October 31st the spookiest night of the year every year on this night people gather to celebrate Halloween there are many Traditions associated with this holiday many common behaviors one might see people dressed up in costumes many of which are scary monsters and the dead as is the custom of the celebration but anything else from superheroes to peanut butter and jelly are fair game as well children especially can be seen wandering neighborhoods in these costumes ringing doorbells and exclaiming trick-or-treat in the hopes of receiving a handout of candy although occasionally they're stuck with a classic toothbrush or pencil inside these houses which are often decorated to resemble a haunted house in some way with a fun side of course parties are held scary movies are watched apples are bobbed for pumpkins are hollowed out with faces carved into them and candles placed into them to be put on display corn mazes hayrides scary story stories music haunted houses latex apple cider and pumpkin pie it's often regarded as an enjoyable celebration however consider explaining it to someone who had no prior knowledge of it how strange it all must seem we must ask why do we do these things where did this holiday come from how far does it go back is it Christian Pagan or neither is it a European holiday or an American one in this documentary we will be exploring not only the history of Halloween and the origins of these Traditions but also the associated tales and characters such as the cunning Count Drcula the mischievous Jack of the Lantern and the Fearsome monster of Frankenstein we will look at how Halloween is celebrated around the world but of course the main goal of this special presentation documentary the first of the campfire videos by the way is to have fun I would also like to mention I'm not here to tell you that you should or should not celebrate Halloween my goal is just to give an honest explanation of the holiday in a special holiday presentation so that being said let's get boo it get it boo it yeah I don't know how I'm so hilarious it's uh just a gift I guess [Music] before we begin I would like to thank Murray Rhodes Ryan Mendoza Benjamin vidstein and Adam bahon for being our most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters who make these videos possible the first question we must ask in our quest to understand Halloween where did it begin where did it come from there are those who claim that Halloween is a purely Pagan or satanic Festival but the truth is that a lot of the rituals as we will see seem to have come from Christianity developing in the late Middle Ages and early modern era and it is very hard to separate what came from a Christian tradition and what came from a pre-christian tradition All Saints Day was also known as all hollow's day the night before then on which a vigil was held was known as all hollow's evening much later in Scotland it was shortened to hollow's even I believe you see where I'm going with this it's where we get the word Halloween later the date of November 2nd was turned into All Souls day in remembrance of all the souls of deceased Christians with special attention to those Souls still in purgatory together these three days are known in the Christian religion as the all-hollow tide or hollomus this was still not really Halloween however that holiday still had a long way to go but this form of Celebration did resemble it in important ways and would eventually give rise to it as it stuck around and developed in medieval through early modern Europe by the late Middle Ages many Customs had developed surrounding the all-hallow tide and Western and central European countries Bells were wrong and mourning of the Dead across cities churches displayed holy relics and encouraged parishioners to dress up in costumes resembling their favorite Saints another interesting tradition of dressing up on this day revolved around the dance of death or dance makov it came from a medieval Christian artistic allegory meant to show that both King and peasant were equal in death joining together in the Eternal dance and that only service to God was What mattered in the end some Christians believed that the dead actually rose on this night to perform the stance in parties and such people dressed up as people from all social backgrounds and danced together this reminded medieval Christians that all Earthly things eventually come to an end Emperor your sword won't help you out scepter and Crown are worthless here I've taken you by the hand for you must come to my dance the concept of souling had developed as well as early as the 14th century people typically children of a poor background would go door to door asking for solo cakes the cakes typically had crosses on them and were made with some sort of spices in return for the cakes the children would offer prayers to people in purgatory this simultaneously was encouraged by the Christian requirement for a charity it was also believed by many Christians of The Souls of the Dead came down to earth on their Journey from purgatory to heaven on this day and food was left out for them these young solars would sometimes symbolically imitate these spirits and accept offerings on their behalf dressing up may have also been a way to protect oneself from the spirits while souling these children may have carried lanterns made from hollowed turnips this practice continued until the early 20th century and was practiced in places like England by both Protestants and Catholics Soul cake Soul cake pray your Good Mistress of salt cake one for Peter two for