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Trick or Treat? Both, Please.

  • Em
  • Oct 30, 2019
  • 6 min read

Well ghouls and goblins, it’s almost the most wonderful time of the year! (Not Christmas!) It’s the spookiest, the always spectacular, the most haunting evening where things go bump in the night! Can I get a “Amen”? It’s Halloween baby!


If any of you thought I was going to let All Hallows Eve past without a blog post dedicated to it, you are gravely mistaken. (Haha “Gravely?? Halloween Pun #1)


As some of you may know, Halloween is derived from a Celtic/Pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-win). In addition to marking the beginning of the darker part of the year (winter), it is believed that the veil between our realm and the spirit realm is at it’s thinnest during Samhain. Therefore, it is an excellent time for calling the spirits or communicating with people who have passed away. Some people believe that spirits have the ability to walk through the veil to this world during Halloween night.


So logically, it would seem that historically people were in one of two camps:

1. Wanting to communicate with the spirits during Samhain

OR

2. Doing everything in their power to scare the ghosts away on the night of October 31.


However, this was not the case. It was more common that people would welcome the spirits of their ancestors while trying to ward off other less favourable spirits at the same time. Bonfires were lit to protect against the less-desirable spirits. People would extinguish their hearth fires and relight them with fire from the bonfire to protect their homes. As well, torches were carried around the property border of farms and homes to protect against wandering spirits through the coming winter. Even the delightful modern tradition of carving Jack O’ Lanterns started by people carving turnips, rutabagas, gourds, even beets to protect themselves against evil spirits. More specifically the spirit of Stingy Jack.

Stingy Jack? Who is this Stingy Jack you speak of?


Thanks for asking! Let me tell you. Stingy Jack is a figure of mainly Irish origins. His legend varies greatly but the jist of it is that Stingy Jack was an unsavory fellow who liked playing tricks on people and creating mischief. No one was safe from his tricks, not his friends, not his family, not even the devil himself. One day, Stingy Jack tricked the devil into climbing into a fruit tree (let’s say it was an apple tree). While the devil was up the tree, Stingy Jack marked the tree with crosses so the devil could not get down. He made the devil promise that when he died the devil would not take his soul to hell. The devil promised and Jack removed the crosses and let him down from the tree. So, years later when Stingy Jack finally died, he went to heaven and was stopped at the heavenly gates. He was not allowed to enter heaven because of all the terrible mischievous things he had done during his time on earth. Resigned, Stingy Jack went down to hell but the devil remembered his promise and mockingly turned Jack away from hell as well. Now, Jack had nowhere to go and was forced to walk the in "in between" forever. Before sending him away, the devil gave Jack a piece of burning coal, which Jack put inside a hallowed-out turnip to carry with him and light his way. It was Jack's lantern...a Jack O’ Lantern.

Now you know.


There is an interesting tradition, in Irish and Scottish Celtic traditions, called the dumb supper. The word “dumb”, in this particular case, means silent. Before holding a dumb supper, the table area must be made sacred by smudging or by casting a sacred circle. The table can be set for your guests but the head of the table must be set and left unoccupied because this seat belongs to the spirits. It is a more modern practice for people attending the dumb supper to bring a small note, that will be kept private, explaining what they would like to say to the spirits they hope to invite. No one can speak during the dinner and all outside distractions must be eliminated. Everyone is served their food, including the spirits place setting, but no one can eat until everyone has food.


Another common practice of Samhain night would be to hold a seance. There are many ways, both historically and currently, that individual practitioners choose to preform this. In fact, there are far too many to go into detail about any one of them. The general idea is that a person, or persons, take advantage of the thin veil between the spirit realm and our realm to reach out to the spirits and invite them to respond in a more physical or tangible sense. These rituals can include personal meditation, the use of divination tools, Ouija boards, or more elaborate pagan rituals. Be careful if you choose to give this a try, you never know what may linger once you're finished.


Personally, Halloween has always been my favourite holiday because of all the lore, fun traditions and costumes! There are traditions and games that date back to the 18th and 19th century that would still be excellent party games at a Halloween get together today. I will share of them with you so you can be the Ghostess with the mostest (I’m so sorry for that. Halloween Pun #2) at your next Halloween bash! Many of the Halloween games seemed to be focused on finding your future husband. Women would peel apples and toss the peels over their shoulders to see the first letter of the name they were going to marry. Also, bobbing for apples was played competitively because whomever successfully got the first apple was the first one to marry. Another game to find your future husband would be to stand in front of a mirror, in a dark room with just a candle, it was said that your future husbands face would appear behind you in the mirror (Sorry, I am going to have to take a pass on that creepy-ass game). It seemed that Halloween, like almost everything historically, was a very gendered event. Men/boys would spend the night frolicking around, playing pranks and vandalizing while women/girls would play games inside the house or sneak away to dabble in witchcraft with their friends to divine their futures.

If you are interested in looking at more of these games and rituals there is a fantastic article written on this topic by Evee Marin. I will leave a link below:


All of this is pretty interesting huh? Well, one more thing. Dressing up on Halloween was also seen as a way to ward off the scary, evil spirits by scaring them away. The scarier the costume was, the better it was for scaring off evil spirits. I thought this would be a fun time to take a look at some historical Halloween costumes. Enjoy…if you can. Also, enjoy never being able to stay home alone again. Disclaimer: I had to sort through so many horribly racist historical costumes… you’re welcome.


1.Nope… Not today Satan…



2.Now I understand the Jack O’ Lantern one, but what is the sweet baby Jesus is the other kid suppose to be?



3.Well, great… now have to kill myself before this pig man does it.



4.Why does she have the equally creepy doll? The mask was enough… we don’t need Annabelle the murder doll too.




5.No, No, NOPE! What is this? Back away tiny, fat, nightmare ghost.




6. I would just like to go on record saying that I will never, EVER, be sleeping again. I hate all of those costumes equally.




7. They get an A+ for photo composition, and also an A+ for being the creepiest ever.




8. Did these children decide to go as Bubonic Plague doctors?.... those were terrifying enough in real life!




9. Last but not least…. is a little girl going as ….a little girl? WHYYYY??



That is all for this week, I have to go and lock all my doors now. Seriously, I just watched the movie IT and all these costumes make Pennywise look like Prince Charming.


Have a Bootiful (Halloween Pun #3) and haunting Halloween!

Until next week

~Em



 
 
 

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