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Trick
or Treat
Trick
or Treat has been thought to have come from a European custom called
"souling". Beggars would go from house to house begging for "soul
cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants.
The
more soul cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would
promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.
At
the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a
time after deat, and that prayer, even by strangers, could guarantee
a soul's passage to heaven.
Jack
O'lantern
The
turnip lantern is the festival light for Halloween and is the ancient
symbol of a damned soul.
Pumpkin
carving only came into being when people colonised
America - we didn't have them here. Thank goodness - 'turnip lantern'
doesn't have quite the same ring to it...
One
story says that the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns
to represent the souls of the dead hence the turnip lanterns.
Another
tale tells of a scoundrel called Jack who one dark night tricked
the Devil into climbing an apple tree. Once the Devil was in the
tree tops, Jack carved a cross on the trunk of the tree so the Devil
couldn't climb down.
Jack
then said he would only let the Devil out of the tree if he promised
not to claim his soul when he died. Wanting to be back in his own
realm the Devil agreed to Jack's demand.
Many
years later when Jack died, his life of bad deeds stopped his entry
to heaven. The Devil would not give him entry to hell either, because
of the bargain made many years earlier.
But
the Devil took pity on Jack and gave him a glowing coal to light
his way. Jack put this in a lantern, which he carved from a pumpkin.
BBC
Cumbria user, Rachel Honeybone, emailed us to say: "The Turnip
lanterns come from the Isle of Man. Here it is not called Hallowe’en,
or Trick or Treating but Hop To Naa."
Bobbing
for apples
This
started out as a bit of simple fortune-telling like catching the
bride's bouquet at a wedding. People would try to bite into apples
floating in a vat or hanging from string - the first to bite the
appple would be the next to marry.
Feature
by Mark Robertson and Adam Flett
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