happy samhain

[Guest guest]

from

http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/trick_or_treat.htm

 

The custom of 'trick or treat' probably has several origins. Again mostly

Irish.An old Irish peasant practice called for going door to door to collect

money, bread cake, cheese, eggs, butter, nuts, apples, etc., in preparation for

the festival of St. Columbus Kill. Yet another custom was the begging for soul

cakes, or offerings for one's self - particularly in exchange for promises of

prosperity or protection against bad luck. It is with this custom the concept of

the fairies came to be incorporated as people used to go door to door begging

for treats. Failure to supply the treats would usually result in practical jokes

being visited on the owner of the house.

 

 

 

Since the fairies were abroad on this night, an offering of food or milk was

frequently left for them on the steps of the house, so the houseowner could gain

the blessings of the " good folk " for the coming year. Many of the households

would also leave out a " dumb supper " for the spirits of the departed.

 

Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, ii, 370, states that in parts of Count Waterford:

'Hallow E'en is called oidhche na h-aimléise, " The night of mischief or con " .

It was a custom which survives still in places -- for the " boys " to assemble in

gangs, and, headed by a few horn-blowers who were always selected for their

strength of lungs, to visit all the farmers' houses in the district and levy a

sort of blackmail, good humouredly asked for, and as cheerfully given. They

afterward met at some point of rendezvous, and in merry revelry celebrated the

festival of Samhain in their own way. When the distant winding of the horns was

heard, the bean a' tigh [woman of the house] got prepared for their reception,

and also for the money or builín (white bread) to be handed to them through the

half-opened door. There was always a race amongst them to get possession of the

latch. Whoever heard the wild scurry of their rush through a farm-yard to the

kitchen-door -- will not question the propriety of the word aimiléis [mischief]

applied to their proceedings. The leader of the band chaunted a sort of

recitative in Gaelic, intoning it with a strong nasal twang to conceal his

identity, in which the good-wife was called upon to do honour to Samhain... "

According to Tad Tuleja's essay, " Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts, " in

Santino's previously mentioned anthology,Halloween's modern trick or treating

(primarily children going door-to-door, begging for candy) began fairly recently

in the US, as a blend of several ancient and modern influences. In 19th Century

America, rural immigrants from Ireland and Scotland kept gender-specific

Halloween customs from their homelands: girls stayed indoors and did divination

games, while the boys roamed outdoors engaging in almost equally ritualized

pranks, which their elders " blamed " on the spirits being abroad that night. Its

entry into urban world can probably traced back in mid-19th Century New York,

where children called " ragamuffins " would dress in costumes and beg for pennies

from adults on Thanksgiving Day. Things got nastier with increased urbanization

and poverty in the 1930's. Adults began casting about for ways to control the

previously harmless but now increasingly expensive and dangerous vandalism of

the " boys. " Towns and cities began organizing " safe " Halloween events and

householders began giving out bribes to the neighborhood kids as a way to

distract them away from their previous anarchy. The ragamuffins disappeared or

switched their date to Halloween.

 

Play trick or treat, click here

 

The term " trick or treat, " finally appears in print around 1939! Pranks became

even nastier in the 1980's, with widespread poverty existing side-by-side with

obscene greed. Unfortunately, even bored kids in a violence saturated culture

slip all too easily from harmless " decoration " of their neighbors' houses with

shaving cream and toilet paper to serious vandalism and assaults. Blaming either

Neopagans or Halloween for this is rather like blaming patriots or the Fourth of

July for the many firecracker injuries that happen every year (and which are

also combatted by publicly sponsored events). Given this hazardous backdrop town

councils, school boards and parents in the 1930's invented this custom as it is

being celebrated today to keep their kids out of trouble.

 

As far as the custom across the Atlantic goes, by the mid- 20th century in

Ireland and Britain, the smaller children would dress up and parade to the

neighbors' houses, do little performances, then ask for a reward. American kids

seem to remember this with their chants of " Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin

laid an egg, " and other classic tunes done for no reason other than because

" it's traditional. "

 

from

http://www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html

According to Tad Tuleja’s essay, “Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts,â€

in Jack Santino’s anthology, Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life,

modern trick or treating (primarily children going door-to-door, begging for

candy) began fairly recently, as a blend of several ancient and modern

influences. I’m mixing Tuleja’s material here with my own insights, see his

essay for details of his opinions, which I’ll mark with italics to separate

from mine:

 

At various times and places in the Middle Ages, customs developed of beggers,

then children, asking for “soul cakes†on All Souls Day.

