Post #340332 by The Gnomon on Wed, Oct 24, 2007 1:05 PM

On 2007-10-20 11:37, VampiressRN wrote:
I love Halloween....even all the commercialism. I get sucked into buying all sorts of stuff. This year I invested in Pirate decor, but I have great Vampire/graveyard stuff too.

I'm trying to figure out just when vampires, ghosts, goblins, monsters, and creepy things became part of the Halloween tradition. Haven't has the time to run it down yet.

Certainly, witches were accused of vampirism, satanism, etc. dating back centuries before the beginning of the Christian Era, but that is a kind of long-standing political tactic that is still used to this day. Witches weren't the only ones to be so accused. Just about everyone that was out of favor with the ruling class that could be tagged as an evil heathen was subject to such charges. I think it stuck with witches because of their acceptance, appreciation, and honoring of spirits that had passed as being still living (albeit in the world beyond).

Trick or Treat was an invention of the 1930s—the expression, that is. Dressing up in costumes is a reflection of the fact that in ancient times during Samhain men would dress up like women and women like men (how times have changed). Not everyone did that, but is was just one of many ways to express the chaotic nature and whimsy of the holiday. But dressing up as different freaky characters is more recent. A lot of more modern Halloween interpretations came about in the 17th and 18th Centuries CE, but if I can dig it up...er..I mean, exhume the info, I think the costumes deal is all 20th century.

Certainly, pagans, who were country folk, would never think of dressing up like Vlad the Impaler, an aristocratic type. Nor would they ever take on the persona of anything evil (not to suggest that Vlad wasn't). They did perform mischievous deeds during the lunacy of the Samhain festival. They'd open closed pasture gates and sometimes move livestock around to places where they shouldn't be—things like that. Nothing that would leave a mark. Just oddball stuff that would make people laugh the next day, even if it was some work recovering from the pranks.

The actual door to door (farmhouse to farmhouse) trick or treat activity (not called Trick-or-Treat until the 1930s) was kind of a thrill for the women and young kids of the day. Back 2500 years ago, you didn't open your door at night without good reason, especially, if there were strangers about. When the gangs of boys would sound their horns to announce that they were approaching, the women would prepare a packet of small foods and/or money. When the gang reached their door, the woman would hand the packet out through the narrow slit in the barely open door, into the darkness where it would be snatched away. No small talk with the visitors. That's old time entertainment ain't it.

Dammit! Spelling, of course.

[ Edited by: The Gnomon 2007-10-24 13:09 ]