Paul three for him that made us all it's important to note this activity may have been more common on Christmas at certain times however rather than on the all hallow died which may be where collecting charity money by going Christmas caroling comes from another common tradition was to light candles in memory of the Dead something which is still a very common practice they were not simply for the sake of commemoration however they were sometimes lit to guide benevolent Spirits back to their families and to keep the Demons of Satan back in the darkness bowls of milk and other Foods were also left at the sides of Graves and parts of Europe in the 16th century interpretation on how to celebrate the al-hawa tide began to vary as Christianity began to split into a large number of the nominations following the Protestant Reformation many groups regarded the concept of purgatory as papist or Catholic nonsense while other Protestants held on to these beliefs or developed equivalence through different interpretations of the Bible the Reformation caused quite a bit of dispute among Europeans not all of it friendly in fact very little was friendly in 1605 a radical named guy Fox attempted to blow up the English House of Lords in order to assassinate the Protestant King James the first in an attempt to bring England back to the Catholic Church his plot failed however and he was arrested on the 5th of November and later executed ever since then the 5th of November has remained as guy fox day or bonfire night throughout much of England it's not a Halloween celebration but many Traditions such as lighting bonfires though with his effigy on top of them were adopted by the English as secular celebrations mocking guy Fox's failure and may have influenced Halloween as well the next major transition in our story comes with European culture making its way to the new world throughout the 17th and 18th century the Americas were colonized primarily by the Spanish Portuguese English French and Dutch Christianity of course came with them and with their Christian religion in many circumstances came the all-halotide religious celebrations in the 13 colonies of America many different kinds of Christians could be found to groups like the Puritans All Hallows Eve was not celebrated whatsoever along with other Church holidays like Christmas and Easter but other groups like Catholics and anglicans still recognized it time passed and eventually the 13 English colonies became their own country and opened their doors to people across Europe one main group are crucial to the story the Irish with some help from the Scottish though not as many Scots came to America today around 30 percent of Americans have Irish ancestry compared to about eight percent with Scottish ancestry though the Scots Irish are included under Irish anyway these Irish men and Scots brought with them some of the traditions of their home countries some of which might have developed in recent centuries others perhaps being far older as they grew in number more and more Americans became interested in them the Irish and Scottish especially practiced the art of turnip carving on Halloween they were not used merely as lanterns though as was mentioned before but may have had faces carved into them to represent souls and Purgatory or to ward off evil spirits such as the spirit of the infamous Jack of the lantern whom we will soon discuss in America however they discovered a fruit for the job which was much easier to work with the pumpkin pumpkins have been carved in America ever since perhaps the 1820s or 30s though they weren't necessarily a Halloween practice but rather just a fall activity the Celts were happy to adopt the practice however and within a century pumpkin carving became a Halloween thing Harvest or Autumn parties Across America throughout the 1800s began picking up Traditions that we would consider to be halloween-ish slowly evolving into our current holiday so having mentioned that who was this Jack of the lantern anyway Stingy Jack drunk Jack or Jack of the lantern is a character in pre-modern Irish folklore he was a vile lying cheating manipulative scoundrel who played tricks on people stole from them and was otherwise a burden to society one night Jack was drunk wandering through the countryside when he came upon a figure in the road this figure turned out to be Satan and self Satan had heard Tales of Jack's depravity and simply had to come see Jack for himself he told Jack he was there to take his soul and bring him to Hell Jack grew quite depressed and begged Satan for him to satisfy Just One Last Request he asked Satan if he could have another drink before going to the Eternal fires of hell Satan agreed and off they went to a nearby pub then after drinking several ales he asked Satan to pay by turning into a silver coin a strange request but fair enough not that I expected any more from you said Satan and he did so however when he did so Jack stuck the coin in his pocket next to a crucifix which prevented Satan from returning to his original form Jack then demanded of Satan to let him live for another year Satan agreed and they parted ways time passed and exactly one year later in the same circumstances Jack Came Upon Satan on the road again Jack asked Satan once again for a final request a much simpler request this time Jack simply wanted an apple that's it just a fruit before Eternal damnation Satan agreed evidently he had not learned his lesson from Jack's trickery he went to the nearest Apple Tree picking apple as he did so Jack placed crucifixes around the tree