It’s fairly common knowledge that October 31st is one of the strangest days of the year, with its costumes and devilish tricks, it is extremely unlikely that you won’t see a kid on a sugar rush. But what has inspired this bizarre tradition, one that seems to go against everything we have been taught since we are young, like taking candy from strangers and deliberately scaring people. Hopefully, the ghoulish facts below will shed some insight onto this eerie holiday…
- Your store-bought costume wouldn’t have cut it on Halloween when it first originated.
Store bought or homemade costumes weren’t always the typical fashion on this holiday, as according to ancient Roman records, animal skins and skulls were donned among the tribes in Germany and France. The goal was to try and connect with the spirits of the dead.
- Halloween: The most Irish holiday in America?
The origins of Halloween lay in the Celtic festival for the dead called Samhain, which was a day that the Celtics believed allowed spirits to roam the earth, so to appease these spirits and not bring any ill to their homes, they left “treats” out for the dead. Nowadays the only roaming spirits are children in costumes and the treats are mass produced chocolate bars that go on sale around this time of the year.
- Modern day trick-or-treating is something you take for granted.
Originally, trick-or-treating was something that occurred around Thanksgiving and involved beggars going door to door asking for money, eventually, the rich joined in on the tradition purely for their amusement. Dancing was also a part of the tradition in Europe, where people would go door to door and perform choreographed dance routines in exchange for treats.
4.Bobbing for apples was originally bobbing for your soulmate?
Like Valentine’s day, Halloween was often a time for young people to mingle with the opposite gender and was considered a good time to find a soulmate. In Ireland, young people would play fortune games that typically leaned to the romantic side of things. American girls carried on these ‘romantic’ traditions by bobbing for apples to predict their soulmates.
- Jack O’ Lanterns weren’t always carved from pumpkins, and they’ve got quite the backstory
According to an old Irish tale, there was once a man named Stingy Jack who was drinking buddies with the devil. One night while they were out, Jack convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin so that they wouldn’t have to pay for drinks, once the devil had transformed, Jack slipped him into his pocket which contained a silver cross that prevented the devil from turning back. Jack said that he would only release the devil if he promised to not claim his soul if he died, as well as a promise to not bother him for a year. Jack tricked the devil again when he asked him to pick some fruit high up in a tree and carved a cross in the tree once the devil was in the branches. Jack succeeded in gaining another 10 years devil-free. When Jack finally did die however, God didn’t think he was fit for Heaven, and the devil couldn’t claim him, so he was destined to spend eternity roaming the earth. He was granted a burning coal to carry, which he put into a turnip, earning himself the name ‘Jack of the Lantern’. It was because of this legend that the Irish people started carving faces into turnips, potatoes, and beets to try and ward off Stingy Jack.
