The Power of Words. Trick-or-treaters come calling on the Internet

10/31/97
Trick-or-treaters come calling on the Internet
Scores of Web sites are devoted to every conceivable aspect of Halloween, from its roots to its symbolism.

By JODY McPHILLIPS
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

       When the doorbell rings tonight and the first small hands reach up for candy, it may help to know you are continuing a tradition that goes back centuries - if not millenia.
       For pre-Christian cultures, "Halloween is the original New Year, when the Wheel of the Year finishes: debts are paid, scores settled, funereal rites observed and the dead put to rest before the coming winter.
       "On this night, the veil between our world and the spiritual world is negligible, and the dead may return to walk amongst us."
       That, at least, is the skinny at one Web site on Halloween history http://members.AOL.COM/JillDakota/hallows.htm#hallhist
       Halloween is an unnervingly popular topic on the Internet, with scores of Web sites devoted to every conceivable aspect of the holiday, from the symbolism of the skeleton to poems praising bats and their manifold charms. (You perhaps didn't know that the intricate structure of a bat's wing inspired a Japanese artisan to create the first folding fan).
       In cyberspace, Halloween is hot. There's the conservative Christian camp, which denounces the holiday as Satanic in origin and a celebration of evil. There are slews of self-styled pagans, witches and neo-druids who insist it is simply an ancient commemoration of the cycle of death and rebirth, a time for summing up and honoring those who have gone before us.
       And then there are various oddballs and headbangers of the Ozzie Osbourne school, who seem compelled to share their close, personal and sometimes X- rated connection to Halloween.
       The different camps agree on the holiday's roots, more or less.
       In the northern hemisphere, the festival celebrated the end of the harvest season. In Celtic cultures, it became a time to think about and communicate with the dead, often by wandering in the dark holding lighted gourds or turnips, carved with demonic faces.
       According to Britannica OnLine, "In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic festival of Samhain eve was observed on Oct. 31, at the end of summer. This date was also the eve of the new year in both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals, when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits."
       It was a time to bring the herds in from pasture, renew agreements, and try to divine the future. "The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about."
       Here's where the conflict crops up. Britannica says the ancient Celts believed the supernatural powers controlling nature had to be placated, and that, on this one holiday, they sought the devil's help in doing so.
       That, of course, did not sit well with the Christians as they gained influence in the Celtic world.
       The Christian festival of All Hallow's Eve, celebrated on the same date, tried to preserve the notion of honoring the dead while discouraging what seemed to them like devil-worship; All Saints' Day, the day after Halloween, remains an important Christian holiday.
       But the old old ways never died, entirely. So when British, Scottish and Irish immigrants flooded into North America, they brought with them a mixture of sacred and profane traditions that persists to this day.
       Trick-or-treating, for example, stems from the fact that fall was the time for tax collection. The Scots burlesqued this with door-to-door begging called "guising." The lighted gourds and turnips melded with the New World's pumpkins to become jack-o-lanterns.
       But despite the best efforts of Hallmark and the costume companies to bowdlerize the modern holiday, the night itself seems to retain that age-old aura of mystery and menace.
       How else to explain our willingness to credit the tales of sinister people putting razors in apples or drugs in candies? Although no such events have been reported in Rhode Island in at least 15 years, parents still accompany children on their rounds; some won't let them go out at all, opting instead for neighborhood parties.
       In fact, the holiday is much tamer than it was in the 19th century, when boys and young men went in for serious vandalism. By the 1930s, civic leaders banded together to tone down the holiday, encouraging shopkeepers and home owners to reward "good" children with treats to divert them from hooliganism.
       There are still eruptions, here and there. "The Halloween party in Athens, Ohio, has a long, mysterious and checkered past," according to a timeline assembled at the Ohio University Web site www.viscom.ohiou.edu/halloween/history.html.
       They're not kidding. Despite periodic attempts by police to crack down, the holiday has been celebrated in a big way by students since 1940, with as many as 24,000 attending a huge outdoor party. Scores are typically arrested.
       That's small potatoes compared to Detroit, which for years has been plagued with widespread arson on Devil's Night, the night before Halloween. Once again, civic leaders are doing their best to rein in the rowdies.
       It's a holiday that continues to evolve, at least in the United States. Immigrants from Mexico are bringing with them the traditions of El Dia de Los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, celebrated Nov. 2.
       Like Memorial Day, it's a time to tidy the graves of ancestors and remember them with stories and ceremonies. For days before the holiday, vendors sell ghoulish toys and candies shaped like skeletons, coffins and crosses.
       And of course, among the little (and sometimes not so little) candy- hounds there are always some who carry orange UNICEF boxes, seeking cash donations to help the world's neediest children through the United Nation's Children's Fund.
       Last year, New England children raised nearly $300,000 for UNICEF projects, the organization says. The money provides clean water, vaccinations, education and medical help to children in 160 developing countries.

       ONLINE HORROR: Haunted happenings, advice on costumes and safety, suggestions for indoor and outdoor activities, plus a surprising collection of scary local legends can be found on projo.com, the Journal-Bulletin's Web site. Go to: http://www.projo.com/special/hallowee/index.htm

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