Halloween
Halloween is a holiday associated with candy, ghosts, and the supernatural celebrated on October 31. The name is shortened from All Hallows' Eve. It is the eve of All Saints' Day, which is celebrated on November 1. As a separate holiday, Halloween was popularized in the late 1700s by the Scottish folktale The Young Tamlane and by the poetry of Roger Burns.
Customs
In the United States, Halloween is marked by the activity of trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treat traditionally involves the children dressing in costumes, and going to various locations, generally houses, requesting candy at each.
Colors orange and black are traditionally associated with Halloween as well as costumes of witches, ghosts, famous monsters, skeletons, and devils; also seasonal foods like caramel apples, pumpkins, pumpkin pie, caramel corn, and candies. Black when used as a color commonly represents death, and orange is used to represent the harvest.
History
All Hallows' Day
The early church celebrated All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day, on various dates. In 732, Pope Gregory III gave a sermon dedicated to "all the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and all the just and perfect who are at rest throughout the whole world." The date of November 1 was popularized by Bede's Martyrology in the eighth century.[1] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions the holiday in its entry for 1083.[2]
"Eve" means the day before. "All Hallows' Eve," later shortened to Halloween, is the day before All Saints' Day. Although England had no Halloween festival in William Shakespeare's day, the playwright could still use the word to indicate a date.[3]
Scottish origins
The Enlightenment caused belief in ghosts, goblins, and witches to wane in the late 18th century. The supernatural beings that had terrified previous generations were gradually reduced to folklore. The Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 marked the end of the Jacobite wars and the beginning of a period of Anglo-Scottish reconciliation.
Tamlane
The connection between Halloween and stories of the supernatural can be traced to the Scottish ballad "Tamlane." This ballad is mentioned by Robert Wedderburn in 1549.[4] It was collected and published by David Herd in 1769.[5] Sir Walter Scott published the classic version in 1833.[6]
"Tamlane" tells the story of Janet, who is made pregnant by Tamlane. Tamlane is then stolen by the fairies. "The night it is good Hallowe'en, When fairy folk will ride," Tamlane tells Janet.[6][7]
Robert Burns
Robert Burns wrote the poem "Hallowe’en" in 1785. It describes a Scottish celebration and includes the line "Upon that night, when fairies light."
Irish contributions
Irish Catholics introduced the festival to America in the 19th century. By the middle of the century, pumpkins were substituted for turnips and secular costumes for those of saints. By the 1920s, community efforts tried to sanitize the carnival spirit and reduce vandalism. Trick-or-treating became common around 1940, further transformed Halloween into a rite of consumerism and moving the age profile to younger children.
World War II
Halloween flourished as an inexpensive fall festival that did not involve travel. Cities made it into "Conservation Day" and Halloween parties were enlisted in the war effort. Civic parties were held with patriotic admission prices, such as 150 pounds of salvaged paper. Towns turned Halloween parades into celebrations of civic volunteering, featuring Red Cross Units, Air Raid Wardens, and Auxiliary Police Units, all in costume. The climax of the parade was typically a War Bond Auction with prizes donated by local merchants and sold for war bond pledges.[8]
Recent
Starting in the 1960s trick-or-treating declined in some places and was closely monitored elsewhere because of (false) rumors of poisoned treats.[9]; "The Razor Blade in the Apple" was a made-up urban legend that truly frightened parents,[10] and in the 1990s the holiday has increasingly drawn upon the cult-horror genre for its inspiration. Halloween in America by the late 20th century was a big moneymaker for candy makers and costumers.
