I was flipping through the cable channels last night and
ran across a program on the history of Halloween in the United
States. You may not choose to believe this, but it has gotten a
lot more civilized than it used to be and, like all things, a
lot more commercial.
Around the turn of the last century, it got so bad that
towns and their police departments actually began having public
parties and events because things were getting really out of
hand all over the country. Remember, in 1920 or so, there was no
electronic media at all except for the telephone, telegraph and
experimental radio so what was happening was local and
spontaneous and on occasion, really rotten.
The better things were pranks like quietly disassembling
someone's wagon and reassembling it on their roof, moving an out
house or something along those lines. The worst things were
dangerous or destructive such as creeping up to someone's house
and pulling the wooden porch a few feet away from the door so the
first person to open the door would fall a couple of feet in to
the dirt and possibly hurt themselves in the process. And then
there were always plenty of things to set fire to in creative
ways and lots of windows to break or cover with soap. If you
owned horses or cows, you might get up next morning to find that
somebody opened the gate during the night and let them roam
free.
The concept of ghosts came in to it's own after the US
Civil War which ended in 1865. Thousands of young men were never
properly accounted for after the battles ended and thoughts of
all those lost souls wandering forever truly bothered the whole
country.
The history program mentioned that the Jack O Lantern
actually came from the Scotts/Irish and was an actual person
with that name. The UK version is made from a turnip and the
turnip-faced apparition also came here, but people soon began
making the face in hollowed-out pumpkins because they are bigger
and they ripen right at this time of year. You can also eat the
insides.
I hear that in France, a large number of people really
go out for celebrating Halloween like it is done here. Another
large faction of Frenchmen think it is crass and commercial and
wouldn't be caught dead with such nonsense.
I have listened to Canadian radio stations a few times
around Halloween and it sounds like it does here, mainly
parties, children going house to house "Trick or treat"ing and
warnings about safety.
What say the rest of you? There aren't many children in
our immediate area so we don't get much traffic to our door but
we are usually prepared for a few. It's really hard to decide
how much candy to buy so we buy the kinds we like so we can
easily get rid of the excess.
Another crass commercial bit of trivia is that in the
United States, people now spend the second-largest amount of
money each year for Halloween decoration. The first, of course,
is Christmas.
Oh yes, If you hear something go bump in the night, it could be,
yes, in fact, might be, a giant rat or that allegator that the
family down the street brought back from Florida last Summer and
he's now too big for them to handle any longer so he's roaming
the streets hungry and free. Pleasant dreams, all.
Martin
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