for it is observed by Christians and pagans and in all climes. It is a very ancient holiday and antedates Christianity.

Coming at the close of the harvest season, Hallowe’en has taken on many of the ceremonies which have been associated with the harvest. The Druids held a great autumn festival and lighted fires in honor of the Sun-God and in thanksgiving for the harvest. It was also their belief that on this eve there assembled all the wicked souls that had within the last twelve months been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals.

In Ancient Rome it was mainly a harvest festival and great feasts were held in honor of Ceres. In West Russia an elaborate little pageant is enacted, while in Scotland the last sheaf of grain, if cut before Hallowe’en, is called The Maiden and the youngest girl in the harvest field has the privilege of cutting it. Sometimes this sheaf is kept until Christmas morning and then divided among the cattle to make them thrive “all the year round.”

Trick or Treat got its start after Catholicism arrived in the British Isles in the seventh century. The church took over the pagan holiday, renaming it All Saints Day. On that day, poor people would visit the homes of wealthier people, asking for ‘soul cake’ in exchange for a promise to pray for the souls of dead relatives. Later children took up the practice, going from door to door asking for gifts and treats.

jack-o’-lanterns came later. Around 1800 in Scotland and Ireland there was a myth of a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack,” who tricked the devil one night and was condemned to walk the earth with only a carved turnip with a lump of burning coal to light his way. In an attempt to scare away Stingy Jack and other wandering spirits, people began to make lanterns by carving scary faces into pumpkins, lighting them with a candle, and placing them in windows for protection.

The jack-o-lantern tradition continues today. Now, however, instead of a candle with an open flame, the light inside is more often a safer, battery-powered flame-less candle. As well as being safer, the flame won’t blow out if the night is windy.

The Casper Press, October 1911, there is a lengthy article about the lowly pumpkin and its part in Halloween. – Today, very few of the younger generation who, as did their fathers and mothers before them, derive so much enjoyment from the mischievous and mirthful Halloween season ever stop to consider in their frolicking how much they are dependent upon the prosaic pumpkin, the principal ammunition for the fun making. Nature’s golden globe, so symbolic of all the glories of autumn. It is not only the ammunition, but it is likewise the emblem of the mysterious holiday at the end of October. Furthermore, the pumpkin, as it lies in the field or reposes in the market stalls, is so suggestive of a hundred pranks that it might almost be he denominated the inspiration of much of the Hallowe’en revels.

It is all very well to talk about the advantages of the modern quiet and decorous Hallowe’en in contrast to the rather more boisterous ones that were formerly the rule and are yet in some localities — but whatever the form of celebration it would assuredly lose all of its zest for Juvenile America without the grinning Jack-o Lanterns made by ye plump pumpkins.

Moreover, without the vivid hued orbs the Hallowe’en hostess would be at a loss for decorations. No one probably, has the imagination to predict how we could get along without the pumpkin at this prankish time. Because not within the memory of the oldest inhabitant have we been without these harbingers of the waning year. We can imagine Christmas without a tree Illuminated by the tiny electric lamps or conceive a Saint Valentine Day without those convenient and economical post card valentines, because it was not so many years ago that we knew not these holiday adjuncts, but Hallowe’en without pumpkins? Why it is too preposterous to give credence to for even a moment. We might as well imagine a Fourth of July without fireworks! Or a Christmas without mistletoe or mince pie.

The preeminent Hallowe’en use of the pumpkins is, of course, for jack-o’-lanterns. You will agree that it would not be merely superfluous, but little short of an insult, to insert any description of these nocturnal terrors for the timid. Pity the boy who has not in the halcyon days of his youth openly or surreptitiously carved the grinning teeth, staring eyes, strong nose and expansive ears that vested the placid pumpkin with a sudden ferocity worthy of the most desperate cause.

It might be supposed that a jack-o’-lantern is a jack-o’-lantern, and that there is very little difference between the reincarnated pumpkins. But any student of this class of sculpture can assure you that there are wide differences that distinguish the different “schools” The boys whose sole thought is of the impression to be made by the flaming countenance looking out from the pumpkin bestow all their thought upon the facial features that are to be throw into relief by the candlelight from inside of the pumpkin. Where a hostess whose pumpkins entries are posted in well-lighted rooms is wont to embellish a plain countenance with black or white eyebrows and mustaches and other supposedly life-like touches.

Pumpkins aren’t only for Halloween decorations. There are pumpkin carving competitions in many areas, and competitions for the largest pumpkin. In 2021, a grower in Italy grew a world record 2,702-pound pumpkin. And, of course, that Thanksgiving staple, pumpkin pie.

Coming to Sheridan soon is the annual fall pumpkin festival to be held the first Saturday after Halloween. There will be games such as a pumpkin throwing contest, pumpkin slingshot, and pumpkin smashing.

It is also recommended that used jack-o-lanterns be set out in the pasture or woods for wildlife to enjoy eating. It is recommended, however, that bleach is not used to make the pumpkin last longer if one wants to set it out for wildlife.

So, whether you decided to dress up in a costume, carve an artistic jack-o-lantern, or pass out candy to the miniature ghosts and goblins, calling out “Trick or Treat,” have a Happy Halloween everyone.