Jack-O’-Lantern’s story

On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil who tricks him

into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark,

thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul.

After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he

dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal

straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a

hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have

been roaming looking for a place to rest.

Homes are often decorated with symbols around Halloween. Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks and scarecrows, are used for decoration. In Ireland and Scotland, the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger – making it easier to carve than a turnip. Now a pumpkin has become the main symbol of Halloween.

Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Over time, in the United States the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses. Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween by the late 19th century. Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children.

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. One common game is dunking or apple bobbing, which may be called "dooking" in Scotland, in which apples float in a large basin of water and the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name. Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear.

Another game/superstition that was enjoyed in the early 1900s involved walnut shells. People would write fortunes in milk on white paper. After drying, the paper was folded and placed in walnut shells. When the shell was warmed, milk would turn brown therefore the writing would appear on what looked like blank paper.

Folks would also play fortune teller. In order to play this game, symbols were cut out of paper and placed on a platter. Someone would enter a dark room and was ordered to put her hand on a piece of ice then lay it on a platter. Her "fortune" would stick to the hand. Paper symbols included: dollar sign - wealth, button - bachelorhood, thimble - spinsterhood, clothespin - poverty, rice - wedding, umbrella - journey, caldron - trouble, 4-leaf clover - good luck, penny - fortune, ring - early marriage, and key - fame.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common features of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released theatrically before Halloween to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Because Halloween comes in the time of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee apple), are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts. At one time, candy apples were commonly given to children but grown-ups also enjoy eating them.

One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack, which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin and other charms are placed before baking. It is said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1028