The Halloween Story

Winter is approaching and dark nights are now upon us with the change from summertime to what some in the Halloween business call Greatwhich Malevolent Time (GMT).

Thought to be an import from the USA, and often seen by the retailer as another opportunity to sell us something in the run-up between now and Christmas, but is Halloween something we've imported, or something which (pun unintended) has been with us for much longer than we knew?

Halloween or Allhallows and Hallowmas was a festival celebrated on 1st November in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches in celebration of God and his saints, known and unknown, attributed as far back as the 7th Century and later, when Pope Gregory IV gave the custom its official status in 835.

And in more modern times, the custom was said to be exported during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and the exodus from Ireland of devout Catholics. This later merged into other customs originating in Mexico to establish a "Day of the Dead." The rest of the Western World then adopted the celebration, particularly here in the UK in the late 1990s.

And what about the pumkin?

A hollowed out pumpkin carved to resemble a grotesque and disfigured face, illuminated by a candle inside became known as the jack-o'-lantern, This is said to originate from a character in British folklore. The pumpkin represents the soul of a deceased person known as jack-o'-lantern who was barred from heaven and hell - condemned to wander the earth with his pumpkin lantern of orange and black - symbols of Allhallows and Hallowmas.

So it looks like the UK and Ireland exported Halloween, only to import it back again - now that sounds familiar!