preventing Satan from leaving it ironic that Satan found himself in trouble after picking fruit from a tree he was Furious and a man at his release but once again jack forced him to accept his demands I'll let you go said Jack but you must swear to me never to take me to Hell Satan was forced to agree and once more they parted ways eventually as though Jack's lifestyle took a toll on him and he did indeed die his soul prepared to enter Heaven but as he approached the gates God turned him away there was no way Jack was going to enter Heaven after having lived such as sinful lifestyle Jack then went to the gates of hell and begged Satan to allow him to come in hell he supposed was better than wandering another world alone for eternity but Satan had made him a deal Jack was never to come to Hell instead Satan scooped up a number from the fires of hell and gave the jack to be placed in a turnip to be used as a lantern for him to see as he wandered the Earth at night for eternity as this ghostly figure according to Legend could be seen wandering the roads and Countryside of Ireland in the darkness with this turnip Lantern he earned his name Jack of the lantern or jack-o-lantern Tales of Stingy Jack vary quite a bit but that was a very stereotypical version of the story and thus a tradition was born the idea of Stingy Jack wandering the countryside may have been encouraged by The Willow The Wisp a mythical spirit fire known scientifically in Latin as the ignis fatus the Fool's fire these are naturally occurring births of flammable gas that appear over bogs and marshlands the sudden appearance of flames of a variety of colors occasionally and suddenly flashing over the countryside encouraged all manner of folklore as one might expect when people observe these things many no doubt thought that it was truly Jack of the lantern wandering the countryside this was not the only tradition that the Irish and Scots brought with them to America however other Traditions survived as well it was a common occurrence for children there to dress up in costumes and go door-to-door asking for coins or food on this night a practice known as geysing likely related to souling as far as North America goes this tradition was first reported to have been practiced in Ontario Canada in the 1910s and not long after was reported in the United States as well children were geysing in the city of Chicago by 1920 but in Anoka Minnesota in 1920 they were already having Halloween parades today this small American city outside of Minneapolis of around 17 000 people Prides itself on being the Halloween capital of the world this wasn't exactly trick-or-treating though and indeed the term trick-or-treat doesn't seem to have come about until the late 1930s and was invented in America in Ireland and Scotland children might have even performed for the treats singing a song or playing a flute similar to another possible influence of trick-or-treating and again Christmas caroling the practice may have been influenced by the practice of mumming people across Western Europe dressing up in costumes and Performing around holidays to the public in hopes of a donation much like current street performers still do what does Trick or Treat really even mean anyway the treat part is obvious but what's with the trick are they saying give up the candy or else well yeah while there is definitely a good degree of trickery that does go on during Halloween this is almost always just harmless fun today however it was actually derived from a real set of circumstances in Ireland and Scotland people who gave to solars or geysers could expect good fortune but those who denied gifts to them could expect misfortune some children too impatient to wait for divine intervention decided to bring The Misfortune to these homes themselves in the early 20th century children were accustomed to using the night of October 30th actually or November 4th in England as the night before bonfire night for all manner of pranks and vandalism this night was indeed called Mischief Night property was egged windows and light bulbs were smashed wagons were disassembled placed on roofs and then reassembled on top of them and left there which is actually pretty childish simply puerile my adolescence was nothing like this at all this Mischief eventually got way out of control Mischief Night was a nationwide event for children to be burdens to society communities in America and Canada soon came together and decided to do something about it they decided to redirect the children's energy toward harmless youth social fun and decided to make Halloween a night or positive activities when the children were ride with candy a deal was struck and they were tamed trick-or-treating soon became a semi-official community event as those kids grew up however they found themselves reluctant to stop having Halloween fun and Halloween became a party for people of all ages the modern Halloween celebration was taking place a myriad of European Traditions mainly from Ireland and Scotland were giving birth to this new holiday in America and Canada sugar rations during the second world war put a damper on a celebration but once the war was finished in the 1940s the holiday took off Halloween wasn't really so much about religion anymore though some Churches still organized Halloween get-togethers and things along those lines for Children and Families churches are a common location for trunk-or-treating for example the all-halotide is certainly important to Christians but Halloween is kind of the secular offshoot welcome back to subjects like that