HALLOWEEN: What you perhaps didn't know about the spooky festival

IT’S Halloween soon, which should have young kids throughout America and Europe wetting themselves with excitement while putting the final touches to their little Frankenstein outfits. But why does Halloween excite South Africans so much? We have absolutely nothing to do with the holiday. Any excuse to celebrate I guess.

If you are one of ‘those people’ (no offense) you might find it interesting to know what you’re actually celebrating.

Halloween: Pagan Festival of the Dead

Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns – usually out of pumpkins.

Most of the customs connected with Halloween are remnants of ancient religious beliefs and rituals. These were first practiced by the ancient Druids and then transcended amongst the Roman Christians who conquered them.

The American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain" – an ancient Celtic festival. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th-Century.

Halloween and Samhain

That zombie needs to see a dentist

The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter.

It was believed that on October 31 the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped. The deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.

A feast of the dead was often held, which was intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them and made oblations.

Masks and consumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them. Such festivities frequently involve bonfires, which attracted insects to the area which subsequently attracted bats. Thus the addition of bats entered into the history of Halloween.

Trick or Treat?

We want candy!

Trick-or-treating is an activity for children during Halloween in which they proceed from house to house in costumes asking for treats by enthusiastically screaming "trick or treat!?" The "trick" part of trick or treat is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or his property if no treat is given.

It has become socially expected that if one lives in a neighborhood with children one should purchase treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters. Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947.

Part of the history of Halloween is Halloween costumes. The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to the Middle Ages, and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of "souling" when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2).

Behind the name Halloween

Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows'. It is also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word 'Hallow' means 'sanctify'.

Halloween and the Mass Media

Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities. It was also popularised by Halloween episodes on network radio programs. The Baby Snooks Show in 1946, The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948 all helped to popularise Halloween further.

The custom of Halloween had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat. Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show. UNICEF was the first to conduct a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween! :)

Related post: Amazing Halloween Pumpkin Carvings!

Sources: www.halloweenhistory.org and
www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/history.htm

** More Quite Interesting Histories **

SANTA: The story of St Nic, his red suit, his reindeer and little helpers

SO just who is that fat old jolly guy in the red suit that parades around shopping malls at Christmas time - entertaining kids and scaring adults with his “ho ho hos”? It’s usually someone’s dad – the one (in any community of close friends) with the biggest beer boep.

I caught on early that Santa was my dad and that the whole thing was a scam. The biggest tip-off was the request for brandy or schnapps to left by the tree at night rather than the more traditional milk and cookies. This was suspect, as the order was giving by my mother and my father enjoys his schnapps and brandy and never drinks milk.

Santa Claus: Poetic beginnings

Much of the present form of the Santa story is undoubtedly due to the works of Clement Clark Moore and the cartoons of 19th century American cartoonist Thomas Nast. In 1822, Dr. Moore from New York wrote a Christmas poem titled A visit from St. Nicholas (also know as The Night Before Christmas) to read out to his children on Christmas Eve. Here's a little extract:

Santa enjoying a bit of pipeweed

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Santa Claus: The story behind the red and white suit

Images of Santa Claus were further popularised through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s. The popularity of the image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola; or that Santa wears red and white because they are the Coca-Cola colors.

In reality, Coca-Cola was not the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image of Santa Claus in its advertising. White Rock Beverages used Santa to sell mineral water in 1915, then in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923.

Furthermore, the massive campaign by Coca-Cola simply popularised the depiction of Santa Claus as wearing red and white. This is in contrast to the variety of colours he wore prior to that campaign (a popular garment being a green cloak). The colours red and white were originally given by Nast.

A brief history of St Nicholas

Father Christmas, who also goes under the alias of St Nicholas and Kris Kringle, has a bit of a sketchy history – predominantly attributed to legend and folklore. There is also a darker historical account that attributes some of the qualities and roles of St Nic to the pagan deities of Artemis and Poseidon.

The most plausible story of Saint Nicholas as an actual human figure dates back to 4th century Myra – a southwest port of modern day Turkey. The legend goes that Nicholas was a bishop that took pity on a poverty-stricken family with three daughters, who faced the threat of being forced into prostitution because they had no wedding dowries.

To save the girls from this fate, St. Nic tosses two bags of gold through an open window of their house at night. He threw a third one down the family’s chimney (which apparently landed in a stocking that had being hung near the fireplace to dry).

This is considered as the basis of the belief of Saint Nicholas as a loving gift-giver. It is believed to be the beginning of the tradition of hanging stocking near the fireplace at Christmas.

Santa’s little helpers

You can imagine the amount of slave-labour required to make millions of toys each year for all the good little boys and girls. Santa traditionally makes efficient use of child-labour in the form of little elves – popularised by fictional texts such as “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

However, up until the Second World War, it was believed that Santa Claus was only helped by one servant. One relatively modern story is that Saint Nicholas liberated an Ethiopian slave boy called 'Piter' (from Saint Peter) from a Myra market, who was so gracious he decided to stay with Santa as a helper.

At the end of the war, when the Canadians liberated the Netherlands in 1945, they reinstated the celebrations of Sinterklaas for the children. Unaware of the traditions, the Canadians thought that if one Zwarte Piet was fun, several Zwarte Pieten would be even more fun. Ever since, Santa Claus is helped by a group of Zwarte Pieten (i.e. little black Ethiopian slave boys).

Yet with the influx of immigrants to the Netherlands starting in the late 1950s, this story is felt by some to be racist. Today, Zwarte Piet have become modern servants, who have black faces because they climb through chimneys, causing their skin to become blackened by soot.

Santa’s reindeer

The commonly cited names of Santa’s reindeer are also based on those used in Nast’s 1823 poem. It is arguably the basis of reindeer's popularity as Christmas symbols. However, Santa Claus did have a favourite – his red-nosed ‘draw-horse’ Rudolph – who quickly became popularised by the mass media.

According to legend, Rudolph was the son of Donder and was born with a glowing red nose. This made him a bit of a social outcast among the other reindeer. However, one Christmas Eve it was too foggy for Santa to swing a cat, or to make his flight around the world and deliver presents to the masses.

About to cancel Christmas, Santa Claus suddenly noticed Rudolph's nose and decided it could be used as a makeshift lamp to guide his sleigh. Since then, Rudolph is said to be a permanent member of Santa's staff, who leads them on their journey and gets extra special attention at Christmas!

• For more information on the history and origin and Santa Claus, his reindeer, his helpers, his legend etc., here is a fantastic online resource.

** More Quite Interesting Histories **