Deciphering the Origins of Halloween

by TheTinMan in Holidays, October 10, 2009

When you think of Halloween does your mind race back to “trick or treat” and thoughts of black cats, witches, ghosts and everything frightening?

The Jack-O-Lantern

What child hasn’t relished helping an older adult carve the pumpkin and roasting the seeds? But where did this tradition come from? There is a Celtic legend about a drunk named Jack who was tempted by the bottle. He wrestled with the devil into climbing a tree. Once the devil was in the upper most branches of the tree Jack made a cross on the tree trapping the devil. Jack allowed the devil down out of the tree if he promised not to tempt him anymore. When Jack died he couldn’t go to Heaven because of his evil ways and he couldn’t go to hell because of what he had done to the devil. The devil did give him one burning charcoal that would light his way through the world. To enable the charcoal to burn longer Jack put it in a turnip. Today Jack’s turnip has become our pumpkin. Children use to go from door to door with a candle in their pumpkin to light the way. Now for safety sake the candle has turned into a flashlight.

There are more wonderful traditions of Halloween I have only touched on a few. As that old phrase goes “Happy Halloween”.

Soul Cake Recipe

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 1 hour

Here’s How:

Pie Crust Soul Cakes

You’ll need:

A refrigerated roll-out pie crust

2 Tbs. melted butter

1 C mixed dried fruit

2 Tbs honey

Roll out the pie crust and cut it into circles. Use the circles to line a tin of muffin cups. Mix the butter, fruit and honey together. Scoop the fruit mixture into the pastry shells, and then bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Allow to cool for about ten minutes before eating.

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