0
Want this question answered?
Be notified when an answer is posted
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
What was souling on Halloween?
The medieval Catholic focus on the dead at the time of All Hallows Eve is at the root of Halloween as we know it.. By the fourteenth century a custom called 'souling' had developed in England in which the poor would go from house to house asking for soul-cakes. The better-off would give out small cakes or loaves in exchange for prayers for their dead relatives. Souling continued up until the twentieth century in some parts of Britain, though the ritual became increasingly secularised and was eventually relegated to children. Souling almost certainly forms the basis for American 'Trick or Treating'. Shakespeare uses the phrase 'to speak pulling like a beggar at Hallowmass'. I'll note that both of my parents, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 40s and 50s, refer to the practice of trick-or-treating as 'begging' and to trick-or- treaters as 'beggars'. The phrase they used to ask for treats as children was 'Help the poor!'
How did trick or treating happen?
It began in Ireland in the late 1800's, when children, on All Hallows Eve, would sing songs to the dead in exchange for cakes from willing adults. It was known as "souling", and is still practised in some parts of Ireland and Scotland. Each cake the child collects is symbolic of a soul freed from purgatory.
How did the American tradition of trick-or-treating on Halloween begin?
It comes from the older practice of guising and souling in Scotland/Ireland and England. Halloween being the night when the walls between the living and the dead worlds were thin and souls could walk the earth. Souling is the practice of saying a prayer for the dead in return for a small present, Guising is rooted in the Celtic purification rituals - Guisers would go round dressed up as evil spirits and perform some small performance (originally to pacify spirits later just a party piece) in return for a gift. Emmigrants took this to the US (The Colonies) where over time it changed. In the UK this tradition to some extent got tangled up in Guy Fawkes night on the 5th Nov with it's accompanying "Penny for the Guy" and Bonfires (although fire was a big part of the older pagen festivals) and is being gradually weakened by the American version of demanding gifts for NOT doing a trick.
What is the true meaning of trick or treating?
From the wikipedia article on trick or treating:The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain.[3]
When did trick or treating become a Halloween tradition?
Trick-or-treating is the Halloween tradition where children go door-to-door dressed in costumes and saying "trick-or-treat" as a request for candy. It is said that the tradition began in the Middle Ages and mimics medieval "souling", a day when the poor went door to door receiving food in exchange for prayers for the dead. It is said to have originated in Britain and Ireland.
Why do we give out candy on Halloween?
The practice of children dressing in costumes and going door to door for candy didn't start until the 1930s and early 40s. In England there was a practice called "souling" where poor people would visit the houses of the rich, promising to pray for their deceased family members in exchange for "soul cakes." In Ireland and Scotland, there was a custom called "guising" where people would dress in costume and go house to house telling jokes in exchange for a treat. Immigrants brought these traditions to the US in the late 30s, and as trick-or-treating became more widespread as the years went on, candy became the primary treat as it was easy to buy and distribute, and posed a smaller risk of poisoning/tampering than unwrapped treats. Candy manufacturers began making smaller versions of their product and by the 1970s, candy was really the only "acceptable" treat to hand out on Halloween.
When were masks first worn?
No-one can tell for sure. It may be that masks existed very long ago, but because those masks were probably made of wood or other biological materials, they haven't been preserved over the years.
What does the devil have to do with Halloween?
Absolutely not. In the modern world people see Halloween as an Autumn celebration, a day where kids dress up, trick or treat and get candy, a day to party, or a day to watch scary movies. It has evolved from a few different areas; the Pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-ween) which is the Pagan New Year, an autumn celebration, the autumn equinox, and a day of remembrance for departed souls. The Christian/Catholic celebration of All Souls Day or All Saints Day falls on November 1st. (This day and/or Halloween was also once called All Hallows Eve) It is a day to commemorate and remember faithful departed Christians and loved ones. Dia de los muertos or the day of the dead falls on November 2nd. It is also a day to remember departed loved ones. To celebrate their lives, cook their favorite meals, and to rejoice in the fact you will one day be with them again. So from all this has evolved Halloween. There is absolutely nothing to do with 'the devil' about it.
How and when did the tradition of trick or treating began?
Although trick-or-treating did not gain popularity in the United States until the 1950s, the tradition has Celtic roots. October 31 is known as Samhain, a day when the dead returned to the earth. During Celtic celebrations of Samhain, many people wore disguises to ward off evil spirits. Groups of "guisers" performed plays in homes they visited. They were rewarded with treats of food. The children would also carve out lanterns from a turnip (now we use pumpkins) to resemble a scary face. The children would go around the neighborhood, carrying their turnip lantern on a piece of string and knock on doors and say "please help the guisers." The kids would be required to sing a song, or say a poem or tell a joke for which they would receive sweets, fruit, nuts or money. After they had been guising they would go home and put some nuts and fruit in a basin of water. With their hands behind their back, they would attempt to lift the fruit and nuts out of the water with their mouths. This was called "dookin", and sometimes called "dookin fer aiples" (now known as "bobbing for apples"). These traditions are still practiced today in Scotland although many children will now say "trick-or-treat" instead of "please help the guisers" since they see this on TV and in American movies. The children do not however play tricks on the neighbors, they still have to recite a verse or sing a song for their reward. Another explanation for trick-or-treating is that it comes from "souling," a tradition in Ireland and Great Britain. While souling, the poor would go from home to home and pray for each family's dead, and the families gave them small cakes to eat. Others believe the tradition of trick-or-treating is related most closely to old urban Thanksgiving traditions of costumes and pranks. This "ragamuffin" tradition was popular in urban areas like New York and Boston, and consisted of costumed children parading around the streets begging for coins or treats, and pulling pranks when they didn't get anything. Shopkeepers would often 'buy off' these pranksters, trading some sweet snack or bread loaf for security from soaped windows or pilfered shop signs. By the early 1900s these children would parade through the streets in their costumes, becoming an established holiday event, the 'ragamuffin parade.' However, spectacle parades like the Macy's parade began to overrun these prankster traditions in the 1920s, and the Depression of the 1930s, all but rubbed the begging traditions out. Instead, Halloween became the new time for tricks and treats--and as the treats became scarce, the tricks became vandalism. Things got out of control in the 1930s, with several brawls and acts of violence associated with Halloween pranking. To counter this, homes started to offer parties for children, as an incentive to curb vandalism. Candy and treats were offered, in other words, literally to stop children from misbehaving on Halloween. After a slowdown in WWII (when sugar was severely rationed), the post-WWII baby boom led to the solidification of modern trick-or-treating. It was bolstered by the manufacturing spirit of the 1950s, which saw the first real bags of bite-sized candy treats readily available for eager trick-or-treaters.
The Story of Halloween?
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual? The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess. Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach. Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth. The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween. The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role. 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. Halloween was started by christians as the day that the portal from the dead and the living was open thus spreading doom to the living.
