American Halloween

Halloween had always been a hit or miss holiday for me and my sister as kids. Some years we were allowed to go trick or treating, other years we weren’t. As it’s become our tradition to host a Halloween Party every year, I realized how little I actually knew about the holiday.

The origins of Halloween, of All Hallow’s Eve is dedicated to remembering the dead including saints, martyrs and the faithfully departed believers. Halloween is believed to be a Christian feast with customs thought to be influenced by Celtic speaking countries of Christian origin, but fear ensued when there was suspicion some of the Celtic countries had pagan roots. In young America during the 19th Century Puritans of New England maintained a strong opposition to the holiday. The mass immigration of Irish and Scottish increased the presence of the celebration in the United States. Today Christian attitudes are diverse. Some are concerned with the modernization that trivializes religion or celebrates paganism. Others see no harm in dressing up for one night of the year and ‘do not believe that holds a significant negative threat to the spiritual lives of their children.’

By the 12th century, All Hallow’s Eve  became a holy day of obligation across Europe. Activities such as ringing church bells for the souls in purgatory became tradition. “Souling,” the custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all the Christian souls has been suggested as the route of trick or treating. Shakespeare even mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Jack-o’-lanterns were traditionally carried to frighten off evil spirits and images of skulls were reminders of death and the transitory quality of human life. In earlier times in Ireland and Scotland, turnips were traditionally used for carving. The immigrants to North America were the ones that started using the native pumpkin because they was much softer and much larger.

Nowadays, most of the headlines I read focus on the massive amounts of candy America will have consumed. In 2013 the National Retail Association estimate that $6.9 billion dollars was spent by American consumers. The National Confectionery Association estimates that 600 million pounds of candy will be purchased and consumed in relation to Halloween. That’s a lot of candy. One dentist, Chris Kammer took matters into his own hands and offered kids $1 for each pound of candy turned into him. Last year he personally collected 3,542 pounds worth of candy. What does he does with all this candy? He brings it to Operation Gratitude which ships care packages, including toothbrushes, as well as candy to troops. You can read more about it here.

For us who work in the parks world, Halloween comes at the end of long season and a chance for friends to dress up and have a good time together before we all part ways for the winter. Everyone gets dressed up, we make pizzas, people bring a dish to pass, folks stay over so no one has to drive and it has become a way to spend time together after working so hard all summer.

Here is a small look into what our annual Halloween Party looked like:

Here’s the crew.

We take Halloween parties very seriously.

Of course when you are eating fingers, how can you not take Halloween seriously!?

Ah! These were sugar cookies that were rolled into fingers using a knife to create knuckle marks and jelly to adhere almond sliver finger nails. They looked so amazing I couldn’t eat one. But this little one seemed to have no problem.

And good thing because look who she had as both her dad and chaperon! This photo is a family keeper.

At least this clown smiled a little for this picture with the tourist.

We had a rum and coke as costumes.

A cougar with her cub.

And also making a debut, we had two more tourists!

You know the type. They have a tendency to raid the brochure racks.

But really everyone wanted to know where they got those socks from!

 When I started looking at these photos, I got so excited and decided I must do a Halloween post to show one glimpse of a night into an American Halloween. I wanted to get a photo of everyone whom attended and didn’t mind having their photo included in this post,  but the night got away on me and as I started writing this post I realized how few photos I actually ended up taking of everyone.

That’s ok though. Sometimes we walk away from a night with more memories than photos. And those make for the best nights among friends.

Ok, since I was a little lacking on Halloween photos, here’s one more. This is my cousin and her boyfriend with their sweet skeleton costumes. I would have never even recognized them. p.s. – they are Canadian, but you would never know that either! 😉