and much more in a bit though for now we've left out quite a bit of an important part of Halloween celebrations the origins of its myths the monsters ghosts Ghouls and of course the very important period in which these beings were on a center stage the age of Gothic literature it is no coincidence that many Halloween Tales are set in the Victorian era or roughly between 1830 and 1900 the stereotypical haunted house even in today's world is typically a Victorian one the ghostly inhabitants of these houses well-mannered educated Dapper yet mysterious victorians who died in the oddest of circumstances the Victorian era was the height of Gothic literature Bram Stoker Edgar Allan Poe Mary Shelley Robert Lewis Stevenson and other famous authors all lived in this era there are those that would say that these authors even outdo us as far as making a good story goes in some cases this is of course up to Major debate recent Generations have made some very good stuff and many horror movies today have been major equal Inspirations to the Halloween celebration but it is worth pointing out that we often find ourselves looking to these Classics for inspiration but even these clever victorians looked even further back for inspire operation themselves to the Legends and tales of their European Heritage of ghosts vampires bogeyman or Boogeyman in America demons monsters witches the undead and much more Bram Stoker's Drcula was published on May 26 1897. the story tells and of course there will be no spoilers by the way of a mysterious Count Drcula a handsome intelligent and charismatic nobleman who lives in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains with the help of a MrJonathan Harker he moves to England this Count Drcula's mysterious side however is quite dark he is indeed a parasitic Undead blood-sucking monster a vampire when he arrives to England to feed upon the living by sucking their blood thereby consuming their life force it's up to a team led by DrAbraham Van Helsing to stop him with the movies especially Drcula has since been the end inspiration for the archetypal vampire fanged teeth a dark but gentlemanly or a ladylike outfit with a cloak pale skin red eyes and possession of Supernatural Powers such as great strength the ability to crawl along walls and turn into a bat and a bite which may turn others into vampires fear not though a vampire also has weaknesses a sensitivity to sunlight garlic silver and the crucifix according to Legend a vampire can be killed with a silver bullet a stake to the heart or decapitation whether or not an inability to be seen a mirror is its strength or weakness depends on the situation I suppose but Count Drcula certainly hated mirrors Count Drcula was historically based on Vlad III Prince of walekia who was born around 1430. his father was given the title drakul when he joined the order of the Drgon which we discussed very briefly in my Germany documentary dracul an old Romanian meant Drgon though it later came to mean devil this title then passed to his son the point of this order was to defend Christendom against the invasions of the Ottoman Turks who sacked the great Christian city of Constantinople during vlad's lifetime Vlad III is remembered as a cruel Monarch his favorite method of execution earned him the title Vlad the Impaler political enemies criminals adulterous women and his Muslim ottoman Turk enemies whom he would spend much of his life fighting were known to be impaled on Pikes as a form of slow execution despite his successes he was betrayed by the hungarians and in prison and eventually died while fighting the Turks his body was cut to pieces and his head was sent to Istanbul where it was impaled on a pike the legends of blood-sucking creatures wander in the night are found well before Brian Stoker's time and are fairly widespread across cultures having developed independently of each other in the late Middle Ages through the early modern era the people of Europe surged heavily for an explanation to all the deaths that surrounded them many offered Supernatural explanations on some occasions Graves were dug up to investigate corpses which were believed to have been not so dormant those who dug up recently buried corpses were sometimes shocked at what they discovered hair and fingernail growth Blood on the corners of the mouth and even bloating of the belly in other words corpses which looked quite Lively today we understand that these changes occur naturally after death corpses swell from the gases of decomposition and blood is pushed to the surface of the skin and out of the mouth the skin recedes as it dries making it look like hair nails and even teeth have grown corpses have even been known to groan as gas moves out from the esophagus to these superstitious peasantry however these were signs but the corpses were alive and active possibly even moving among them at night when such corpses were discovered they were often killed a second time by beheading or by having a stake driven through the heart this inspired much of the European Legend surrounding vampires the situation got so bad that the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa who reigned from 1740 to 1780 was forced to send her Dutch physician Gerard Von spiten to disprove the existence of vampires their aristocracy were quite annoyed with a Vampire nonsense and especially the defilement of graves even the laws passed across Europe attempting to ban the practice of digging up Graves to re-execute vampires did not cause the legends to die though another creature which may have influenced