Happy Halloween

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Imagine my disappointment when my mom decided it was all about the devil. (The poor thing attended a really RULE oriented church) I remember how much I wanted to throttle her when I was twelve and all of a sudden deciding that we can't Trick-or-Treat anymore. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that there are some of those that destroy the holiday by doing cat sacrifices and poisoning candy. I've always known that the traditions have evolved from ancient Celts that did not practice Christianity. But-I watched a show last night on History channel (I know, how dull, right?) about the origins of Halloween and learned a few new facts that I had never known. I figured it would be fitting to share them here on Halloween.

1) Bats are associated with Halloween because back in the day pagans would burn bonfires on Halloween. The bonfires attracted mosquitos-which bats love to eat. It was not uncommon to see bats soaring above the bonfires.

2) Kids begging for candy (though loosely based on the pagans offering treats to the dead) was actually started in the U.S. to keep children from getting into mischief on Halloween.

3) The candy poisonings, apples with razor blades-though they did happen on Halloween, no children died as a result from trick-or-treating. The ones who did die, they found, had been poisoned by their own family-not a candy giving neighbor.

4) In Ireland, children carved faces on a TURNIP. When Irish immigrants came to the States, they found the pumpkin was much easier to carve. Hence, jack-o-lanterns.

Cool, huh? I would offer more facts, but I don't trust my memory to recall them accurately. I should have written them all down. I leave you with a few pictures of the kids before they were terrorized by the Trail of Doom!