 

 

At some other Medieval times and places, costumed holiday parading, singing and

dancing at May Day, Halloween, and Yule (with different themes, of course,

though sometimes with similar characters, such as the “Hobby Horseâ€) became

popular in Ireland and the British Isles. Originally these costumed celebrants

were adults and older teens, who would go from house to house (as Danaher

describes above) demanding beer and munchies in exchange for their performances,

which mixed Pagan and Christian symbols and themes. While many Neopagans may

think these folk customs go all the way back to Paleopagan times, they are

actually fairly modern (see Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in

England, by Ronald Hutton).

 

 

To the medieval householders, of course, being thought stingy (especially in

front of the visiting ancestors and faery folk at Halloween) would be very bad

luck, as it would violate the ancient laws of hospitality. Perhaps there were

some inebriated paraders who might have decided to come back later in the night

and play tricks upon those who hadn’t rewarded them properly, but any

references to such are fairly modern.

 

 

In 1605 c.e., Guy Fawkes’ abortive effort to blow up the British Parliament on

November 5th, led to the creation of “Guy Fawkes Day,†celebrated by the

burning of effigies of Fawkes in bonfires and children dressing in rags to beg

for money for fireworks. As the decades rolled by, this became thoroughly

entwined with Halloween celebrations and customs. This is not surprising,

considering that bonfires were a central part of the old Samhain/Halloween

tradition, and that Nov. 5th was actually closer to the astrological date for

Samhain (thought by some Neopagans to be the original dating method) than Nov.

1st was!

 

 

In 19th Century America, rural immigrants from Ireland and Scotland kept

gender-specific Halloween customs from their homelands: girls stayed indoors and

did divination games, while the boys roamed outdoors engaging in almost equally

ritualized pranks, which their elders “blamed†on the spirits being abroad

that night.

 

 

Also in mid-19th Century New York, children called “ragamuffins†would dress

in costumes and beg for pennies from adults on Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Things got nastier with increased urbanization and poverty in the 1930’s.

Adults began casting about for ways to control the previously harmless but now

increasingly expensive and dangerous vandalism of the “boys.†Towns and

cities began organizing “safe†Halloween events and householders began

giving out bribes to the neighborhood kids as a way to distract them away from

their previous anarchy. The ragamuffins disappeared or switched their date to

Halloween. The term “trick or treat,†finally appears in print around 1939!

Pranks became even nastier in the 1980’s, with widespread poverty existing

side-by-side with obscene greed. Unfortunately, as criminologists, military

recruiters and historians know, the most dangerous animals on our planet are

unemployed teenaged males. Bored kids in a violence-saturated culture slip all

too easily from harmless “decoration†of their neighbors’ houses with

shaving cream and toilet paper to serious vandalism and assaults. Blaming

Halloween for this is rather like blaming the Fourth of July for the many

firecracker injuries that happen every year (and which are also combatted by

publicly sponsored events).

 

By the mid- 20th century in Ireland and Britain, it seems only the smaller

children would dress up and parade to the neighbors’ houses, do little

performances, then ask for a reward. American kids seem to remember this with

their chants of “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,†and other

classic tunes done for no reason other than because “it’s traditional.â€

 

To a great extent, the costumes worn by modern trick-or-treaters represent, as

they might have in older times, an effort to entertain, amuse and/or scare the

neighbors, and to compete a bit with others in beauty, ugliness, humor,

scariness, and costuming skill.

 

What was Halloween in America like forty years ago? Read Lady Phae’s Halloween

and Me essay on my website for some heartwarming memories.

 

Why Bother to save Halloween? is an essay by Richard Seltzer, which has yet more

reasons why it’s important to keep the custom of trick or treating alive:

 

Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood

(particularly the bond between strangers of different generations) by a ritual

act of trade. Children go to lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of

strangers in exchange for candy. And adults buy the candy and overcome their

distrust of strange children in exchange for the pleasure of seeing their wild

outfits and vicariously reliving their own adventures as children.

 

In other words, the true value and importance of Halloween comes not from

parading in costumes in front of close friends and family, but from this

interchange with strangers, exorcising our fears of strangers, reaffirming our

social bond with the people of the neighborhood who we rarely, if ever, see the

rest of the year.