Possum Philosophy: Halloween’s treats

By ROBERT CAHILL/Columnist

As most everyone knows Oct. 31 is the date on which the holiday of Halloween is celebrated. Modern tradition considers it a holiday primarily for children. However, its origins go much farther back than one might think. Back some 2,000 years or so to the ancient Celts who lived in today’s Ireland, the United Kingdom, as well as parts of northern France. Halloween as it is known here in the United States took much of its tradition from the pre-Christian Druids of Ireland and Scotland (though other Gaelic cultures celebrated a similar day) and their fire festival known as Samhain (which was apparently pronounced as sow-in with the sow rhyming with cow, according to the Web site http://www.theholidayspot.com.)
The Celtic DNA heritage runs through many of us here in the Southern Highlands of Virginia, as our ancestors were some of the region’s earlier settlers. Our early ancestors celebrated their New Year on Nov. 1. Samhain was the evening before their New Year began.
According to the History Channel Website, http://www.history.com/content/halloween/real-story-of-halloween, the day marked the end of summer and the start of their dark, cold winter. For them, winter was often associated with human death. They believed that on the night before the change of seasons, the lines between the world they lived in and the world of the dead became blurry. The Celts believed the ghosts of the dead could return to earth on Samhain and walk among the living. While here, these spirit visitors were thought to damage crops and do all manner of mischief.
However, there was an upside to this evening. The Celts believed that during this spiritual time-space warp, their Celtic (Druid) priests could make predictions about the future. For people who were at the mercy of a natural world they did not fully understand, these forecasts of the future provided knowledge and comfort, an idea no doubt proposed by their priests as a bit of job-security for themselves.
The spirits thought to be able to return to earth were both good and bad. Families believed the ghosts of their ancestors came during this night and so they performed rituals welcoming them to their homes.
The evil spirits, on the other hand, had to be avoided as they were here for only one purpose, to do as much harm as possible. The Celts tried as much as feasible to ward them off. It was this fear of evil spirits that led to wearing of costumes. The idea behind it was simple, if you were thought to be an evil spirit, real evil spirits would leave you alone and go after the good folks they had come to pester. Therefore, people would dress as often wearing animal heads and skins to disguise themselves as one of the troublemakers in hopes they and their homes would go unharmed.
The jack-o-lantern may have an equally sinister ancestry, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org). The ancient Celts often lit a candle placed on their western sill to honor their dead ancestors. They also carved hollowed-out turnips or rutabagas (the ancient version of the carved pumpkin) with faces resembling human heads. This may be a remembrance of the early Celts practice of head-hunting. The heads of enemies decorated shrines and honored warriors’ heads were believed to continue to speak their wisdom after death.
The term jack-o-lantern comes from a legend of a fellow named Jack who was said to have been tricky enough to have bested the devil in a bet. The devil, however, condemned Jack to wander the earth at night with only a candle inside a hollowed out turnip as a light. Once Halloween immigrated to the New World with early settlers, the pumpkin, as it was more plentiful here and bigger making the carving easier, replaced the turnips and rutabagas.
The tradition of trick-or-treating allegedly derived from a practice early on called guising. During the Great Famine of Ireland, gangs of starving children apparently disguised themselves and went door-to-door begging for food. Some threatened harm to the homes’ inhabitants and their property if they did not provide “treats.” Others performed songs or other short acts of entertainment for their “treats.”
I remember Halloween as a favorite event when I was a child. In Saltville, at least, adults would often dress in costumes and take the costumed children around the town visiting homes where the kids would trick-or-treat. Usually we kids would carry a small piece of hand soap for “soaping” windows of those folks who were not at home and store-front windows in downtown Saltville, as well as any unattended auto we might come across. The adults always seemed to have as much fun as we did.
As we grew a little older, enough so that our parents would let us go out in groups at least without them along, our trick or treating expanded to walking all over town and our repertoire of tricks grew to include such naughty acts as overturning the occasional outhouse we would find. (Though rare by the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, a few still existed within our trick-or-treating range.)
This time of year always reminds my brothers, my sister and me of our neighbor and dear friend, the late Hilda Coulthard. Hilda was a kid at heart and loved children dearly, although she had three sons and a daughter, she treated every kid in our bunch like they were hers too. She would spend days decorating for Halloween and making wonderful homemade treats (and believe me, she was a fantastic cook. Her homemade candies and cookies were treats indeed). She also rigged her record player to play such songs as “The Monster Mash,” “The Witch Doctor,” The Purple People Eater,” and “The Haunted House.” I still think of Halloween and Hilda whenever I hear these songs, particularly “The Monster Mash.” I often think of her and miss her as she always treated me like a son. But, I especially miss her around Halloween.
It is a sad commentary on our times that parents today are afraid to allow kids to go trick-or-treating without close adult supervision. It is also a shame that treats are closely monitored and usually discarded if not in factory-sealed packaging. I would not swap one of Hilda’s homemade treats for a truckload of “store-bought” goodies.
I know kids today still enjoy this holiday. And I think such practices as community-wide trunk-or-treating are a good idea for safety’s sake. Even years ago,  Saltville’s various churches would have a party for the youth groups such as the MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) to go trick-or-treating for UNICEF (which I understand has now fallen out of favor itself). But it was fun and harmless as well. Besides, we got to meet some pretty girls from other areas of town and out in the counties as well.
I hope all area residents have a safe and fun-filled Halloween. That every kid gets a few treats and no one has anything worse than a little window soaping happen to them. And I would bet a good piece of pocket change that Hilda Coulthard will be looking down from heaven with the other moms talking about how sweet and cute each child is in their costumes. I hope she and my Mom (they were close friends) enjoy the holiday even more than they did when we were kids.

A freelance journalist, Robert “Rocky” Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition.