Episode 17 | Halloween

Episode Transcript

Hello my friends, and welcome to a very special episode of Strange Origins.

As we all know, tomorrow is Halloween. Based on the subject of this podcast, you can probably already tell that this holiday has always held a special place in my heart. To be honest, it's tied with Christmas as my favorite holiday, which is strange to some people. For me, it’s a celebration of all the things that make life interesting. Ghosts and witches, Fall weather, slasher films, homemade caramel, and the idea that for one night out of the year, you can be anyone or anything in the world. Your creativity is the limit when it comes to Halloween costumes. 

Another reason that Halloween is my favorite is that my family also has an extra reason to celebrate. When I was around years old I was told by my family that I was going to get a special gift; my younger sister. Ever since then, it’s also been a birthday celebration decked out to the nines with spooky garb and Halloween delicacies like glazed doughnuts and rootbeer with dry ice. Through the years we’ve had a lot of great parties, and always participated in the usual traditions of trick or treating and carving of pumpkins. While dressing up or planning out designs for jack lanterns, I always had a voice in the back of my mind asking where exactly these strange traditions came from. When did Halloween become a family-friendly night where children are showered with sugar and told they can be anything they want for one magical night, but at the same time a celebration of death, gore, and everything that goes bump in the night?

Samhain

Well, it started where a lot of modern traditions started; in the Celtic part of the world. As I’ve discussed before in my Fickle Fairies episode, a festival known as Samhain (Sow-win) was celebrated about two thousand years ago in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It was classified as a new years celebration that was meant to usher in the harvest and the dark part of the year. It was also thought to be a night that the veil between this world and others was at its thinnest, allowing for ghosts and fairies and all manner of supernatural entities to walk among the living.  

Pagans of the time celebrated by leaving their hearth fires at home to burn out while they gathered the harvest. Afterward, they would join together as a community and light a fire using a wheel that spun to cause friction, and eventually sparking a flame. During this time cattle were also sacrificed to ensure a plentiful harvest for next year and to give thanks for what they had. The flame from the wheel was taken back to their homes to light their hearths. The purpose of this wheel was to encourage the sun to last just a little bit longer. They would dance around the fire in order to keep evil ghosts away, but at the same time left the doors of their homes open just in case the spirits of loved ones decided to stop by for the night. Animal skins and costumes of fairies were worn, which were thought of as a way to trick evil spirits from doing harm. 

Feralia

By 43 AD, the Romans had conquered that part of the world, and had overtaken many of the old traditions and replaced them with new ones. One of these was called Feralia and was a celebration of those who had passed on, akin to Samhain. It was a small part of a larger, nine-day festival that aimed to honor dead ancestors. Citizens were instructed to make offerings to the tombs of those who had passed on. The offering would consist of "an arrangement of wreaths, a sprinkling of grain and a bit of salt, bread soaked in wine and violets scattered about."

The famous Roman poet Ovid, wrote of a time when, during a war, the Roman people neglected participating in the traditions, which quote “prompted the spirits of the departed to rise from their graves in anger, howling and roaming the streets.” The haunting only ended when the rituals were performed. 

Some texts state that the celebration of Samhain would last three days, which makes sense seeing as Halloween in the Christain sense is also comprised of three days, (collectively referred to as the Hallowmas season.) October 31st is the first night of the three and is referred to as All Hallows Evening. In an attempt to convert pagan followers of the time, Christain churches began to adopt old world traditions, such as the Samhain observance of remembering the dead. This day would be used to perform a vigil, visit a cemetery where flowers could be placed on graves, and fun activities and a feast could take place.

November 1st is referred to as All Saints Eve and would be a day to celebrate all saints and martyrs. Also, it was a day to quote "honour the blessed who have not been canonized and who have no special feast day.” The final day, November 2nd is referred to as All Souls Day and is a day of celebrating all souls, (or at least all those who are and have been faithful Christians.)

