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Show Halloween Was First Celebrated Ky Tnliab.lanls of R,ual Sections s Tlianksgiving for Good Crops Offered 15y Karly Man. Hy CLIFF LANGE Ri-lcaaed by Western Newspaper Union. Halloween is essentially and basically a rural celebration. It belongs to the countryside, country-side, the small town where the people are close to the earth, and all that comes from and lives upon the earth. Far back in history, man, realizing realiz-ing that summer was done and the work of nature, busy all the previous previ-ous months, was tit an end, held religious re-ligious ceremonies to thank the gods ORIGIN OF THE NAME November 1 is All Saints' day, also called AU-Hallomas, or All Hallows. The evening preocdlng this day Is All-halloween. for sending him food upon which to live. To early man, Nature, with all its blessings and woes, was something some-thing of a mystery to him. As he became more familiar with it and more civilized through the centuries, cen-turies, he had certain gods as guardians guard-ians of his crops. When the crops were collected, and the cattle gathered gath-ered in, he then held his celebration with his family and with friends. This was the beginning of our present day celebration of Halloween. Hal-loween. Many of the wild spirits in which early man believed are reflected in the witches riding brooms, the goblins with their fearful faces that decorate Halloween Hal-loween parties wherever they are held. Primitive man's basic spirit of thankfulness for favors done by the ruler of all nature through religious celebrations and ceremonies was continued by the Druids of England, the early Romans, and even the Indians In-dians of the United States. In the pre-Christian days of early England, the Druids, priests of ancient an-cient Britain, celebrated the feast of Samhain on November 1. At that time the flocks were driven in and the workers of the community rested rest-ed from their arduous summertime labors. But before midnight on October 31 the Druids put out the old fire on the altar of their god, Baal, and made a new one. This signified the beginning of another year of work with Nature by those early ruralites who worshiped before the heathen god Baal. In the early Roman festival of Pomona, held at harvest time, fruits and nuts played a very important im-portant part. How the customs of the early Roman religious festival have come down to the present day is noticed in the giving of fruits and nuts to youngsters who go "visiting" on Halloween. There also is a definite reason for pumpkins always a necessary ornament, or-nament, either real or artificial-having artificial-having a definite place in any Halloween Hal-loween decoration. The reason is not difficult to understand. The early Indians combined deep solemnity and hearty relaxation at their harvest har-vest time celebration, held around the present time of Hal- lmvecn. The Indians of the Southeast and Northeast United Mates ,)laccd the pumpkin n a conspicuous spot during their celebrations because it was a staple article of their diet. Many people have further seen a definite relation between the hol-owed, hol-owed, decorated and lighted pumpkin pump-kin in homes on Halloween with the ceremonial dances and masques of the Hopi Indians held in the Southwest at harvest time. In fact, almost all the early American Amer-ican rather, native American foodstuffs grown by the early Indians In-dians and given proper appreciation during their harvest celebrations are today noticed in Halloween decorations. dec-orations. Corn is one of the outstanding out-standing foodstuffs so displayed. The priests of early Christianity Christiani-ty found it difficult to stamp out the mystery and symbolism of the last night of October. They effected a compromise between the old religious ceremonies of the Romans and Druids and those essentially Christian. To offset the black magic of Druid superstitions, the next day was declared All Saints' day (as it still is today) and the evening preceding it was renamed hallowed hal-lowed or holy evening. v The corruption of the name, by constant usage by the untutored natives, na-tives, came to be Halloween. But the new name could not change the character of the festi- ,Just waiting for a train, boys. That's all. She's been invited over to the next town's Halloween celebration given for the benefit of the USO. Isn't it a far cry from the days when witches were in style instead in-stead of be-witching beauties such as she? Who said, "The good old days"? val. To those back hundreds of years ago, and continuing on down through the centuries, Halloween has always remained, both seriously serious-ly and humorously, as a time when supernatural influences prevailed. Through the years the religious reli-gious significance of the eve has all but disappeared. But the picture pic-ture of witches riding their brooms across the harvest fields with the full, bright moon in the background' has stayed with us. And speaking of witches it should be remembered that it hasn't been so ' very long ago that here in the United States they were considered by many to be harmful old women under the diabolic control of the master Evil One, the Devil. In New England during 1691-92, when an outburst of fanaticism took place there, hundreds of persons were thrown in jail for either being witches, or consorting with them. In the summer of 1692, 19 persons were tried in court, convicted and hanged for witchcraft. Today the emotion, the spirit of thankfulness which the early peoples peo-ples expressed in their harvest ceremonies cere-monies on Halloween has been all but forgotten. Today the same power which brought good crops and healthy stock to the early dwellers brings not only plenty for this nation, but also for those nations battling with us, the Evil One of Europe who is riding the witch's broom of cruelty and hate, but who will, when the magical words of freedom are spoken, spo-ken, crash to earth destroying himself him-self and the evil spirits that have been consorting with him. There will be a poignant touch to those who will celebrate Halloween this year in the United States, re member that France, Belgium-even Belgium-even Germany when free, also celebrated cel-ebrated Halloween. In those oppressed countries the harvest has brought nothing but continual con-tinual privation, want and death. In the United States it has been different. A moral is here. Editor Shows How In southwestern Missouri the merchants mer-chants of a progressive small town dreaded the approach of Halloween as much as the kids happily anticipated antici-pated it. The police officials, school teachers, teach-ers, and principals were perplexed, too, as to how they could stop the damage, even though light, inflicted by the masked kids as they trooped about the streets on the night of October 31. The editor of the local weekly was giving thought to the matter, too. The editor was still a comparatively young man. He remembered some of his youthful Halloween pranks all too well. It was a different situation situ-ation now, he realized. Suddenly he got a brilliant idea. He talked to the members of the town's business club about it. In the next edition of the editor's newspaper was a large ad offering an attractive money prize by the towns' merchants to the young person per-son who drew the most attractive, artistic picture on any of the merchants' mer-chants' store windows with soap on Halloween. Result? Damage dropped off to a minimum; many fine pictures drawn; one youth the proud possessor posses-sor of the money prize; much publicity pub-licity for the town, the business men and the editor. John Gay, the early English poet (1688-1732), wrote the following lines of poetry which reflected a superstition of his day concerning the Halloween festival: At even o' Hallowmas no sleep I sought, But to the Beld a bag of hempseerj brought. I scattered round the seed on every side, And three times three in trembling accents cried, "This hempseed with my virgin hand I sow, Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow." This poem, as does the accompanying story, further brings out the fact that HaUoween is essentially a rural festival. |