Hell houses
Pellegrini (2007) and Fletcher (2007) examine the rising phenomenon of hell houses, evangelical alternatives to haunted houses, in reaction to the perceived occult and pagan nature of Halloween. Religious feelings are communicated by the medium of theater presented in these hell houses. Evangelicals such as Rev. Pat Robertson have decried the celebration of Halloween as 'performing Satanic rituals' since the 1970s, but they decided to present alternative educational devices for children. Beginning with Jerry Falwell's ScareMare in 1972, an increasing number of evangelical churches have turned to performances in order to missionize younger generations. In the 2001 documentary 'Hell House' that such evangelical tools became well known. The theater of the houses also offers an opportunity for the church members to face their fears rather than avoid them, and it offers participants the 'fun' of being evil without engaging in pagan rituals.[11]
Mexico
Although Halloween symbols have long been a part of the Mexican culture, particularly in the northern states of Mexico, since the 1990s these symbols have been denounced by intellectuals and religious leaders as elements of Yankee imperialism. Mexico's counterpart to Halloween, the Day of the Dead, has its roots in the Spanish colonial period, when Spain brought the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to the New World. Nevertheless, the celebration of the Day of the Dead from 31 October to 2 November has come to symbolize national unity to many Mexicans. Even though the Day of the Dead has always had materialistic elements such as the sugar paste '(afteniqué)' figures, traditionally given to children, cultural nationalists have upheld the Mexican Day of the Dead religious rituals as a contrast to the economic and materialist motives behind American Halloween traditions. These cultural nationalists insist that Halloween activities, which have entered across Mexico's northern border, profane the sacredness of the Day of the Dead.[12]
Further reading
- Hybertsen, Karen Sue. "'The Return of Chaos': The Uses and Interpretations of Halloween in the United States from the Victorian era to the Present", Dissertation Abstracts International PhD dissertation Drew University 1993 54(6): 2185-A. DA9331586, 286p.
- Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (2003) excerpt and text search
- Santino, Jack. "Halloween in America: Contemporary Customs and Peformances," Western Folklore 1983 42(1): 1-20, in JSTOR
- Santino, Jack, ed. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, (U. of Tennessee Press, 1993). 280 pp. academic study
External links
- The Hell House Outreach Kit, from an Assemblies of God church near Denver
References
- ↑ "All Saints' Day", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, (1983).
"All Saints' Day," New Catholic Encyclopedia (2003).
Bede was recording English practice. The English solemnity may be based on the date of a sermon given by Pope Gregory III in 732. - ↑ 1083: O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) “Æfter ealra halᵹena mæsse dæᵹ.” Translated as "And in this same year departed Matilda, queen of King William, on the day after All-Hallow-mass," ("The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Eleventh Century").
- ↑ Shakespeare, William, Measure for Measure (1603), ii. i. 130 “Clo. Was't not at Hallowmas, master Froth? Fro. Allhallond-Eue.”
- ↑ Wedderburn, Robert, The Complaynt of Scotlande (1549). Wedderburn lists “The tayl of the yong Tamlene” among various songs and ballads.
- ↑ Herd, David, Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c., 1769, “Kertonha, or, The Fairy Court.”
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Walter, Scott, Sir, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, "The Young Tamlane", p. 337.
- ↑ For a brief version of the story, see "Tamlane: A Story from an Old Scotch Ballad" (1920) by Katharine Pyle.
- ↑ Hybertsen (1993), p. 152
- ↑ There was only one confirmed case of Halloween candy being poisoned resulting in a child's death; the culprit was the child's father seeking to collect on an insurance policy, who was arrested and ultimately executed for his actions.
- ↑ Joel Best and Gerald T. Horiuchi, "The Razor Blade in the Apple: the Social Construction of Urban Legends," Social Problems 1985 32(5): 488-499
- ↑ Ann Pellegrini, "'Signaling Through the Flames': Hell House Performance and Structures of Religious Feeling," American Quarterly 2007 59(3): 911-935; John Fletcher, "Tasteless as Hell: Community Performance, Distinction, and Countertaste in Hell House, Theatre Survey 2007 48(2): 313-330.
- ↑ Stanley Brandes, "The Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the Quest for Mexican National Identity," Journal of American Folklore 1998 111(442): 359-380, in QUESTIA