the vampire myth was discovered in the 17th century the vampire bat which feeds solely on the blood of other creatures was discovered in the Americas though bats had a long history of being regarded with suspicion before they were connected to vampires most Europeans Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians regarded them as some sort of Evil dark beings but in some cultures such as in China they actually brought good luck suspicion of dark magic and evil was not directed solely towards corpses however but also to the living and society as well typically people who were strange ugly elderly lived out in the Countryside by themselves and were primarily female the people of 14th through 19th century Europe and America who lived in periods of high stress tended to regard such women as witches those who used dark magic and worshiped the devil and who actively harmed others brooms cauldrons English Countryside hats and other attire and common everyday tools became the dress and instruments of their evil such women when found guilty of practicing witchcraft were often burned at the stake or executed in a variety of ways the most famous Witch Hunt occurred between 1692 and 1693 in Salem Massachusetts the Salem Witch Trials over 200 people were accused in these Salem Witch Trials 19 were found guilty and executed and six others died in Associated incidents overall thousands of people primarily women across Europe and America would be killed for witchcraft throughout the centuries these superstitions surroundings women gave rise to the archetypal which perhaps some women were up to no good but many witches were very likely innocent today the only surest scientific way of determining whether or not an individual is a witch is to weigh them if they weigh the same as a duck this naturally would imply that they are made of wood if they are indeed made of wood then we must arrive to the conclusion that they are in fact a witch remember that on Halloween ladies and gentlemen if you want to avoid getting turned into a newt black cats are sometimes associated with witches they're seen as either the animals of evil or are actually witches themselves who have shape-shifted into them throughout much of European history they were regarded with suspicion and viewed as supernatural beings or creatures which brought bad luck although in some places in Europe they were good luck in some circumstances people who owned black cats were punished or even killed and the Animals themselves were of course commonly killed as well apparently it's worth mentioning October 27th is a black cat Day in the United Kingdom which is held on August 17th in America it seems to be a day dedicated to erasing stigma against the cats ghost Zombies skeleton Shades ghouls Spirits whites wraiths Phantoms apparitions there are many names for the Dead who rise from the grave and the many forms they may take perhaps mindless reanimated corpses in invisible Spirit or something in between such as a girl and a burial shroud no doubt such Legends have existed in nearly all cultures across times most certainly even before recorded history nearly every town in America has a ghost story or two a place you shouldn't go especially at night because of what's supernatural beings might be lurking there according to some polls Link in the description between a third and half of all Americans claim to believe in ghosts around 18 percent of Americans claim to have actually had a ghost encounter according to the wide variety of ghost Tales some of the undead are harmless perhaps even Pleasant just wandering around an area where they met a terrible fate many are said to be Wicked however such as the Poltergeist from the German meaning noisy ghost the kind of ghost which is violent throws things and hurts people the word zombie actually has an African etymology which made its way to Heidi today depictions of zombies are all over our media a famous zombie although not a typical zombie is Frankenstein's monster whose tale comes from Mary Shelley's 1831 book Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus the monster was designed by a mad scientist Victor Frankenstein the word ghoul is Arabic from a ghoul a monster from the pre-islamic Arabian religion which behaved very much like a zombie a boogeyman or sometimes the boogeyman as a single specific character comes from the old English Booga meaning something frightening the first mention of a goblin seems to come from the 12th century referring to a kind of Monster Hunt in the countryside of Normandy Gremlins are similar beings though accounts of what exactly a goblin or a gremlin is tends to vary Tales of werewolves are quite ancient dating back to least the ancient Greeks but like the earlier as characters of a kind of Indo-European mythology a werewolf is a person who either by being cursed or by volition becomes a wolf or more commonly a wolf man the typical trigger for a temporary transformation is a full moon the typical way in which one becomes a werewolf is as I said by a curse or by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf though less commonly heard about there were fears of werewolves alongside witches during the aforementioned time periods of high stress and witch hunts another famous author of gothic fiction perhaps the most famous is the American Edgar Allan Poe born January 19 1809.
