COMING HOME, column by W.R. Valentine

Halloween used to be a rather quaint little occasion but lately it has become a kind of dress rehearsal for the Christmas outdoor decorating season. You might think this is a bit of a stretch but have you seen the movie, “The Nightmare before Christmas,” from 1993? The story is about Jack, the Pumpkin King, who lives in Halloweentown. One day he goes through a door in a tree and arrives in Christmastown (a sort of cross between Bronner’s and the Mall of America). Jack decides Halloweentown should have Christmas this year instead of Halloween but, alas, things do not go as planned.

I REMEMBER making costumes out of duct tape and cardboard. Nowadays, everything comes from scary places like China or Guatemala. I guess the change is more apparent to me as I have not been in America for Halloween since 1981. Since then, the pervasive nature of our consumer-oriented society seems to have taken over. It began in Ireland around 500 BC as a pagan celebration marking the Celtic New Year. Hmmm, starting to sound like the Christmas season again, isn’t it?

Around 200 AD, the conquering Romans, always on the lookout for an excuse to have an orgy, adopted the practice of pulling their togas over their heads and cavorting in the moonlight. When it entered the Christian era it became Halloween, which means hallowed evening, signifying the night before All Saints Day. The Romans also celebrated the festival of the goddess Pomona, symbolized by an apple, which is probably the reason why people go bobbing for apples at Halloween. Legend says the first one to bite into a bobbing apple will marry soon. Others say, if a young maiden puts a sprig of rosemary under her pillow with a silver dollar on Halloween night, she will see her future husband in her dreams. The Celts also believed that lost souls returned to earth on this night looking for a body to possess. Not wanting to become a host for the cantankerously departed, people would dress up in ghoulish costumes and ring bells hoping to drive away the evil spirits.

THE TRICK-OR-TREAT custom came from medieval Christians (circa 900 AD) who went around begging for sweets in exchange for prayers to lift loved ones out of limbo. The jack-o-lantern is another part of Irish folklore that has attached itself to the holiday. The story goes that a ne’er-do-well named Jack was about to have his soul claimed by the devil when he managed to trick Satan and cheat death. When Jack eventually died he was denied entry to heaven but the devil wouldn’t have him either, so his spirit was left to roam the earth carrying a hollow turnip with a glowing ember to light his way. Halloween traditions came to America in the 1840s with the Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine in their country. These new Americans found pumpkins easier to hollow out than turnips. The tricks they pulled in those early days were pranks like tipping over outhouses and lifting gates off fences.

IT IS SAID if you go out to the crossroads and listen to the wind on Halloween, you can hear things that will happen to you in the next 12 months. Also, if you find a snail on Halloween and put it in a jar overnight, by morning it will have traced the initial of your sweetheart in slime. Babies born on Halloween are said to have the gift of “second sight.” But don’t look at your shadow in the full moonlight this night; it could spell your doom. If you find yourself down a dark alley, getting “creeped-out” turn your pockets inside out to prevent evil spirits from snatching your soul. And, if you see a spider, it just might be the spirit of a departed loved one watching over you. My grandmother once told me a spider story about the great silent fi

lm star Lon Chaney, famous for his horror roles like the Phantom of the Opera (1925). So realistic were his costumes and make-up that people would say, “Don’t step on that spider, it could be Lon Chaney.”

His son, Lon Chaney, Jr., created one of the scariest film roles of all time playing the doomed lycanthrope in “Wolf Man” (1941). I am not superstitious but a lone wolf was trapped and shot this week near the Ocqueoc even though the DNR says there have been no wolves in the Lower Peninsula since 1910. All I can say is, looking up at the full moon; I hope it was a silver bullet.

W.R. Valentine can be reached on-line at: valentine@gypsywriter.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.