This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, October 27, 2022.
Halloween, while not my favorite day of “celebration,” seems to be a favorite time for many people, especially youngsters. It has its dark side, from over-consumption of sugar to displaying witchcraft, even if for fun. I would rather fast-forward to Christmas.
Somehow, as history has a way of doing, Halloween has morphed out of All Saints’ Eve, a very solemn Christian Festival. It was also known as All Hallows’ Day, Hallowsmas, Feast of All Saints, and Feast of Hallows. My Lutheran family observed the Feast of All Saints on November 1 and recognized the Eve of All Saints on October 31.
Many folks confuse All Saints’ Day (November 1) with All Souls’ Day (November 2). My family observed All Saints’ Day but not All Souls’ Day.
As a child growing up in Dime Box in the 1930’s and 1940’s, I made no connection between All Saints’ Eve and Halloween. We did “celebrate” Halloween, but I was not aware of anyone going trick or treating, maybe because many homes were 3 or 4 acres apart, but mainly because the rural school, along with the town, sponsored a “Halloween Carnival” at the SPJST Hall, where we kids and grownups could “fish” for prizes, knock over bottles, win a cake at the cakewalk, play bingo, etc. That’s the fun-filled view of Halloween I carry in my mind. Though, I must admit that some years a few of the older boys would push down somebody’s outhouse. Of course, they always got caught and got punished.
The emphasis at home and school was carving faces into pumpkins and creating Jack-o-lanterns rather than making witches and ghouls and monsters. My grandparents grew pumpkins, so we had plenty to carve.
Throughout my growing up years, neither my friends nor I ever went trick or treating, so I didn’t associate candy with Halloween. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread were our main treats., — though you could win a small bag of candy corn at the Halloween Carnival.
In more recent years, Halloween Carnivals and trunk or treat parties are becoming popular substitutes to trick or treating. We all want our children and grandchildren to have fun activities to look forward to, and community groups are always looking for safer and better ways for their kids to have fun. I believe happy kids live in communities where the adults interact with their children.
It is my prayer that all our children and grandchildren will have a safe and fun-filled Halloween, and it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if my wife baked a pumpkin pie to remember the good old days!
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired Wharton County Junior College teacher, a retired Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.