C&T Publications Eye On Fine Art Photography - October 2014 | Page 62

immigration to America peaked in the 1880s, ritualized begging on Halloween was virtually unknown in America until generations
later.
Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World
War II and did not end until June 1947.
Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's
Activities, and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948. The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt
Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their
television show, and UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.
Trick-or-treating on the prairie. Although some popular histories of Halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult
invention to re-channel Halloween activities away from vandalism, nothing in the historical record supports this theory. To the
contrary, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with
reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger. Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what
trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes even the children protested: for Halloween 1948,
members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg."
A jack-o'-lantern (sometimes also spelled Jack O'Lantern) is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday
Halloween. Typically the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved onto the
outside surface, and the lid replaced. During the night, a candle is placed inside to illuminate the effect. The term is not particularly
common outside North America, although the practice of carving lanterns for Halloween is.
In folklore, an old Irish folk tale tells of Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack
tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or c arved a
cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down. Another myth says that Jack put a key in the Devil's pocket while he was
suspended upside-down;
Another version of the myth says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil,
who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the
church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil
could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen
it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a
cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so
he was trapped. In both myths, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all
living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his
soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no
light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his
turnips (which was his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He
became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.
There are variations on the legend:
Some versions include a "wise and good man", or even God helping Jack to prevail over the Devil.
There are different versions of Jack's bargain with the Devil. Some variations say the deal was only temporary but the Devil,
embarrassed and vengeful, refuses Jack entry to hell after Jack dies.
Jack is considered a greedy man and is not allowed into either heaven or hell, without any mention of the Devil.
Despite the colorful legends, the term jack-o'-lantern originally meant a night watchman, or man with a lantern, with the earliest
known use in the mid-17th century; and later, meaning an ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp. In Labrador and Newfoundland, both
names "Jacky Lantern" and "Jack the Lantern" refer to the will-o'-the-wisp concept rather than the pumpkin carving aspect.

Halloween costumes are outfits worn on or around October 31, the day of Halloween. Halloween is a modern-day holiday
originating in the Pagan Celtic holiday of Samhain (in Christian times, the eve of All Saints Day). Although popular histories of
Halloween claim that the practice goes back to ancient celebrations of Samhain, in fact there is little primary documentation
of
58