Poe is best known for his short stories and poetry some of which are required reading in American public schools The Cask of Amontillado The Raven The Telltale Heart and my personal favorite the mask of the Red Death are just some of his best known works such writing however indeed came from an equally somber man much of Poe's life was complicated and his death is something straight out of one of his own works on October 7th 1849 Poe was found wandering the streets of Baltimore delirious and incoherent he was taken to a nearby hospital where he rested until he died doctors were not able to communicate with Poe he was evidently wearing another man's clothes and called out the name Reynolds multiple times what exactly happened to Poe remains a complete mystery perhaps just as strange is the poe toaster or more likely at least two men perhaps father and son who every year from around 1930 to 2009 on Poe's birthday left three roses and a bottle of cognac at his grave the identity of the poe toaster or toasters remains a mystery as well these are just some of the creatures that haunt our minds and have an opportunity to come to life during Halloween and just some of the authors to whom we owe such captivating and imaginative stories around which much of our Halloween culture is based we have gone over the history of many Traditions the religion the mythology and legends some of Halloween's most famous characters but there is more to discuss how has the modern world shaped Halloween what is it like in other countries what is its future and is it a dangerous holiday the first president to celebrate Halloween in the White House was Dwight D Eisenhower introduced by his wife Mamie Eisenhower in 1958. ever since then celebrating a holiday has been a presidential activity and certainly an American activity likewise how the Wayne is still common in Canada and even in Quebec which is of course part of Canada but with its French Origins culturally distinct it's not entirely clear which country America or Canada had Halloween first although the holiday was greatly developed in the United States but what about the rest of the world what other countries celebrate Halloween it's a complicated question the all hallow tide is observed across the Christian world but it is not the same thing as Halloween modern Halloween though perhaps based on very ancient cultures and traditions is something which came about in America Americans are as you might expect the biggest celebrators of Halloween an estimated 8. 4 billion dollars are spent each year on celebrating in the United States alone much of it is on Candy a quarter of all candy sales in the U.
S occurred during the Halloween season the Celtic world still celebrates a course while maintaining its own cultural Traditions as well the English have largely welcomed the holiday alongside guy fox day or bonfire night as well Halloween is spreading across much of Europe Oceania and parts of East Asia such as in Japan the Philippines and South Korea but it is doing so slowly people from these countries tend to see Halloween as an American thing and suspect that it's arrived to the countries simply because it's good money and helps pick up the monetary law between summer and Christmas many especially older Generations view Halloween as an Americanization of their culture and would prefer to Simply get on with their own all halotai practices if they have them there is a somewhat similar celebration in Spring called valprogis knocked in places like Germany and Scandinavia despite this younger Generations especially have embraced Javelin more much of Oceania has an Anglo Celtic cultural origin however celebrating the holiday in New Zealand and Australia is a bit awkward considering it's a different season there in October I have a New Zealander friend who said that flowers blooming and warming temperatures doesn't exactly Inspire the Halloween spirit but it has gained some popularity there there is a similar story in South Africa throughout much of Asia the Middle East and Africa Halloween is largely uncelebrated and viewed as a foreign thing I fully respect the right of Europe and Asia and other cultures to project Halloween if it doesn't fit into their culture by the way throughout Latin America a very similar holiday called the Dia de Muertos is celebrated Mexico especially celebrates this holiday it's rooted of course in the fact that Latin America is predominantly Catholic with large influences from Spanish and Portuguese culture but there are other Traditions involved which likely date back to indigenous festivals such as the festival dedicated to miktikasa huatal the Aztec goddess of death Dia de Muertos celebrations also vary from country to Country some involve a three-day Festival spanning the all hellotide graves are often visited by family and friends and decorated a very common decoration are candles and the amerigold flower food is left out for the dead as well skeletons are especially common symbols of the dead and have inspired the very popular treat of the celebration the sugar skull a famous tradition involves building altars for the dead often consisting of photographs of the deceased person in question alongside pictures of the Virgin Mary and Christ on the cross often prey at them honoring the dead and telling stories about their lives the festival ends with a special mass Halloween celebrations in America and Canada are as strong as ever and there are no signs of the holiday losing popularity anytime soon every year as the leaves change color decorations begin to go up oh who am I kidding big box stores have decorations in Candia for sale in July for goodness sake but anyway despite this could there be a threat to Halloween survival in the long term could it simply be too dangerous could