Random Thursday

I'm truly having a blast in this Holiday section of The Little Book of Answers by Doug Lennox! I feel like I am learning new things that I wasn't always aware regarding holidays or at the very least, further details on what I knew!

(image borrowed from Newsbug.info)

It was the Irish who introduced Halloween to America. Children would basically have a night filled with vandalism. Adults would soon realized they could offer candy to them to stop the pranks and children would soon give adults a choice of "trick or treat."

That's interesting! I guess I was mixing up my knowledge of souling.

(image borrowed from Mental Floss)

Jack o'lanterns is another tradition that comes from Irish folklore. It goes back to a stingy man named Jack or "Jack-o" who tricked the devil at one point. When he died he was barred from heaven for all his evil deeds and he couldn't go to hell for having tricked the devil. After quite a bit of begging he convinced Satan to give him a burning ember that he placed in a hollowed out turnip. This served as his lantern throughout the afterlife. In North America the turnip was soon replaced with a pumpkin which they had in abundance.

Now this legend I remember well!

(image borrowed from History.com)

The Celts originally celebrated New Year's Eve on October 31 and it was called All Hallow's Eve. This was the night that all those who had died in the past year would come back and chose the body of a living person or animal to inhabit for the next year before they could move onto the afterlife. The original Halloween festival involved human sacrifices and costumes that were both meant to protect the living from the dead.

Now this was something that I sorta knew, but not the whole possessing part!

(image borrowed from Freepik)

When we say Merry Christmas it suggests a mood for celebration, but that wasn't its original meaning. Merry initially meant peaceful or pleasant instead of joyous.

That I did not know!