Every fall, I like to get into the swing of things extremely early. Too early, and you lose the special feeling you get when seasons change, and everything just starts melding together. No, I’m not like those people who put Christmas trees up in October. I go the other direction with that sort of thing. Keep that tree down as long as possible, and let the ghouls and girls dressed like ghouls out to play for longer periods of time. Jesus and his merry band of misfit followers will have their time to shine, eventually, or something.
Speaking of Jesus, half the traditions we have related to Halloween are all thanks to some metamorphosized, churched-up, bastardizations of traditions that were performed for over two thousand years. So, I thought I’d go into some of these traditions, how they started, and give you a bit of history on this time of year that many now seem to consider a time for evildoing. What some consider evildoing, I’d consider tricks...but, potato potato, as they say.
Trick or Treating
Most of you probably know the general history behind this fun sport, but in case you also grew up in a church, here’s a history lesson: the term “trick or treat” appears to have first been used in a Canadian newspaper in the 1920s. Before that, documentation is scarce, and you’ll mostly see articles about “All Souls’ Day,” when kids went door to door to wealthy people, asking for soul cakes in exchange for praying for the homeowner’s dead relatives. This eventually morphed into kids asking for money, food, or ale. In Scotland and Ireland, they did something similar, going door to door in disguise and putting on a little show in exchange for treats. So, we can all thank Canada for naming the candy-giving, all-night marathon. I would also like to let everyone know there was a point in time when “tricking” got so dangerous that some cities nearly banned Halloween. It only takes one twit throwing a dummy on railroad tracks to scare the conductor into stopping the train immediately, ruining it for the rest of us.
Jack O’The Lantern
Before people started mass-producing pumpkins just to carve out for contests and crunchy, delicious seeds, there were neeps. Neeps, or turnips, were originally what people carved…terrifyingly carved, little root vegetables with a candle stuck inside. All of this gained popularity largely thanks to ol’ Stingy Jack. Stingy Jack was a drunk who lived in Ireland and loved deceiving others, including the devil himself, more than once. At some point in this story, Jack made a deal with the devil not to ever steal his soul away to hell, which the devil agreed to (out of duress, because Jack had somehow managed to get the devil to climb up a tree to get an apple for him, but then trapped the devil up there by placing crucifixes at the base of the apple tree). Eventually, though, the alcohol got to ol’ Jack, and he eventually died. But the devil, ever true to his word (unlike Jack), could not take Jack’s soul, which would have absolutely been doomed to hell. So, instead, the devil gave Jack an ember to light his way. Jack now spends his days in the dark, roaming between the planes of good and evil. Honestly, the devil doesn’t sound like such a bad guy in this story, and it’s him we have to thank for giving us the beginning of Jack O’ Lanterns, with the horrible, nightmare-fuel carved turnip heads lighting Jack’s way.
Dennison’s Bogie Book
You can thank the Dennison Manufacturing company for your creepy clowns, scratchy, feral-looking black cats, tissue ghosts, and other crepe-y decorations during the Halloween season. Thanks to this thoughtfully curated horror book, started in 1909, we now have the proper “Halloween season” versus “Autumn celebration season.” This book, which was really just an advertising agent for the company’s crepe paper and other decorative items, came complete with wonderful artwork of carved pumpkins with hunchback witches living inside, ghost costumes that make you wish you were anywhere else, outlines and stencils of creepy masks, a whole page of ghost stories, and various games to be played during the party. Such as fortune-telling games…a game called “Family Ghosts,” where you have all your guests bring a family ghost (someone dead) to the party, while everyone sits around in a circle and has another person play a dirge on a piano; you all slowly pass the “family ghosts” around until the music stops…revealing your “ghost.” Also, this ghost story is about a bunch of murders taking place, and everyone has to play a part in it. Oh, and Dennison’s Bogie Book really emphasized the importance of everyone in the family being involved in the holiday, including children. And we all wonder why our parents are the way they are…
Horror Movies
The first-ever movie to be considered a horror film has been said to be The House of the Devil, or Le Manoir du Diable, produced in 1896. The film was French and dealt with a bit of a confusing plot, where in the span of the movie (all 3 minutes of it), the devil appeared to summon a little minion from a large stock pot; a couple of oblivious Frenchmen come through the castle and are harassed by the minion, some ghost-lady demons, and the devil, who was first a bat, then a skeleton, then the devil as a man. The devil is then “defeated” by one of the obviously trespassing Frenchmen, by shoving a crucifix in his face. There we go with that crucifix again. Honestly, if I were reading these stories to someone who didn’t know a thing about religion, they’d think that the devil was just a misunderstood underdog you should feel sorry for, like Scar in The Lion King, or Spike in Gremlins. Sometimes the devil just wants to live their life in a castle with some ghoulish girls and a huge pot of soup, and not have to deal with trespassing Frenchmen throwing crosses in their face.
So there you go. Some brief, interesting, and possibly new facts to add to your Halloween knowledge book. If you have Dennison’s Bogie Book, you really didn’t need anything from my articles, but I appreciate you flipping my pages anyway. I think this year I’m going to bring back “tricks,” and start throwing flour at people like our great-grandparents apparently did…for fun. If you don’t like it, don’t invite me to your shindig. But if you do, be prepared for me to bring my “Family Ghosts.” Be glad that at least I’m not doing anything like putting your farmer wagons or cattle on top of your roof.
Hannah One Cup can be found gathering her Family Ghosts, readying herself for the parties she probably won't be invited to. She hopes you'll invite her, though, because she'd love to show off. Bringing Family Ghosts can be a brag, right? You can contact her by carrier pigeon, crow, or email hannahbird6@gmail.com.
