Spooky Hallowe’en!!

by Tom Shafer

October 15, 2018

Okay, so that’s the technical spelling of Halloween.  When I was teaching, I would make sort of a big deal about it because, well, I could.  That and the fact it was merely another teachable moment regarding, you guessed it, contractions.   What we celebrate today as Hallowe’en is shortened, or contracted, from the pagan holiday All Hallows’ Even.  Remember, a contraction utilizes an apostrophe to show the omission of letters when two or more words are contracted into one.  So, keeping that in mind, I would further torture my kids by explaining that technically, the actual spelling should be ’Hallow’e’en.  Fortunately, Webster realized the ridiculousness (what a fun word!) of that version and proffered Hallowe’en instead.  I submit that I recognize today’s most current spelling Halloween, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Of course, around any holidays at any school, the students expect some type of celebration, no matter the holiday (including Talk Like a Pirate Day – September 19th in case you were wondering) or the age of the “kid.”  Having taught grades seven through twelve, I have to admit that my juniors and seniors were way more demanding about “celebrations.”  And frankly, who doesn’t enjoy a good school celebration!  I’m certain you have some fun memories about Hallowe’en or Valentine’s parties in elementary, or Thanksgiving or Christmas parties in high school.  Oftentimes as a teacher, you were fighting a losing battle if you tried to conduct a normal instructional day right before a holiday, so rather than fight, I partied!

Now, my students might paint a different portrait of my parties.  I could never concede completely to a full-on celebration, but instead demanded some educational slant.  So, at Thanksgiving, my American Literature students would revisit William Bradford and the Puritans (from an earlier unit) and create a period meal.  Far from our plump turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pies, that first thanksgiving consisted of venison, spit-roasted carrier pigeon, shellfish (lobster and clams), roasted maize, turnips, squashes, and some sort of bread – though we are not sure how it would have been made (no wheat nor leavening agent).  So, in my classroom, our Thanksgiving meal consisted of these authentic foods – and, of course, a few of our more traditional items as well (I’m not a complete ogre!).  Some years we were blessed with roasted deer or duck (from one of my hunters), clams or shrimp, stewed summer squash, and unleavened cornbread – along with turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  At least we were learning something – like that the Puritans must have had some pretty interesting taste buds (though to be honest, I would feel right at home with them – especially the beer that would have been washing the meal down!).

I did recognize that my students had some basic knowledge about the traditions of Thanksgiving (and Christmas as well), but I was always surprised at what little they knew about Hallowe’en.  So, this was just another opportunity for some good, old-fashioned enlightenment.  Thus, I created a fact sheet about the history of Hallowe’en, gave the students about five minutes to read it, collected the fact sheet, then played a memory game based on the information.  Some years my students did brief research presentations on different aspects of All Hallows’ Even (and the following day’s holiday, All Saints’ Day).  Other years we focused on local (or family) ghost stories (don’t visit the third floor of West Carrollton Middle School after dark – unless you dare!) and sat around sharing them.  Needless to say, we also shared treats of some sort to go along with all of the learning – nothing like a fine soul cake to quell our learning pangs!

Now, you didn’t think you were going to get away without some edification here, did you?  How much do YOU know about the origins of Hallowe’en?  Well, it all started with the Celts and their festival of Samhain, a night when it was believed that ghosts of the dead could revisit the earth.  The Celts celebrated the new year on November 1^st, after the harvest, and associated the coming winter as a time of death.  So, on October 31^st, Druids (Celtic priests) built bonfires and encouraged their people to burn decaying crops (and even older animals) as an offering to the gods.  Costumes were often worn as a means of concealment from worrisome ghosts, and offerings of food and drink were left outside dwellings for more familiar (or familial) spirits.  Candles were placed in hollowed out squashes (like pumpkins) and positioned outside homes to help illuminate the way for these familial spirits.  Subsequent cultures altered and ameliorated these traditions with their own, including America in the seventeenth century.

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Now, I could go on with so much more (though I won’t), but how fun was all of that?  This brief history (from 2000 years ago) explains so many of our contemporary Hallowe’en customs: a fixation on ghost stories, costuming for fun, pumpkin carving, and treat giving.  For more entertainment, you might want to explore additional origin stories from Britain, Ireland, Scotland, the Scandinavian countries – and other places around the world, including here in America.  Trust me, this isn’t one of those times when knowledge ruins the fun or belief in something.  With this topic, the more you dig, the more interesting it becomes.

And, if you want to hear a really good ghost story sometime, just ask me about a conversation I had with a little old woman in Deadwood, South Dakota – oh, and the three stories of air she was standing on while we were conversing.  Or, in these Coronatimes, you can just read “Ghost UFO” under my For Your Consideration tab! I hope you enjoy a Spooky (and correctly punctuated and spelled) Hallowe’en!

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