A7

By Shawn Merrithew

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Halloween is a night for ghosts, ghouls and goblins to walk the earth; a evening full of fear and fantasy; and, more importantly, a night for trick-or-treating.

When I was a child, it was fun to dress up in a scary or funny costume and go door-to-door begging for sugar-coated treats. Looking back, we were nothing more than little extortionists, telling people give us candy or else.

As I got older, I still believed in dressing up to celebrate Halloween. As an adult, it was fun to put on costume and attend Halloween parties on Oct. 31.

But I never truly understood why we celebrate the festive time. I figured the extremely commercialized holiday was an evening associated with fear, death and ghoulish fiends.

It turns out Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world.Dating back more than 2,000 years, Halloween's origins began in the ancient Celtic society, which included Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France. The Celts celebrated the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) on Oct. 31, the eve of the Celtic New Year. This marked the end of summer and the harvest season and brought forth the cold and dark winter months.

But on this night, the Celtic people believed the line between the land of the living and the land of the dead blurred, allowing the the dead to return to the earth.

Fearing possession, the Celts donned masks and costumes to frighten the spirits away. To keep the evil spirits out of their homes, the people would extinguish their hearth fires to make their homes less desirable and leave food outside their door to keep the spirits out.

For the Druids, – Celtic priests – the spirits provided them with the ability to predict the future. Since the Celts depended on the natural world, these prophecies were seen as important comfort and direction throughout the long winter. During the celebration, the Druids would build sacred bonfires, and people would make sacrifices to the Celtic gods. After the evening's festivities had ended, the people would return home to rekindle their hearths using the flames from the sacred bonfire to protect them during the winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered a vast majority of Celtic land. During a 400-year rule, the Romans combined their own festivals of Feralia – the passing of the dead – and Pomona – honouring the Roman goddess of fruit and trees – with Samhain. It is believed the tradition of bobbing for apples came into the picture from this festival and was adopted as a traditional Halloween practice.

In the 800s, Christianity had spread to Celtic lands, and Pope Boniface IV designated Nov.1 as All Saint's Day or All Hallows, a day for honouring saints and martyrs. Some believe it was the church's attempt at replacing the Celtic ritual of Samhain. Thus Oct. 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, and, eventually, the day would become known as Halloween.

Of course over the years, many things have been added to celebrate Halloween, like jack-o-'lanterns.

For me, it was a Halloween tradition to carve a scary or spooky face into a big, hollowed-out pumpkin, then stick a burning candle inside. It always gave an eerie glow, adding to the excitement.

Growing up in Burtt's Corner, these jack-o-'lanterns could be found on nearly every doorstep in the community, and their light would help us find our way to the door.

I was surprised to find this custom originated from Irish folklore. It is a story about a man named Jack, a drunkard and a notorious prankster, who tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Once up the tree, Jack carved a cross into the trunk, trapping the Devil. Jack then made a deal with Satan to let let him down so long as the Devil never tried to tempt Jack again.

When Jack died some years later, he was denied entrance into Heaven because of his evil ways and was also refused entrance into Hell because he tricked Satan. Instead, Satan gave Jack a single ember placed into a hollowed-out turnip to light his way through the cold darkness.

Thus the Irish made Jack's lanterns using turnips. Pumpkins were used later when Irish immigrants came to America in the 1800s because the orange gourds were more plentiful than turnips, and so jack-o-'lanterns were born.

While Halloween has changed over the years, it is still not an evil day nor is it a day for vandalism or malicious pranks. Sadly, it does bring out the worst in some people, most of whom do not understand its true meaning. They take the fun out the haunting evening.

Halloween grew from ancient Celtic rituals and medieval European prayers and is now celebrated by many around the world. It is a day of joyous and entertaining celebration, and an opportunity to be scared out of your wits.

I still enjoy the holiday. It is one of my favourite times of the year. I love seeing the numerous costumes people, both young and old, come up with. Halloween is the one day a year you can be someone else for a little while.

To the children, be sure to have your sugary stash checked by your parents before you devour it like ghouls.

I wish you all have a safe and haunting Halloween, and beware of the things that go bump in the night. It could be the spirits coming for you.