The magic of Halloween

Visit to pumpkin patch

The pumpkin patch is a field where pumpkins are grown and sold during the fall for decoration.
Since long my son had been constantly asking his father to take him to pumpkin patch. He wanted to buy a pumpkin. However, his time didn’t permit his father to do the same. Anyway, at last he got the chance to visit the pumpkin patch with his classmates. It was a great fun. We visited there and took a pumpkin from there; it was a part of the field trip. All children got a pumpkin each. The next day they did some math with those pumpkins. The pumpkin my son picked up weighed 6 lb. 

Corn field in the pumpkin patch

Jack-o-lantern

After my son brought the pumpkin at home, he badly wanted to curve it. Anyway, the last Sunday before Halloween, his father could manage few moments and carved the Jack-o-lantern. We put that outside on our porch. The little one wanted to lit the candle inside the pumpkin, but we managed to convince him not to do that. The Jack-o-lantern was only for the Halloween day.

Jack-O-lantern on our porch

What is that Jack-o-lantern?

Jack-o-lantern is not new, it is a century old tradition. For centuries people are making this. This is originated from an Irish myth, “Stingy Jack”.  According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him, and he didn't want to pay for his drink. He convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin which Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. However, at last Jack freed Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year. When Jack would die, he would not claim his soul.  Again Jack tricked Devil next year by making Devil to climb on a tree to pick some fruits. When Devil climbed the tree, he carved a cross on the tree, so Devil couldn’t climb down. Jack made him to promise that he would not to bother him for ten more years, to free him. For all these when Jack died, God did not allow him to heaven. For his trick Devil also could not claim his soul, and could not take him to hell. This upset Devil, and he set off Jack into the dark night with a burning coal in his hand to light his way. Jack put the charcoal in a craved turnip, and since then Jack has been roaming around on the earth, which is known as Jack of the lantern or simply “Jack-o-lantern”.  In the past in Ireland and Scotland people carved turnip or big potato with scary faces, and put them near window or doorsteps to ward off the evil. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack -o-lantern tradition with them to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack-o'-lanterns.

Halloween Costume

Next was my son’s Halloween costumeWe made great delay to buying my son’s Halloween Costume. The weather was very bad on Sunday. It was cloudy and stormy. On the top of that it was very cold. However, we had no option, but to go to store to buy the dress. First I couldn’t understand that was a queue to buy a dress in Party City. The people were flocked around the catalog which was displayed on the wall. After sometime I understood that we had to stand in the queue after choosing the dress. We were not lucky enough to get the skeleton dress which was my son’s first choice. After few trials and spending more than one hour we settled on the Iron-man costume.

My Iron Man

Halloween costume history

The practice of wearing costumes on Halloween may have originated in pre-Christian era. In that era people believed that during the fall time the spirits or fairies  and the souls of the dead, could more easily come into our world. After the Christianization of Ireland in the 5th century, some of these customs remained with them. The Christians observe All Hallows' Eve in that region. It is a blending tradition. In 19th century Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. It is suggested that the costumes were a means of imitating, or disguising oneself from, the sprits. The custom of guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.
At last 31^st arrived. Clad in iron-man costume my son and I reached the school the Halloween parade was scheduled at 8:50 in the morning. We parents were waiting outside. It was freezing cold. The sun couldn’t beat the cold. At last I stopped clicking as couldn’t move my fingers due to cold. My fingers became white, cold, and stiff. So, I stopped giving more pain to my poor fingers. The parade lasted for half-an-hour. All the little ones walked in spectacular costumes. The activities began at 10:00. I volunteered at the “hissing cat” table. I helped the children to make cat from black paper plates. There were many booths for the children, from face painting to simple games to craft. Through one hour they enjoyed a lot. After that, the children went to recess, while we volunteers arrange the table for a small lunch for the children. After coming back from school my son showed me one candy corn man, which he created as a part those activities. That was the end of the party in school. 

Candy corn history

Every Halloween party-throwers, party-goers, and trick-or-treaters hit the streets to harvest candy corn. The little yellow, orange, and white treat is an icon among the holiday candies. It has a legacy that goes back more than a century. According to oral tradition, George Renninger, a candy maker at the Wunderlee Candy Company in Philadelphia, invented this tri-color candy in the 1880s. The Goelitz Confectionery Company brought the candy to the masses at the turn of the 20th century. The company, now called Jelly Belly Candy Co., has the longest history in the industry of making candy corn. Though the method has changed, it still uses the original recipe.

Trick-or-treating

Children in many countries go Trick-or-treating or disguising. Children in costumes travel from house to house to collect candies with the question "Trick or treat?". The "trick" is a threat to perform mischief on the homeowners if no treat is given to them. In North America this tradition had been started since mid of the 20^th century. It typically starts after sunset and goes until 9:30 at night. Homeowners wishing to participate in it decorate their entrances with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Great Britain and Ireland, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. First disguising had been recorded in Scotland in late 19^th century.Anyway after coming back I finished all the household chores. Then mother-son duo decided to make Halloween cookie. While I made the dough, he helped me to cut the cookies into different shapes. Till then was everything looked well. I put the cookies inside the oven. However, the cookies spread during baking, and all of them lost their shapes. The grave stone became a circle, the witch became a dinosaur. Only the pumpkin and the ghost could maintain their shapes. That day the works seemed to be not ending.  After my husband came back home from office, I decided to go to Michaels’ to buy some stuffs which were being sold on clearance. After that my husband expressed his desire for a cup of tea. Just after coming back, I put the saucepan over the stove and went to finish, some small but important works, like putting the Jack-o-Lantern on the porch. I was determined to paint a butterfly on the side of my one eye. Already people started coming to visit and trick-or-treating. First, our neighbors came our home.

In our neighborhood

 The cute little toddlers and infants came in animal costumes. My son and I also went with them to our neighbors’ houses. At last my husband became interested to go with us. Then three of us started visiting more houses. It was really enjoyable to the grownups also. Then we went to visit the last house at the end our road. That was the main attraction in our locality. It was worth it to visit the front yard. They put many different kinds of ghosts on his front yard. It was really scary. It made me think, how many brutal kind of murders could happen on earth. This very thought really shook me. The person spent a substantial amount of money to make such a scary environment. After that, my son suddenly lost interest in trick-or-treating.  After much persuasion he agreed to visit some more houses. While we were gone we put the chocolate tray outside on the porch. So, many children were on the street, gave a new dimension to the locality. Their aubade poured the surroundings. We feared that the chocolate tray would be empty when we reached our home. Thankfully it was not so. The sweet surprise was, the visit of our son’s classmate D. D’s father told that, D was determined to find out his friend’s place, and he successfully did that. Anyway, that was sweet end of our Halloween day.

P.S. I took the help of different websites to find out the history of Halloween.