BATS, WITCHES, AND MORE
Some common trademarks of modern Halloween
Jack o’lanterns were used to represent the mysterious lights people would often see in marshes in the Old World, which people once believed to be spirits and fairies. In Irish folklore the origin of the name comes from a story of a man named Jack who after capturing the Devil and made a deal where he would never enter Hell, but after being denied entrance into Heaven he was forced to walk the Earth with nothing a but lantern made from a turnip lit with an eternal flame. The Irish were quick to replace those cramped turnips with pumpkins once they arrived at their native home, North America. Carving them out and placing candles inside, making the symbol which is currently synonymous with the holiday.
Trick or treatings origins stem from souling. The poor would often receive treats like soul cakes and other freshly baked goods as they said their prayers. In conjunction, they would also put out these treats to appease spirits and ghouls that may have risen during festivities. The costumes people wear is a bit vaguer in origins due to the poor records ancient Celts would keep, but they likely come from the disguises people wore during Samhain to frighten away the evil which lurked in the long nights of winter. The proximity of Hallows Eve, which evolved from Samhain and the practice of souling which came from All Souls Day, likely lead to their combination into the practice of asking for treats while in a frightening disguise.
The origin of tricks had started with groups of rowdy men loitering through towns during festivals as a Halloween tradition in the early 1900s. These men would ask for food and money but were usually only interested in pulling pranks on people who didn’t give them anything, which gave rise to the term trick or treat. While these tricks seemed harmless at first, these pranks would eventually escalate enough for citizens to consider the term threatening, leading police patrols and a hard crackdown on the tradition eventually. This crackdown would soon extend into an attempt to make the holiday safer and more family friendly. Which ultimately has culminated into the practice of trick or treating for children, where children go door to door asking for sweets in their own spooky outfits. The trick portion may have been dulled, but occasionally you’ll see echoes of the past in harmless pranks still being done today.
Halloween in the Americas
Halloween did not take root in the Americas initially due to the Puritan majority which encompassed the majority of early immigrants. The disdain for the holiday would mainly stem from the Puritan attempt to distance itself from the Catholic Church. It wasn’t until a wave of millions of Irish migrants in the mid 19th century would Halloween gain momentum in the United States. Over the generations, the Irish would often attempt to imitate the fire festivals and customs of the Old World from memory. Two traditions of note being the creation of jack o’lanterns and trick or treating.