Mary Alice Pritchard’s Blog

Halloween is upon us! Whether you know it as Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve or Samhain, it is essentially the same thing now in American culture. It is a day for children to dress up and go from house to house repeating a line they are taught by their parents: “Trick or treat”. I often see many of these youngsters looking at their parents, asking why they are required to say this bit of nonsense, so I thought I would share some brief histories related to Halloween.

“Trick or Treat”: This phrase has morphed significantly since the middle ages in Europe. Prior to the spread of Christianity, paganism was the primary belief system of the time, and though it differed greatly from tribe to tribe and location to location, there were some very consistent aspects shared by all pagans, one being the celebration of various holidays on or about the same time every year.  One of these, ‘All Souls Day’, was celebrated on or around November 1. This was essentially a memorial day; it was a time to mark the passing of summer, the appreciation of the harvest and remember ones that had passed on.  In some traditions, such as Ireland, soul-cakes were left out to feed the dead who it was believed crossed the veil for this one night a year. In England, the poor would go from parish to parish “…a souling” as it was known.

By 1605 this tradition in England changed because of Guy Fawkes. (Yes, think the movie ‘V’ with Natalie Portman…”remember, remember the 5^th of November…”).  After Guy Fawkes was captured and subsequently hung himself, British children would go from house to house asking for ‘a penny for the guy’ which would subsequently be spent of fireworks to commemorate the event, in addition to burning effigies of poor Guy. 

In America, the tradition has become mainly a children’s holiday, yet most children don’t completely understand that they are giving us an ultimatum. Originally, the phrase was presented as an option, meaning that if the person answering the knock at the door didn’t come through with a sweet treat of some type, the repercussion was that a ‘trick’ would be played on them. Think lawn furniture on rooftops, toilet papered trees, and mischief with eggs.  Your loyal author believes in a new twist on an old tradition. My ‘treats’ often include a ‘trick’ or two.  Think mouse traps, bars of soap (travel sized) and rocks.  Yes, I have a warped sense of humor.  >Smile<

The Cauldron: The cauldron is one of my favorite Halloween concepts. In the last 1600 years, Paganism has been so greatly affected by Christianity that we fail to realize it was once the belief system of all of our ancestors. With the proliferation of Christianity, things that were once meaningful over time became objects of ridicule or scorn.  A cauldron, for example, was not always a pot being hovered over by hags with malicious intent.

The cauldron was, at its most basic function, a cooking vessel. If you don’t think pots & pans mean that much, consider how you feel about comfort food? Where would it have come from for our ancestors? Yep, the cauldron, or cook pot over the fire.  Suddenly, this mundane cauldron provides sustenance as well as comfort. See the magic happening? In Celtic legend, cauldrons were everything from endless sources of sustenance for hungry warriors (Bran’s), endless knowledge (Cerridwen’s) or even endless life (Badb’s). 

If you want to have some real fun on Halloween, purchase a large cauldron (you can get them at retail stores or online, plastic is fine). Go to the spice aisle at your local grocery store and purchase a bottle of root beer extract (2-10 oz.), sugar, and 10lbs of dry ice.

Gather the kiddies, and mix 3 1/3 gallons of lukewarm water with 6 cups of sugar, 2 oz of the root beer extract. Mix this all together then chuck in 4lbs of dry ice. Voila! Not only do you get a mysterious cauldron boiling and bubbling, it also fogs, and plus, it’s really root beer! Dip in with a ladle and serve it up! (Disclaimer: make sure your dry ice is food grade and never handle dry ice with your bare hands, as always children should be supervised. End of Disclaimer)

Cats:

Cats have gotten a bad rap over the centuries, and once again the source stems from fear mongering and hatred. Medieval people’s were not especially well educated or well traveled. Most of the information they got regarding the outside world (‘outside’ being anything over 5 miles from their home) they got from Sunday Mass. Papal Bulls issued through the 14^th-16^th centuries cite cats specifically as being party to witchcraft and being familiars of witches. Once the bulls were issued, believers took them at face value and cats, especially black cats, have been persecuted ever since.  Cats were destroyed en masse in bonfires (just like convicted witches).  The nocturnal nature of cats probably didn’t help them much, nor the fact that many of the pagan goddesses were attended by cats. Nevertheless, once again, even animals were not safe from changing societies.

I hope you have enjoyed some brief insight into the history and significance of our modern Halloween. I will be happy to answer questions or address comments either here or on my website: www.autumnshelley.com

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