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Where did the tradition of passing out candy come from?                                                                            Kevin Pritchard

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Where did the tradition of passing out candy come from?                                                                            Kevin Pritchard

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In the 1930's=1940's, children from Scotland and Ireland were given all kinds of treats. In the 1960's, candy giving became more popular.

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clowns and mickey/Minnie mouse, power rangers and witches, superheros, Elvira and Charlie Brown, vampires and ghosts and princesses

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where did the idea come from?
it is believed that the custom of making jack-o'-lanterns at halloween began in ireland the 19th century.

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a sudden and brief burst of energy supposedly experienced after the consumption of food or drink with a high sugar content.

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The name " jack-o'-lantern" is British in origin and dates back to the 17th century, when it literally meant "man with a lantern" (i.e., a night watchman).

It was also a popular nickname for the natural phenomenon known as ignis fatuus (fool's fire), or " will o' the wisp," those mysterious, flickering blue lights sometimes seen over wetlands at night and associated in folklore with mischievous ghosts, goblins, fairies, and the like.

By the late 1800s, people were applying the name "jack-o'-lantern" to a homemade object more commonly known before that as a " turnip lantern," described by Thomas Darlington in his 1887 volume The Folk-Speech of South Cheshire as "a lantern made by scooping out the inside of a turnip, carving the shell into a rude representation of the human face, and placing a lighted candle inside it."

On both Hallowmas ( All Saints Day, Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2), Catholic children would carry turnip lanterns while begging door-to-door for soul cakes to commemorate the dead.

Turnip lanterns were also carried by celebrants parading the streets on Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes Day.

Scary Faces

It should come as no surprise that turnip lanterns were put to ill use by pranksters. "It is a common device of mischievous lads for frightening belated wayfarers on the road," noted Darlington in 1887.

A glossary of the regional speech published by the English Dialect Society in 1898 defined "turnip lantern" (or "to'nup lantern") thus:

...a large turnip, hollowed out, with mouth, eyes, and nose made in it to imitate the human face. A candle is put inside, and it is used by silly persons for the purpose of affrighting people simpler than themselves.

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch recalls a memorable jack-o'-lantern prank in the pages of The Cornish Magazine, published in 1899:

The mischievous youngsters took the hatch (the lower half of the front door) and having tied to a nail driven in its centre a large well-lighted turnip lantern cut to represent a grotesque, grinning, human face, carried it to the top of the house, laying it flat over the chimney, the lantern, suspended by a strong cord, being let down through the chimney to such a depth as to be visible to anyone looking up from below - the fireplace being open. In a very brief time the smoke, prevented by the hatch from escaping through the chimney, began to fill the house. Everyone quickly commenced to cough and complain of the irritation caused by the smoke. One of the women of the house bent down and looked up the chimney to ascertain what was amiss, and the ugly face met her gaze, causing her to shriek and go into hysterics.

It's a bit hard to swallow the image of a sane adult literally being driven to hysterics at the sight of a turnip-sized jack-o'-lantern in this day and age, but those, as they say, were simpler times.

The Legend of Stingy Jack

According to an oft-repeated tale (surely invented after the fact and by an Englishman, no doubt), the jack-o'-lantern took its name from a roguish Irishman known as Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil into guaranteeing that he wouldn't go to hell for his many and various sins. When Jack died, however, he found to his dismay that the arrangement had also barred him from heaven, so he went down below, banged on the gates of hell, and demanded his due from the Devil. Wouldn't you know it, though the latter did keep his promise to save Jack from depths of Hades, he did so by dooming him to wander the surface of the earth for all eternity with only an ember of hellfire to light his way?

Thenceforth, according to legend, Stingy Jack was known by the name of Jack O'Lantern.

It wasn't until Irish immigrants brought the custom of carving jack-o'-lanterns to North America that the more commonly available (and easier to carve) pumpkin came to be used for that purpose, and not until the mid-to-late 19th century that pumpkin carving was an established Halloween tradition. This tidy instructional narrative comes from a turn-of-the-century schoolbook, Victoire and Perdue's The New Century First Reader:

Will and Fred went to the barn.
They got a pumpkin.
The pumpkin was large.
The pumpkin was yellow.
The boys cut the top off.
They cut the seeds out.
They cut four holes in the pumpkin.
They put a candle in the pumpkin.
The light shone out.
The boys said, "See our Jack-o'-Lantern."

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Why Do People Carve Jack-O'-Lanterns for Halloween?

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The name " jack-o'-lantern" is British in origin and dates back to the 17th century, when it literally meant "man with a lantern" (i.e., a night watchman). It was also a popular nickname for the natural phenomenon known as ignis fatuus (fool's fire), or " will o' the wisp," those mysterious, flickering blue lights sometimes seen over wetlands at night and associated in folklore with mischievous ghosts, goblins, fairies, and the like.

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The tradition of carving faces into vegetables dates to the Celts. As part of their autumnal celebration, they wanted to light the way to their homes for the good spirits, so they carved faces into vegetables such as turnips and squash.

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Why is candy corn orange, white , and yellow?

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Why is candy corn orange, white , and yellow?

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looks like a corn.

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Have people always worn costumes for Halloween?

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Have people always worn costumes for Halloween?

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It started with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to scare ghosts away.

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Need some inspiration for getting spooky? Here is a Halloween anthem!

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Michael Jackson - Thriller (Official Video - Shortened Version)

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Which candies are most popular in the United States?

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Which candies are most popular in the United States?

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First - M&M's
Second - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Third - Snickers

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fortnight

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How long have people been dressing up in costumes

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How long have people been dressing up in costumes

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"Guising" has been recorded in Scotland in the 16th century, a more contemporary record of guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[24] Guising also involved going to wealthy homes, and in the 1920s, boys went guising at Halloween up to the affluent Thorntonhall, South Lanarkshire.[58] An account of guising in the 1950s in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, records a child receiving 12 shillings and sixpence, having knocked on doors throughout the neighborhood and performed.[48] Growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1960s, Michael Bradley recalls kids wearing their masks and costumes to go knocking on doors asking, “Any nuts or apples?”.[