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5 Myths About Halloween                                                                                19





           5 Myths About Halloween



                       By Jack Santino


          Halloween is a holiday shrouded in darkness,
          linked to the supernatural and known for
          inspiring fear. So it’s not surprising that there are
          many misconceptions about its traditions,
          origins and meaning. Here are some of the most
          common.


          1. Beware of razor blades in candy
          apples.

          Police in Denver this year are warning parents
          about the prospect of pot-infused candy. “We
          advise that you should thoroughly check your
          children’s candy,” the department posted on its
          Facebook page, “and not just for homemade,
          opened, or suspicious items, but also for any
          marijuana edibles that look eerily close to
          mainstream candies kids eat every day.”
                                                         bonfires to welcome wandering souls. It was and souls, fairies, witches and demons.  As the
                 This is just the latest iteration of a
                                                         remains a family celebration in Ireland.        centuries wore on, people began dressing like
          perennial concern. A 2011 Harris Interactive poll
                                                                 Few early  American settlers observed these creatures, performing antics in exchange
          found that 24 percent of parents were fearful that
                                                         Halloween. It was Irish immigrants in the 19th for food and drink. By the Middle Ages, masked
          their children might be poisoned by tampered-
                                                         century who were responsible for bringing many solicitations were associated with All Souls’ Day
          with or spoiled treats. In fact there is little, if
                                                         Halloween customs to the United States.         and other holidays in countries influenced by
          any, evidence that this has ever happened.
                                                                                                         Catholicism.
                 Joel Best, a sociology and criminal
                                                         3. Halloween is Satanic.                               But, according to folklorist Tad Tuleja,
          justice professor at the University of Delaware,
                                                                                                         trick-or-treating did not descend directly from
          has examined reports of “Halloween sadism”
                                                         This is a concern especially for some           those traditions. By his account, the practice as
          going back as far as 1958. “I have been unable
                                                         Evangelical Christians. “Halloween is a festival  we know it in the United States is largely a
          to find a substantiated report of a child being
                                                         for demonic spirits,” Pat Robertson said this   product of an effort by local governments and
          killed or seriously injured by a contaminated
                                                         month. “The whole idea of trick-or-treating is  businesses in the 1930s and ’40s to promote an
          treat picked up in the course of trick-or-
                                                         the druids would go to somebody’s house and     alternative to pranking and the rowdier aspects
          treating,” Best writes.  There have been
                                                         ask for money, and if they didn’t get money,    of Halloween. “Trick or treat has gradually
          examples of product tampering, but not related
                                                         they’d kill one of their sheep. I mean, that was  replaced buggy stealing as the ‘appropriate’ way
          to Halloween. And there was one 1974 death
                                                         the trick. So it was serious stuff. And all this  for children to enjoy the holiday,” he writes.
          blamed on poisoned Pixy Stix — though the 8-
                                                         business about goblins and jack-o’-lanterns and        Indeed, early descriptions of Halloween
          year-old Texas boy was actually murdered by his
                                                         all that all comes out of demonic rituals of the  in the United States generally don’t reference
          father, who was trying to cash in on his son’s life
                                                         druids and the people who lived in England at   any activities that resemble knocking on doors
          insurance. Other reports of Halloween sadism
                                                         that particular time.”                          to ask for treats.  The practice became
          have turned out to be hoaxes or have had more
                                                                 Actually, the devil wasn’t part of the  ubiquitous, however, in the post-World War II
          benign explanations.
                                                         Samhain festival celebrated by the Celts — or   years, after the lifting of sugar rations and as
                 While it should be reassuring to know
                                                         the druids, who made up their priestly caste.   suburbanization made going from house to
          that contaminated candy falls squarely into the
                                                         They made sacrifices in honor of the dead, but  house easier than when people lived far from
          category of urban legend, it’s a sad commentary
                                                         those sacrifices more often took the form of    their neighbors.
          on our society that homemade treats are
                                                         burned crops rather than animals. Contrary to
          considered suspicious and only mass-produced
                                                         some accounts, there was no human sacrifice.    5.  You can’t have Halloween without
          candy bars are seen as safe.
                                                                 It was only when the Catholic Church pumpkins.
                                                         tried to supplant Samhain and other native
          2. Halloween is a quintessentially
                                                         holidays that the church branded practitioners of  In Ireland and Scotland, jack-o’-lanterns have
          American holiday.                              rival religions as devil-worshippers. Beliefs in  traditionally been made out of large turnips.
                                                         the wandering dead persisted, but the           They are hollowed out, carved with a face,
          Traditions focused on accumulation and         supernatural beings honored by the Celts        carried as lanterns and set in spooky places, such
          consumption may seem very  American, and       became associated with evil.  And the Celtic    as graveyards. European settlers first
          certainly an  American-style Halloween has     underworld became associated with the           encountered the pumpkin in the New  World.
          evolved. But the origins of the holiday can be  Christian hell.                                Because it is already hollow, it is much easier to
          traced back to a pre-Christian Celtic festival         Yes, devils remain a symbol of          carve. So pumpkins replaced turnips in America.
          called Samhain (pronounced “SAH-wen”). For     Halloween — and you may see a few of them              Why have a jack-o’-lantern at all? The
          the Celts, Nov. 1 marked the end of the harvest  scurrying from door to door. But Halloween is a  symbolism goes back to an old European folk
          and the beginning of the new year.  They       time when people project their fears in a safe  tale. A blacksmith named Jack scoffed at Saint
          believed that the souls of the dead mingled    and playful way. When else will you see images  Peter and tricked the devil, and so was denied
          among the living at that time.  And so they    of death on suburban lawns?                     entrance to both heaven and hell. He scooped up
          associated the fruits of the harvest with death,                                               a coal from the embers of hell in a turnip and
          the afterlife and the supernatural.            4.  Trick-or-treating has long been a           uses it to light his way as he wanders, endlessly,
                 Later, after Saint Patrick and other
                                                         central feature of Halloween.                   between two worlds.
          missionaries converted Ireland to Christianity,
                                                                                                                So the jack-o’-lantern symbolizes a
          Nov. 1 became All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows
                                                         Wearing costumes and demanding treats can       marginal creature, a trickster, dangerous but
          Day, and the eve of All Hallows became known
                                                         also be traced to the Celtic period and the first  fascinating, like so much else in this ancient and
          as Halloween. It featured feasts, the blessing of
                                                         few centuries of the Christian era, when food   modern tradition of Halloween. []
          the hearth, and the lighting of candles and
                                                         and drink were left out to placate wandering
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