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THE CUSTOM OF Halloween.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by
Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that
time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses
and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not
with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called
souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk
from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made
out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes
the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to
say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time,
it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after
death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's
passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As
the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard
and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved
an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the
tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt
him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance
to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access
to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave
him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness.
The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing
longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally.
But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins
were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America
was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite
"holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices.
It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and
out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many
churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the
kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to
make it.
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