Halloween: An All-Hallowed Perspective

Somewhere out on the North Fork of Long Island, faithful believers hide behind
bundles of corn stalks each evening awaiting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, or so the ghost of the late Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip "Peanuts," would have us believe. Schulz introduced waiting for the Great Pumpkin in 1959, and the idea has been growing in popularity ever since. However, children in Port Washington have nothing to worry about. Giant Pumpkins and lots of close relatives have already arrived. Many a home in Port Washington is decorated with one or more giant pumpkin balloons or other Pumpkin facsimiles.

The giant balloon salesman and the lighter than air blow up machines have been busy in pharmacies and variety stores. For example, on one block of the street on which this writer lives, there are four houses with Pumpkin balloons almost larger than the kids living in the houses.

Even though Schulz died in 2000, his audience continues to grow. Elaborately costumed Halloween revelers have made the Greenwich Village parade and telecast nationally famous. Giant pumpkins are weighed and recorded here and abroad. The local big pumpkin contest took place at Hicks Nursery in Westbury last week, with a 622-pounder winning top prize. Subsequently, Hicks Nursery customers got to watch sculptor Andrew Gertler use it to demonstrate pumpkin carving, This year's largest pumpkin anywhere was grown in New Richmond, Wisconsin, and weighed in at 1810.5 lbs, as noted by the Guinness Book of World Records representatives.

Just as the pumpkins are getting bigger, so is the celebration of Halloween.  Annemarie Colton of Port Washington, who worked at a local card and gift store for 29 years, became an acute observe of marketing trends along the way. She says celebrating Halloween is getting "bigger and busier. More stuff to decorate with, new, games. More and better costumes.

Most celebrants have a pretty good idea of what Christmas is all about and where Christmas Trees come from. Not so with trick or treaters. Most get confused about the different versions of Halloween history and supposed pumpkin traditions.  It is generally believed that Halloween dates back 2,000 years or more to the time the Celts dominated the British Isles and celebrated the New Year on Nov. 1 – with winter looming. The ghosts of the dead were believed to return on the evening of Oct. 31 and damage the food supply. When the Romans conquered Britain, Roman festivals were incorporated into the observances. The Celts burned crops and sacrificed animals to appease the spirits during the long winter months.

In the year 800 AD Pope Boniface IV named Nov. 1 as All Saints Day. It did not replace the Celtic traditions, and the night before All Saints Day was soon called All Hallows Eve – thence Halloween.  Northern Europeans brought their traditions to North America.

Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine popularized their own Halloween customs in the mid 1850s and 1860s and introduced the Jack O Lantern. Jack O Lanterns were made from hollowed-out turnips or other root vegetables to help celebrants escape the devil. The Irish soon noticed pumpkins were more plentiful and easier to carve and maybe more fun to grow.

Halloween may be second only to Christmas in holiday popularity. Costumed youngsters going door to door certainly boost candy sales, mothers who have no time to sew keep costume manufacturers busy. Recyclers get in on the act, too. While there's not much you can do with a worn out pumpkin balloon or giant plastic pumpkin besides making pies, you can use real pumpkins for bird, squirrel food, or both. Just split one in half with a small hatchet, scoop out the seeds and place in your bird feeder. And if you want to grow your own orange giant, there is an online site called pumkinnook.com that that will tell you just about all you need to know.