A Whole New Life: Halloween and Me

My son Bryan was telling me why Halloween is one of his favorite holidays, “You get to

Bryan as Aquaman

dress up in costumes like people you wish you were, then you go out into the night, and knock on doors to meet strangers, something you would never be allowed to do normally. And they give you “treasures” usually candy.”

I have always liked Halloween. I recall when we were living in one house on in the middle of the block on Pages Lane, it had a storage room under the house (not a basement, but had dirt floors). One year we had a spook alley there, and according to my brother, Gary, our party was mentioned in the local Davis County Clipper. I don’t recall the Halloween costumes I wore as a child, but as an adult, passing out candy, I was usually the witch. Rather than go trick-or-treating with my children, most years I stayed home dressed as a witch with scary music, handing out candy. However once I went as a genie while Bryan was Aladdin. My witch costume was my contribution to the “make-believe” of Halloween. Or maybe I was just living up to my real personality—that of a witch!

Beth as a witch

Halloween is a uniquely American holiday. Some say it was originally a Celtic festival known as Samhain, which celebrates the end of the harvest. The ancient Celtic felt that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and dead were weakened; that night the dead could come back to life to cause problems. Some say that the Celtic were the first to wear costumes—“typically animal heads and skins.” I don’t think they were thinking of trick-or-treating.

Others maintain that Halloween is separate from those pagan roots, and has solely Christian roots. We know that in the 700s, Pope Gregory III expanded a feast of All Martyrs Day into a festival honoring all saints, and moved the date to November 1. Many believe the Catholic church was trying to supplant Samhain with “All Saints Day,” also called “All-hallows or All-hallowmas (the Middle English term for All Saints Day.”) The night before this saints’ day was All-hallows eve, which eventually became Halloween. In England, there was no tradition of the pagan Samhain, and All Saints’ Day retained its religious significant. But the Irish loved their Halloween and kept alive its spooky traditions.

Today in Mexico they celebrate November 1 as the original All Saints' Day or "Day of the Dead" and it is a spiritual holiday--UNLIKE our Halloween.

The celebration of Halloween in colonial New England was strictly limited due to the rigid Protestant traditions, there, but in the southern colonies Halloween was more common and merged with Irish and native American Indians traditions to become more of what we know, today.

My husband Ed grew up in a small Idaho town and he recalls playing many “tricks” on Halloween, turning outhouses upside down, or moving them to the middle of town. By the 1950s, however, communities were trying to eliminate this type of vandalism, and “trick-or-treating” became common.

Tipping outhouses

Trick-or-treating supposedly goes back to All Souls’ Day parades in England when poor citizens would beg for food in exchange for a promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. Pastries called “soul cakes” would be given to these beggars, but eventually gifts of ale, money, or food became more common as children visited the houses in their neighborhoods. Between 1920 and 1950, according to one site, the centuries old tradition of trick-or-treat revived in America.

My grandson a Ninja

Today, because of the fear of children being harmed on Halloween, many communities are having “Trunk-or-Treat” where supervised parties (many in parking lots or parks where treats would be given out of the car trunks), are becoming more common. In small safe communities, there is still door-to-door trick-or-treating, but in the large urban communities this is becoming less common. Who knows where this trend will eventually go. Maybe 50 years from now, children will not go door to door.

Typical Carnivale costumes

Many other countries still don’t celebrate Halloween. When we lived in Vicenza, Italy, we were in an Italian/American ward, and had a Halloween party. Many of the Americans wore scary costumes, but the Italians wore their Carnivale costumes, beautiful, historic costumes rather than demons, witches or other frightening costumes. Every Carnivale (in February or March), the Italians in that area of the country go to Venice to wear beautiful costumes. It was a big holiday for them. My grandson on a mission in Costa Rico could not celebrate Halloween there, but he carved a face into a carrot.

My great-grandchildren--
a mosquito and a can of "OFF"

I loved making costumes for my children to wear on Halloween, the more creative the better My granddaughter, Skye, followed my example this year as she created a mosquito costume for her niece and an insect-spray can for her nephew. But whatever my family wear for Halloween, it usually is unique and different.

Bryan has always been very creative in his Halloween costumes. I made him a “Riddler” costume years ago, but now he makes his own costumes. Which is quite ironic as he performs in plays, commercials and even movies, so he can be someone different all the time in his job.

My daughter and her husband recently went to Halloween as “Simon & Garfunkle.” I guess it goes back to Bryan’s idea of Halloween—to dress up as people you wish you were.