Jack-O-Lanterns

By the middle ages, the tradition of fire festivals had returned in Ireland, along with the invention of more modern traditions, including the carving of turnip and potato jack-o-lanterns. The origin of these carvings started with a folktale about a man referred to as Stingy Jack.

In the folktale, Jack decided to invite the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his nickname, he didn’t want to pay for the Devil’s drink so he convinced him to turn into a gold coin that he could pay with. When he just did he trapped the Devil in the coin, putting it in his pocket next to a silver cross, which made it so he couldn’t transform back. When he freed the Devil, it was under the condition that he would not die for one year and that he was not allowed to take his soul.

Jack was smarter than the Devil though, and the next year he convinced him to climb a tree and pick a piece of fruit. When he was up in the branches, Jack carved a cross into the tree, making it so that the Devil couldn’t climb down. At this point, Jack told him that he wouldn’t let him down unless the Devil didn’t bother him for the next ten years. When Jack died, neither heaven nor hell would accept his soul, and he was forced to walk into the dark with only a burning coal to light the way. He put the coal into a hollowed-out turnip and has been walking the earth ever since, making his namesake Jack o’Lantern. On Halloween people would put these lit lanterns in windows to ward off tricky spirits like Jack’s, and when the tradition traveled to America, it was found that pumpkins were easier to carve.

Trick or Treat

Another famous tradition is that of dressing up in costumes, which from the 16th century on, was referred to as mumming, or guising in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In some parts of Ireland, this included the ritual of dressing one man up as a white horse, who then led children around to the different houses to recite verses in exchange for food.

Another notable tradition is that of Dumb Supper. In this tradition the word dumb means silent. It begins with making your dining area sacred, either through the use of casting a circle or smudging. Each of the members of the silent dinner are meant to bring a piece of paper with a message they wish to say to a spirit, usually a friend or relative. The head of the table is usually reserved for the spirits that the group is trying to contact. Before everyone is seated, it's customary to stop at the head of the table and offer a silent prayer for the deceased. As soon as everyone is served, especially the spirit, everyone is allowed to eat. When everyone is done eating, everyone takes a turn to burn the note that they wrote for the deceased, which is concluded with a prayer.

When the old customs traveled to America, it took a few centuries before celebrations would become as rowdy as they once were. European traditions became meshed and everyone celebrated their own way, ranging from parties that celebrated the harvest, to get-togethers where fortunes and ghost stories were told.

In 1879, children took the phrase Trick or Treat a little too far in Newport Kentucky when a group of two hundred boys placed a dummy body on the railroad tracks on Halloween night. The engineer pulled the brake quickly enough to avoid hitting, what to him, was a real body. Another prank boys would often play involved getting a cabbage stalk from a garden, lighting it on fire until it started smoking, and shoving it up the keyhole of a house, which would cause a disgusting-smelling smoke to fill the residence.

At a time when there wasn’t indoor plumbing, tipping outhouses and uprooting gardens were also popular. By the time the car was invented, it became popular for boys to deflate tires, remove manhole covers and even put up fake road signs to confuse drivers. In the city, you could expect to be showered in flour or hit with stockings filled with black ash at random. In 1902 a newspaper writer stated that he advised quote “the public to load their muskets or cannon with rock, salt or birdshot and when trespassers invade your premises at unseemly hours upon mischief bent, pepper them good and proper so they will be effectually cured and have no further taste for such tricks.

Slowly, Halloween transitioned back into being a fairly family-oriented holiday a few decades after that. When the Great Depression made it so that Halloween pranks were one of few entertainments for children, cities began considering banning the holiday altogether. That’s when parents had the idea to host parties that kept kids off the street. They handed out costumes and treats and hosted haunted houses. Sick of the pranks they had to clean up every year, they thought it easier to simply pay the kids off with sweets and activities. 

By the 1950s trick or treating was a common term, and without the constraints of WWII rationing sugar, candy factories began churning out sweets by the truck fulls. National advertising for Halloween spread the tradition like a fire and the traditions became somewhat standard across the entire U.S. 

