by Valerie Green –
Once October rolls around, children begin to think about Halloween, the night when they can go “trick or treating” dressed in weird costumes. It’s a night of witches, goblins and ghosts.
In North America, Halloween traditions date back to the early All Soul’s Day parades in England when the poor begged for food and people offered pastries called “soul cakes” in return for a promise to pray for their family’s dead relatives. This was encouraged by the Church as it replaced the former practice of leaving wine and food for roaming spirits. The practice became known as “going a-souling.”
The tradition of dressing up in costume at Halloween dates back to early European and Celtic times when winters were fearful because food supplies ran low and the dark, short days were always uncertain. As a result, people began to wear masks whenever they left their homes after dark because they believed they would encounter ghosts and the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. They even placed bowls of food outside their houses to prevent the “ghosts” from entering.
So it seems that Halloween has always been filled with mystery and magical superstition. Today’s Halloween “ghosts” are depicted as fearsome and some of our customs and superstitions are scary. People still avoid crossing paths with black cats which they believe bring seven years bad luck. This dates back to the Middle Ages when people believed that witches turned themselves into cats to avoid being seen. We also try not to walk under ladders in an attempt to avoid bad luck and this superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians who believed that triangles were sacred. A more logical thought is that walking under a leaning ladder might simply be unsafe! Other superstitions range from trying to avoid breaking mirrors or stepping on cracks in the road to spilling salt.
Other Halloween traditions and beliefs focus on matchmaking. One comes from 18th century Ireland, stating that a cook would bury a ring in mashed potatoes on Halloween night and the one who found the ring would also find her true love before the next Halloween. In Scotland, fortune tellers suggested that a woman should name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then throw all the nuts into a fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than exploding represented the lady’s future husband. There were many other such rituals and one that particularly appealed to me suggested that a woman should eat a sugary concoction of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before going to bed on Halloween night and she would be sure to dream of her future husband. She might also suffer from indigestion!
So whether asking for romantic advice or simply trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each Halloween superstition concerns the goodwill of those same “spirits” that the early Celts feared so much.
As a final thought, Victoria is apparently the most haunted city in British Columbia. Spirits are said to roam freely in Beacon Hill Park, St. Ann’s Academy and Bastion Square at this time of year. Happy Halloween!
Valerie Green is an author and historian and can be reached at valgee@shaw.ca.
