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The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840´s by Irish
immigrants fleeing their country´s potato famine.
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.
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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