in History, Professor's Classroom 530 Words

The Halloween Tradition

Today is the day that some get all fuzzy about….Halloween. But why do we get thusly?

First let’s start with the ‘why’……

Halloween season is in full swing, with people subjecting themselves to haunted houses, scary movies, and ghoulish costumes. And why? Not to take all the fun out of the festivities, but two researchers in Scientific American have two words to explain this fascination with—and even embrace of—horror: predator inspection. The principle is familiar to researchers in the animal kingdom, and it serves an evolutionary purpose, write Athena Aktipis and Coltan Scrivner. “Morbid curiosity is a powerful way for animals to gain information about the most dangerous things in their environment,” they write. “It also gives them an opportunity to practice dealing with scary experiences.”

Take a gazelle that encounters a cheetah in the savannah, for instance. If the gazelle had to run each time this happened, it would be “physiologically expensive.” The gazelle is better off if it runs only when the cheetah is hunting, and to figure that out, it must fight the instinct to flee and observe its would-be predator to learn things. The broad principle extends to humans: When we expose ourselves to scary situations of the fictional variety, we are on some level preparing to handle real danger. “Today people inspect predators through stories and movies,” write Aktipis and Scrivner. Games, too. New ones used by researchers measure “biofeedback” and reward players who stay calm under stressful scenarios. The upshot of all this: “Embrace the Halloween season with abandon—and then bring that same energy to the challenges of the times we’re living in now,” write the researchers.

Read the full story.

Now that you have a grip on the why we will move on to some historic Halloween…..

Every year during the evening of 31st October, children dress in scary costumes and visit their neighbours declaring ‘trick-or-treat’, all in the hope of filling their little buckets with sugary goodies.

For many, Halloween is a fun-filled tradition that entertains the little ones, gives us an excuse to decorate our homes with spooky attire and provides an opportunity to enjoy some good old-fashioned pumpkin carving.

Like many of our annual celebrations, modern Halloween is the product of centuries of evolution with roots dating back to Pagan times. Over the years, traditions surrounding Allhallowtide (31st October – 2nd November) have come and gone or evolved into new ones.

One such tradition was ‘Souling’, the medieval precursor to trick-or-treating, which revolved around the giving of a small round cake in exchange for prayers. The practice remained popular in Britain until the mid-20th century but has now been largely forgotten.

To understand how Souling came to be, we have to go back 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced ‘Sow-in’), which was traditionally celebrated on 1st November. Meaning ‘summer’s end’, Samhain represented the changing of the seasons.

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/souling-the-forgotten-halloween-tradition

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This does it for me today….if you celebrate Halloween in any form please be careful….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe.

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10 thoughts on “The Halloween Tradition”

  1. I am aware of the very old traditions surrounding All Hallows Eve in the UK. But giving out sweets to people wearing silly outfits is not something I participate in.
    I am a ‘Halloween Grump’, and proud of it. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  2. The claim that “predator inspection” is responsible for humans apparently enjoying being scared under certain conditions sounds like complete nonsense to me. When has anyone ever actually observed a cow or a deer or other prey animal deliberately seeking out and observing a predator? I’ve spent a hell of a lot of time out in the woods over the years and in my experience they don’t. Never. When a prey animal comes across a predator in the wild it will freeze, yes. But not because it’s observing the predator’s behavior. It freezes because motion attracts the attention of the predator. It’s hoping desperately that the wolf or whatever doesn’t notice it. Prey animals simply do not deliberately seek out frightening environments the way human beings do. Attempting to link this so-called ‘predator inspection’, which I don’t believe really exists in the first place, to human behaviors like wanting to visit haunted houses, rides on roller coasters, etc. is, IMO, entirely inappropriate

    As for Halloween, it’s turned into the ridiculous, over the top nonsense we have today for one reason, money. When I was a kid back in the bad old days, almost no one celebrated Halloween except kids under the age of, oh, 10 or so, and not many of them. A lot of us kids hated the holiday because it meant we got dragged to church the day after for the real holiday (actually holy day), All Souls Day.

    Then retailers, candy makers and others found out they could boost sales during a traditionally slow period of time by tying promotional events to what had been, until then, a relatively minor religious holiday. Basically there was money to be made off stupid people looking for something to do during a dark and dreary time of year.

    Does that mean I hate Halloween? Hell no! I love it. The street I live on is trick or treat central around here. We get flooded with 200 – 400 kids with their parents, sometimes the whole family, all dressed up, even the dogs are in costume sometimes. I don’t give a fig about ancient pagan holidays or whatever. Anytime you get that many people running around, dressed up silly, with the whole family, even the dog, involved, and everyone talking and laughing and joking and having a good time, I encourage it.

    I may be an old grouchy farmer, but come on, I can’t be grumpy all the time.

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  4. Another useless holiday based on getting drunk, getting fatter, making money off the sale of treats and costumes, a pagan revival for a nation in moral decline …

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