Trick or Treating in its purest form, it’s said, began in ancient Greek times on the island of Rhodes. Children would go door to door dressed as Swallows and demand food. If it was not given, they would “threaten mischief.” In the middle ages, this turned into the tradition of mumming. Instead of dressing up as Swallows, children would perform skits or short parts of plays in exchange for food. 

Punkie Night

A custom called Punkie Night is still celebrated in Somerset, England on the last Thursday of every October. Children in the area will go around with jack o’lanterns and sing. One of the songs goes: “It's Punkie Night tonight, It's Punkie Night tonight, Adam and Eve would not believe, It's Punkie Night tonight.” In other versions, they would say: "Give me a candle, give me a light If you don't, you'll get a fright.” In a more modern version, it goes “Mangal Wurzels from the ground, grow so big and fat and round, We’ll dig you up and brush you off and take you back to town. Washed and hollowed, nice and clean, We’ll carve our marks and add a string, and from a pole we’ll let you swing, the finest lamp around.”

A tradition that has matured into the handing out of candy was the giving and receiving of soul cakes. In the 15th century, all the way up to today, this tradition is referred to as Souling and is done as a way of appeasing ghosts, and also to feed the poor. The cakes are round, filled with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and even raisins or currents, and a cross is carved into the top, as a reminder that they are alms, meaning they are meant to be given to the less fortunate.

In Ireland, there is also the tradition of hiding small toys or rings in sweetbread referred to as Barmbrack. The lucky boy or girl who found a toy was to have good luck for the night, while the one who found a ring was said to meet their spouse in the near future. 

Bobbing for Apples

The origin of bobbing for apples was a bit different than trick or treating or souling. During the Roman festival of Parentalia, the second day was dedicated to honoring Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and seeing as apples were in abundance at harvest, it’s thought by some that that is what led to the modern-day practice of bobbing for apples.

In some parts of England, instead of dunking your head underwater to grab the apple with your teeth, they were often hung from strings. On occasion, if a young woman was the first to get the apple she was then allowed to skin it, throw it over her shoulder, and see what letter it made out. That was thought to signify the first letter of their future spouse's name.

Some girls would roast two hazelnuts, naming one after someone they had a crush on. If the nuts bounced away from each other in the heat, they wouldn’t make a good couple, but if the hazelnuts stayed still, it meant that they would make a good match. One of my favorite traditions to learn about involved eating a piece of salty bread, going to sleep, and seeing if you were to be offered a drink of water in your dreams. Whoever gave you a glass of water would be your future spouse.

Conclusion

It’s said today that a quarter of all candy bought in the U.S is for Halloween. It makes sense seeing as Halloween is the second most popular holiday in the U.S., commercially speaking. Last year about $9 billion was spent on Halloween. And thankfully some of the original reasons for celebrating are still at the core of the holiday. Every time you bite into a caramel apple, thank the Goddess of fruit, Pomona for a bountiful harvest. Every time you dress up in a costume, remember the old tradition of guising and think of it as a form of protection. And every time you carve a face into a pumpkin, remember Stingy Jack and how he’s somewhere out in the void with his turnip lantern.

A modern Halloween tradition that has proved one of my favorites involves celebrating my sister's birthday in the cemetery, which sounds weirder than it is. Whichever friends we are with that night come with us to a local cemetery where my sister finds the headstone of someone whose life she would like to celebrate along with her birthday. We stick a candle in a Mcdonald's hamburger and she will blow it out. It usually ends with us running back to our car. Sometimes it's because it gets extremely cold in Idaho in late October. Most of the time, though, it’s because cemeteries have a way of making you feel like you’re being watched. I guess you could attribute that to the idea that, just like the days of Samhain, the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. 

Happy Halloween my friends, and remember to stay safe, don’t eat too much candy, and most importantly, keep it strange.