History of Halloween and its customs

Editor's Notes

• #5: Samhain/Calan Gaeaf marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year. Spirits or fairies called the Aos Sí (ЭЙШИ) could more easily come into our world and were particularly active. There is an opinion that Aos Sí is "degraded versions of ancient gods whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs, e.g. Christianity. The Aos Sí were both respected and feared. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated well to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left for the Aos Sí. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes, that’s why places were set at the dinner table or by the fire to welcome them. In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin”. Throughout the Gaelic and Welsh regions, the household festivities included rituals and games intended to divine one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.
• #6: In modern Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales, the festival included mumming and guising (folk plays and dressing up), the roots of which go back at least as far as the 16th century. This involved people going house-to-house in costume, usually singing in exchange for food. The idea of costumes was to either imitate or to dress up so the Aos Sí wouldn’t recognize you. In Scotland, youths went house-to-house on 31 October with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. As early as the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scotland, spread to England in the 20th century, as did the custom of playing pranks.
• #7: Trick-or-treating is a customary practice for children. Children in costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy, in Scotland they may also ask for coins, with the phrase "Trick or treat!". It remained popular among Scots and Irish, and soon the custom of saying "trick or treat" has become common. The "trick" is a (usually idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given to them. Now usually idle threat. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood. So it became a customary Halloween tradition since the late 1920s. Homeowners wishing to participate in it sometimes decorate their private entrances with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. Some rather reluctant homeowners would simply leave the candy in bowls on the porch, others might be more participative and would even ask an effort from the children in order to provide them with candy.
• #8: The "traditional illumination for guisers or pranksters was provided by turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins”. These were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century. In the 20th century they spread to other parts of England and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns. Was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called will-o'-the-wisp or jack-o'-lantern. English folklore. Used especially in East Anglia, its earliest known use dates to the 1660s. Sometimes set on windowsills to keep the harmful spirits out of one's home.