Ready or not, Halloween is here
Green St. resident Mike DePauli gives a handful of candy to scary clown Jodeci Taylor, 10, on Wednesday, Halloween night in downtown Gallup. © 2008 Gallup Independent / Matt Hinshaw

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Oct. 31 is the annual celebration of “All Hallows Eve,” which has changed during the centuries from a pagan worship festival to one of children dressing in costumes and trick-or-treating for candy.

The day used to be called “All Hallows,” originating in Ireland as “All Hallowed Souls.” Oct. 31 is also called “All Saints Eve,” a special day in the Christian religious calendar.

The holiday was one of religious festivals in northern European pagan religions.

Day of the dead

In Great Britain and Ireland the Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on Nov. 1, All Hallows Day. Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead on Nov. 2.

On this day of the dead, spirits supposedly rose from the dead and in order to attract them food was put out on door steps and porches besides being occasionally being attached to the front door.

To scare off evil spirits, Celts wore intricately designed and scary masks.

When the Romans arrived in Britain, they changed the occasion to one of celebrating the fall harvest and honoring the dead. They embellished the tradition with their own, which is both a celebration of the harvest and of honoring the dead.

Centuries later, these traditions were brought to the new world by explorers who almost always had priests with them.

The colors of Halloween, orange and black, are usually linked to black cats, pumpkins, goblins, zombies, skeletons and ghosts, although ghosts are white.

The Jack-o’-lantern

The pumpkin, when carved with a scary face, or sometimes, using a pattern, carved with the face of a celebrity, has become one of the enduring symbols of Halloween and is called the “Jack-o’-lantern.”

In Great Britain, a turnip was used, but when the pumpkin was found in America, it was more abundant, larger, easier to carve, and gave off a “spookier” image when a candle was placed inside the hollowed out vegetable and then lit.

The original practice of carving a scary face on a vegetable was to ward off evil spirits.

Trick-or-treating

The current tradition of trick-or-treating originally began in Ireland and Scotland. The occupants of homes in the countries would hand out candies or small treats.

Huge bonfires were lit in Ireland throughout the country, and children in disguises would gather fruit, apples and nuts for the Halloween party at the bonfire. Often older brothers or sisters of the younger kids would play pranks on selected victims, usually those who did not give the treats to the children.

In Scotland and Ireland the children may usually say the following, instead of trick-or-treat, “The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween.”

Traditional Halloween costumes

Halloween costumes have traditionally been the all-time favorites: Vampires, such as Dracula; witches; and ghosts,

These costumes originated out of a belief that since the evil spirits were out and about on “All Hallows Eve,” the best way to keep them from harming the child was to dress a certain way and fool the spirits making them, believe the costumed children were one of them.

Three years ago though, for example, the costuming craze for Halloween had changed into movie heroes, TV stars or politicians.

“’Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” is a tradition that started in 1950 by UNICEF, involving schools giving boxes to students to collect small change donations from houses during trick or treating. The money goes to the children’s relief agency of the United Nations.
Christian involvement

On May 13, A.D. 609, possibly A.D. 610, Pope Boniface IV declared an anniversary dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the church’s martyrs when he consecrated the Pantheon.

This Christian feast day changed to Nov. 1 from May 13, by Pope Gregory III in the eighth century, in order to commemorate the dedication of the All Saints Chapel in Rome.

That created All Saints Day on Nov. 1 and the day before, Oct. 31, was now “All Hallows’ Eve.”

A century later, Pope Gregory IV took All Saints Day and All Hallows Eve, and instead of only affecting the Diocese of Rome, extended it to the worldwide Christian nation and standardized liturgical worship.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 285-4560 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.