The Way I See It: I’m not scared, are you?
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Saturday is Halloween. The time-honored day that we pause each year to pay thanks for a successful harvest by carving turnips.
Yes, I said turnips.
The celebration of Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. The celebration was meant to welcome the harvest at the end of summer. People built large bonfires and wore costumes to keep ghosts at bay. In the eighth century Pope Gregory III honored all saints by naming Nov. 1 All Saints Day. The evening before became All Hallow Eve and eventually just Halloween.
The traditions that people take part in now have grown over time.
The practice of carving pumpkins is based on the legend of a man named Stingy Jack. Jack trapped the Devil and only let him go when he promised him that he would never go to hell. When he died, he didn't go to heaven either and his soul had to wander around as a ghost. The devil gave him a lump of burning coal in a carved-out turnip to light the way. Locals later added the scary faces to frighten away the spirits.
Scary costumes were added to keep the spirits who were roaming around from recognizing you. In 1930, Marietta photographer Harry Fischer took photos of people taking part in the Marietta Lions Club Halloween program. The photo with this column is of three people who took part.
Trick or treating seem to have multiple theories of origins. Celtic people would leave food out at night to appease the spirits; eventually people started dressing as the spirits in order to get the food.
During the Middle Ages children collected food and money from local homes as payment for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. The third theory, according to an article titled the Origins of Halloween Traditions on the Library of Congress website, comes from a German American tradition called besnickeling where children dressed in costumes and neighbors attempted to guess who they were before awarding them treats.
Saturday night, hundreds of children and want-to-be-children will take to the streets in their search for candy. Some of the more popular streets will see hundreds of ghosts, witches and likely a few people dressed up as Dolly Parton, Nikki from “Obsession,” and the toy NeeDoh, all three are popular costumes this year. Of course, there will also be hundreds of pint size ghosts and princesses.
Please be careful if you plan to drive anywhere tonight.
Halloween is a big business in the United States with consumers spending around $4.5 billion per year on candy. Halloween is second only to Christmas on annual candy sales.
The spending does not even take into account how much people spend to make their house just the right amount of scary.
Giant skeletons, carved pumpkins, and huge spiders join the pop-up cemeteries all over the area.
Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com