Sly does it. Tiptoe catspaws. Slide and creep.
But why? What for? How? Who? When! Where did it all begin?
‘You don’t know, do you?’ asks Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud climbing outunder the pile of leaves under the Halloween Tree. ‘You don’t REALLY know!’
from ‘The Halloween Tree’
All Hallow’s Eve – a celebration of the end of summer, the coming of the time of waiting, the time of the wandering dead. The traditions on which what we know as Halloween have been practiced for centuries. With bonfires and fests, the ancient Britons celebrated in honor of their sun-god and Samhain (pronounced Sow-un or Sow-in), their lord of death, who gathered the souls of the dead who had been consigned to time in the bodies of animals in punishment for their sins.
The Romans celebrated the same kind of festival at this time in honor of their goddess Pomona, a patroness of fruits and gardens.
I wonder if that’s where the idea of the pumpkin patch started?
It wasn’t until the eighth century that the Church designated a date for All Saints Day, which in November 1, the morning after All Hallow’s Eve–the vigil of All Saints. “She chose this time of year, it is supposed, because in her part of the world it was the time of barrenness on the earth. The harvest was in, the summer done, the world brown and drab and mindful of death. Snow had not yet descended to comfort and hide the bony trees or blackened fields; so with little effort man could look about and see a meditation on death and life hereafter.”
Some cultures spent the night before All Saints–or All Hallow’s Eve–staying vigilant, expecting the souls of the dead to walk the earth, since those liberated from Purgatory were free to visit their old homes.
It wasn’t until centuries later that people began dressing like the creatures of nightmares, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming, from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved.
Begging at the door grew from an ancient English custom of knocking at doors to beg for a “soul cake” in return for which the beggars promised to pray for the dead of the household.
Happy Halloween, everyone!