The History of Halloween
Halloween of the Past
As an end-of-October born child, I always loved the anticipation of summer ending and fall arriving. As I grew old enough to have birthday parties that I would remember, my parents had an annual Halloween Bash. All the kids in my family and friends from school dressed up in their favorite costumes to celebrate my birthday with cake, ice cream, and the perennial Halloween goodie bag of treats at the end of the party that my mom would prepare ahead of time that featured wax lips, plastic bat rings, candy, and the ever present Halloween treat — candy corn. Nothing stays in my mind so vividly as the sights, smells, and joys of those parties. Even the faded Polaroid pictures in the old photo album cannot conjure up those details as sharp as my own memories of a safer, more care free time than those senses.
As an elementary student at the now defunct Craig School in Uniontown, I remember around Halloween time, a popular song that played on our record player in class. Here are the lyrics:
“There was an old lady all skin and bone.
Oo-oo-oo-o.
She lived down by the old graveyard.
Oo-oo-oo-o.”
Yes. That is “Skin and Bones”. Do you remember that song?
This brings me to the point of my story; the history of Halloween in our society. The Halloween tradition was said to have started with a Celtic festival of Samhain, a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31 and ending November 1 marked the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the start of the “darker half.” They would light bonfires and to ward off ghosts, they would wear bizarre costumes. The costuming is a tradition in many countries still today. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area now known as Ireland, celebrated their New Year on November 1. They believed that on October 31 the boundaries between the living and the dead dissolved and they both would roam the earth in unison.
Years later, in the latter part of the 1800s, there was a motion to bring Halloween to America and mold it into a holiday focused on community and family get-together rather than the sinister aspect of the event. Children as well as adults celebrated this day with games, costumes, and hearty foods of the season. By the twentieth century, religious overtones were eliminated from the event.
Depression Era Halloween
Once the 1920s and 1930s rolled around, the depression was in full swing. That did not stop people of all ages from enjoying Halloween parties, maybe just for a time, to forget reality and be something else for a while. I can relate. At that time Halloween became a community based holiday and introduced some of the first Halloween parades put on for the public. Unfortunately, Halloween was plagued by vandals in smaller communities until it was tamed by the town leaders in the 1950s. The 1950s gave way to the idea that Halloween was an activity that children could partake in almost exclusively and have a positive experience doing so. Towns created Halloween dances for the “baby boom generation” at schools and at town halls throughout the United States.
Costume dressing is rooted back to the European and Celtic groups. Hundreds of years ago, the thought of winter was scary for most people. Food shortages and an excessive amount of darkness as the days grew shorter caused people to worry. When Halloween rolled around, when it was thought of as the time that spirits roamed the earth; people thought that spirits would find them if they left their homes. To avoid a face to face confrontation with these spirits, people would wear masks to hide their identity and blend in with the spirit world. They also would place bowls of food outside their homes to keep ghosts away from their houses. This was the precursor to the Trick-or-treating tradition.
Trick-or-treating was revived between the 1920s and the 1950s. Early Trick-or-treaters would receive cakes in exchange for prayers for the dead. The custom evolved into what we now know as walking up to a neighbors door, ringing their doorbell, holding out your bucket, and yelling “Trick-or-treat” while dressed as your favorite character. Candy is usually given, although some disgruntled kids receive fruit. Fruit? That house definitely needs tricked! Today, Americans spend more than $6 billion yearly on Halloween; only Christmas surpasses Halloween in regards to holiday spending.
Getting back on topic here…
Folklorist Jack Santino has suggested that Halloween was a holiday that inverted societal norms, so that children held power over adults on that one night.
Modern Halloween
The 1960s, 70s, and 80s graced us with the plastic Halloween costume. Whether you wanted to be a member of KISS, a Marvel comics character, Batman, Barbie, or even Jaws, you had to settle for that rough cut plastic mask and craptacular plastic suit. Unless, your parents were creative and made your costume for you, which would be far cooler than the heat creating costume that tore through your eyelids when you were trick-or-treating. Remember when a branch would catch your suit and rip it to smithereens? You had to ask for candy the rest of the night with your plastic suit flopping in the wind behind you with your jogging pants and t-shirt exposed. Who is going to give candy to a half dressed Jaws? One thing is for sure, we did get a horror movie named Halloween in 1978 that made the holiday that much better! That was a scary movie!
The 1990s pretty much parodied themselves as kids were dressing as grunge rock stars such as Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder. Some kids also dressed as hippies from the 60’s as I guess it was retro to do so. Oh, to continue the theme; Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) died in the Halloween movie series in “Halloween 5: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995).
Throughout the years starting in 2000 and ending in the present, most of the Halloween traditions have stayed intact. The trick-or-treating, costume parties, haunted houses, and pumpkin carving have continued. Some additions around these times have included Christmas type lights, but Halloween themed pumpkins, bats, and witches decorate and illuminate a front lawn and shrubbery. Huge statues in the shape of mummies or a spectre will greet you at the door with voice activation! Also, Halloween stationary has made an appearance on office and school desks around the country.
No Halloween article is complete without mentioning the haunted house or scarehouse attractions that go so well with this night. The origins of the first haunted houses go back to the late 1960’s and early 1970s in Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. A non-profit group known as JCI (Junior Chamber International) started setting them up around the smaller cities for the amusement of the town folk. The idea caught on huge and presently, the JCI still operates these haunted houses around the Carolinas. Many new haunted attractions pop up each year to satisfy peoples taste for the Halloween experience. In my “neck of the woods,” as the older generations may say, we have a few. Year after year the haunted houses generate new generations of fans wanting to be scared out of their minds.
What about Greene County? Where are their haunted houses? I know a few places that can be the perfect setting for a spook-tacular night! I know a place that, as I have been told, may already contain its very own actors! What harm could it do? Greene County, bring the scare to the people of your towns! Remember, more than likely you were one of the kids standing with your arm straight out, ready for some Halloween goodies to be dropped into your old pillowcase, grocery bag, or plastic pumpkin to be devoured later in the evening. If you had parents like me, it was one piece of candy per day (right, and one piece in each pocket for later).