QUICK OKLAHOMA HALLOWEEN HISTORY

HALLOWEEN: OKLAHOMA TRICKS-N-TREATS 1900-1989.  

This fun little book shares the history of some ways Halloween was celebrated in Oklahoma between 1900 and 1989.  It looks at some of the influences that made the season sinister, safe, and sometimes silly.

Authored by Marilyn A. Hudson it will be of interest to any who enjoy their holidays with a dash of local history.

Now availale in Kindle format as well.  (ISBN: 0615711111 / 9780615711119)

THE HOLIDAY OF THE IMAGINATION

I played an exotic gypsy on more than
one occasion! Even reprised the role
for a PTA Carnival!

Why has Halloween been so popular?  Why have I enjoyed it over other fun times of the year?

I recall as a child the eager anticipation as the trees turned to gold, scarlet, and brown beneath an October sky with a unique clarity and a deep azure color. The time of fall festivals, bags of candy, parties, hayrides, mad leaps into piles of crackling eaves, and lots of plain fun.

The inspiration for dozens of daring deeds and funny pranks from older adults and siblings and delightful shivers danced up spines as scary stories and stupid jokes were shared around glowing jack-a-lanterns.

There was the giggling excitement of heading to the local Woolworths or Ben Franklin to see the long rows of shiny boxes, each with a small window of hard cellophane revealing wondrous masks for fairies, heroes, and animals. The hard decisions that followed: would it be the exotic gypsy fortuneteller or the Little Red Riding Hood, or maybe the Monster, Clown, or a Spaceman this year?  
Every child readily over looked the shortcomings of the mandatory accompanying acetate satin costume (always for some reason with sparkles detailing the seams and adding details to the costume).  Too short or too long, what did matter? 

It was Halloween!

Halloween and numerous rites of passage lay ahead with each new turning of the season. 

Arcane knowledge and childhood rituals passed from generation to generation: look for the sacred light of welcome (the front porch light casting its feeble glow), look carefully before you cross the street, and always, always say “Thank you.”

Anticipatory huddles preceded the event on playgrounds, street corners, and in back yards.  Skills were shared in excited whispers, but ultimately it was a lonely hero’s journey to be faced in solitude. A rite of passage was learning to walk boldly up the forbidden zone of someone’s front porch, climbing nervously the steps illuminated by glowing jack-o-lanterns knocking on a door that stood ten feet tall.  

A soft childish knock, a stuttering “trick-or-treat!” followed by smiling faces, mock looks of surprise or fear at your dime store or homemade costume. The handfuls of goodies dumped into plastic pumpkins, paper bags, or mother’s second best pillow cases.  Squeaky voices excitedly calling “thank you!”   Children rushing back to the sidewalk to catch up with friends. Voices mingling in squeals of delight, as they compared their booty, and autumn joined in blowing chill kisses and swirling her colorful skirt.

Halloween is a distinctly American holiday. It’s taproots stem from ancient rituals and celebrations. The manner in which it developed was unique and reflected the “melting pot” s many cultures met and mingled.

As the celebration changed, one element remained at the core : the festival belongs to the land of the imagination: that rich, fertile soil from which all creativity stems and innovation flows.

Although every decade saw some threat to produce a “Year without a Halloween”, sanity prevailed and the joys of this special rite continued, changed perhaps by contemporary influences, truncated through modern fears, but it remains as a reminder that people – of all ages – need magic, mystery, and hours of simple fun.
The answer to my question was clear - Halloween was a holiday of the imagination, of play, and stepping outside the confines of the ordinary into the extraordinary. No wonder I have always loved it!

Origins of the Holiday - Halloween

I love October...the crunchy leaves, the chilly nights...and the drama and imagination of Halloween. I was one of those little kids that lived in dress-up clothes, tripped around her mother’s heels and should have won an Oscar at some point in Kindergarten for my stellar performance of Little Red Riding Hood.

I am also an American Celt...no I have no real language or the major customs, but there were a bunch of Celts in my family tree. Despite the lack of language and a loss of many customs...the blood runs strong in other ways. The poet is alive, the warrior, the dreamer, and...Face it...maybe even a tad bit of the schemer. There is also the mystic who can step out into a night and almost see the shimmering layers that curtain us from other realities, as they ripple in some cosmic breeze.

Halloween began as such in a long distant time. It was a night when someone would leave the door between this world and the next ajar. The recently dead, and perhaps other things, could come to call. Saucers of milk would be left out as an offering to keep the visit...friendly.

So enjoy the sigh of the wind and the crackle of leaves as you walk. Set out your autumn decorations and enjoy the "October country" as author Ray Bradberry called it.....but leave some milk out on the night. Just in case.

Now some history; to understand the roots of Halloween it is necessary introduce the Celts.

The term Celts refer to numerous tribal groups occupying Europe from about 800 C.E. who shared a common language group.  From the Steppes to Ireland they were the tradesman, philosophers, artisans, and warriors who dominated the landscape and successfully challenged early Rome.   They were the ancestors of the people known as the “Gauls”, the “Norseman”, and the “Britons”.  Although they shared a common language and fundamental religious beliefs, they developed in many different ways and practices varied. 

One common belief held by many of these people groups was that on a particular night of the year the separation of this world from the next changed.  

Like a curtain billowing in a breeze glimpses between the two co-existing realities were possible.  Sometimes, the recently dead could slip back into the world of the living to say goodbyes, give a blessing, or cause a bit of mischief.  

For the Celts, most of whom believed in reincarnation, death was but another part of existing.   Customs of leaving small gifts to not offend the returning dead (and bring about problems) often developed.  Animals were favored forms for the returning dead and so leavings milk out for dogs or cats became the custom in some locations.

All of this occurred at the turning of the year at Samhaim (Sow-wain).  Harvest time the world over share similar festivals marking the end of the growing season, the successful gathering of the harvest, and celebration before the onslaught of winter’s stark chill.  

Many of these Celtic customs came to America in early Colonial days, mingling with customs from the Dutch, the English, the Germans, and the Native Americans.  There was even an element of the Roman feast of Saturnalia in how America celebrated the night; roles were reversed and chaos celebrated. Many aspects of this initially agrarian based festival would remain important and be kept alive in remote rural areas well into the 20^th century.  The greatest diversity occurs as locales become increasingly urbanized and more multicultural in the early years of the 20^th century.

In Oklahoma, which did not become a state until 1907, there is distinct evidence of the old customs and the melting pot in action as customs from various times, and places begin to mingle and what emerges is the American Halloween.  Evidence of this is revealed by the various names over the years: fall festival, harvest festival, “huskin’ time”, “begging night”, “Nutcrack Night” (a term from Britain), Halloween, and even for the more negative, “Helloween.”