there be razors glass drugs or poison and children's candy and other actual evil afoot that could ruin the holiday for everyone else the occurrence of this type of thing is well known but in actuality extremely rare the warnings and reports you hear about every year are mostly based in myths and blow up because of anxiety of the idea of such a thing not necessarily actual events on top of that when there are actual events they're so ambiguous that their heart disprove or look into the truth is there is no documented case of a child ever dying from Halloween candy that has been tampered with by a stranger and given to them during trick-or-treating however there have been incidents of people doing weird things with candy and actually trying to hurt children and some deaths which were blamed on Halloween candy but were a part of a larger Story one of the first incidents seems to have come from 1964. from a woman named Helen file Mr file felt there was an age limit to trick-or-treating and she was quite serious about it as a result she gave out random them objects like steel wool dog biscuits and poisonous ant buttons to teenagers whom she thought were too old to be trick-or-treating Helen file was a bit of a weirdo but she seems to have been harmless she did not intend for children to eat these things obviously and none did but she was still charged with child endangerment regardless there were other incidents as time went on actually resulting in children's deaths these incidents blew up across the news unfortunately the less exciting though equally disturbing truths about such stories do not make the front page as often both incidents resulting in the death of children were linked to the parents of the children not from trick-or-treating one was a case of grave irresponsibility the other cold-blooded murder both of which were blamed on the trick-or-treating myths and hysteria I can post links to these two stories in the description if you want to know more there have been some circumstances where razors and needles were pound and Candy but again there has never been a death associated with the candy given out by strangers these incidents are quite rare and many of them were hoaxes despite this from the 1980s up through the 2000s many communities have offered the opportunity to x-ray children's candy ironically if there's an actual regular danger to kids safety on Halloween it doesn't come from Poison Candy it comes from Cars statistics show children walking around on the streets faced an increased risk of being hit by a car on Halloween night so kids and chaperones be safe drivers don't be stupid as far as candy goes again most of the fear is based on hysteria and myth but we do live in a world with ridiculous people so I'm still going to tell you to check your or your children's candy throw away anything that looks strange even if it's just been open slightly report to the police anything that definitely looks strange avoid eating homemade treats from people you don't know avoid the house where the freak lives all that kind of stuff I don't want to hear about any oh yeah this dude I watched on YouTube said it was sick type incidents all right there are many ways to celebrate Halloween trick-or-treating partying and dancing apple bobbing costume contests house decorating ghost stories maybe even house decorating contests haunted houses making Foods corn mazes hayrides pumpkin carving maybe some slightly mischievous pranks there are some traditions which have been lost Over time however one tradition is to set a place for your past relatives at your dinner table in order to honor them another is to have what is called a dumb supper a feast in which there is little talking so that one may dine with the thoughts of Those whom they have lost in mind an old Scottish tradition called an apple wedding is related to the supposed ability to better tell the future on Halloween night it involves cutting the peel of an apple off without breaking it throwing it over your shoulder and looking at what it foretells whatever letter the peel most resembles when it lands is the first letter of the name of the person whom you're going to marry one tradition which isn't that for God is to light candles for the dead this certainly isn't my invention none of these are but I have developed my own way of lighting candles each Halloween night I Light One Candle for my paternal relatives who have died one for my maternal one for all my friends neighbors peers and even pets who have died and then an individual candle for everyone who has died since the last Halloween whom I personally knew so three candles no matter what plus one individual candle for anyone that's died as I said since last Halloween while I mentioned Halloween is a time for good fun I do also like to incorporate some moments of seriousness in it it is a good time to remember those whom we have lost maybe to visit a grave and leave some flowers or something along those lines as well across Northern America on October 31st people will be celebrating Halloween well almost in some cases Halloween including activities like trick-or-treating is celebrated on the closest weekend to Halloween this is not the norm I don't like telling people how to celebrate but I will say that I don't much care for this I have no problem doing Halloween activities on the closest weekend or throughout most of October in general but in my humble opinion Halloween itself falls on the 31st for a reason interestingly the city in which I live also has designated trick-or-treating hours generally 5 30 to 7 30 p.
