Halloween is an ancient holiday that’s constantly evolving
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Dressed as “Chuckie,” Ethen Lindsey of Footedale rides on top of a float in Uniontown’s annual Halloween Parade on Wednesday.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Friends Jolene Mihalko (left) and Bella Leonardo, both from Uniontown, came in the zombie finest for the annual Halloween Parade, Wednesday, in Uniontown.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Members of the Uniontown Area High School marching band participated in the annual Uniontown Halloween Parade Wednesday. The Red Raiders finished as the runner-up in the large-band category.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standa
The members of Cub Scout Pack 620 from Uniontown dressed in their Halloween best for the annual Halloween Parade Wednesday in Uniontown.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standa
Emah Bake Horner, 2, of Uniontown, is all decker out as she marched in the annual Uniontown Halloween parade.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standa
Tori Burgess and Chuck Burgess dressed their dogs Spike and Molly in costumes and came out watch the annual Halloween Parade in Uniontown Wednesday.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standa
Colton May, a members of Cub Scout Pack 608 from Uniontown dress in his “pixelated camouflage” during Wednesday’s annual Halloween in Uniontown.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
Dressed as Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, Tristan Smith, 5, of Uniontown dives to the ground to collect his candy during Wednesday’s annual Halloween Parade in Uniontown.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
The Uniontown Area High School Red Raiders Band takes to the streets in their finest Halloween attire during Wednesday’s annual Halloween Parade in Uniontown.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
Crowds line the sidewalks up and down Main Street on Wednesday evening in anticipation for Uniontown’s annual Halloween Parade.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
Mayor Ed Fike leads Wednesday’s annual Uniontown Halloween Parade, accompanied by his family.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
Erica Miller of Uniontown helps her daughter Sophia, 6, get ready for Wednesday’s annual Uniontown Halloween Parade. Sophia was dressed as Monster High’s “Frankie” this year.
Joel Brewton | Herald-Standard
Dressed as a group of hippies, the Uniontown Middle School Cheerleaders, led by Sha’Maurie Moseley (front left), 13, and T’Oymbae Eddings (front right), 13, warm up for their routine in Wednesday’s annual Uniontown Halloween Parade.
Dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating, marching in parades and carving jack-o-lanterns, people are finding many ways to have fun as they celebrate Halloween today.
“It gets bigger and bigger,” said Dr. Russell Frank, a communications professor at Penn State University at University Park, who conducted research in folklore for his doctoral studies. “It’s so much more of a big deal today.”
For many, Halloween is a time for child-friendly activities that include parades, games and plenty of candy. Others enjoy being scared by monsters, witches or ghosts in movies, haunted houses or even pranks.
Both are important parts of this holiday that is constantly evolving.
“It’s ancient, but Halloween, as we know it, is very Americanized,” said Thomas White, who is an archivist and curator of special collections for Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and long has been intrigued by folklore and legends. “The old traditions have been brought together with new traditions in America into what we consider Halloween today.”
White has written eight books, most of them about the supernatural in Pennsylvania. He’s included Fayette County stories in such books as “Ghosts of Southwestern Pennsylvania” and his new “Witches of Pennsylvania.”
White said today’s Halloween has developed over the years into a modern celebration built upon traditions that started years ago with the ancient celebration of Samhain, practiced by the Celts around the start of a new year on Nov. 1.
“They believed that the boundaries between the living and the dead were at their thinnest at this point, and people would try to tell fortunes and talk to the dead,” said White of the Celts, who lived thousands of years ago in what is now Ireland, Britain and northern France.
White said the lines between life and death at this time of year were not just symbolic.
“Harvest was over, and there was no backup plan,” he noted. “If you had a good harvest, you were OK. But if you had a bad harvest, you were in trouble.”
As Christianity grew, the Catholic Church began its own observances at that time. All Saints Day, also called All Hallows, was celebrated on Nov. 1 and All Souls Day on Nov. 2. A new name was given to Oct. 31 — All Hallow’s Eve, eventually becoming Halloween.
“In early Christianity, people would pray for the souls of the dead. They would dress as saints and devils and have bonfires,” said White of practices in those times. “Beggars would go door to door asking for food. People would bake little cakes called soul cakes.”
The practice of wearing costumes emerged with an anti-Catholic tradition known as Guy Fawkes Day that began being celebrated in England on Nov. 5, said White, explaining Fawkes was a Catholic who tried to blow up Parliament after the nation became Protestant. People mocked Fawkes by dressing as him.
“Young men would go out and cause chaos — what we call Devil’s Night. It was a time of mischief,” said White.
Meanwhile, young women in Scotland and England during that time would try to predict the future.
“They would peel an apple and throw it over their shoulder, and it would take the form of a letter. Say it was a ‘W,’ then the person you would marry would have the last name starting with a ‘W,”’ said White.
Women would also throw nuts in a fire and/or look in a mirror, both with their own ways of providing clues to the person they might marry.
Those traditions came to America in the late 1700s and early 1800s, White said, and people began to borrow practices from each other. They included carving faces into pumpkins.
“Then, from the 1890s to the 1920s, local traditions started to yield to the larger Americanized Halloween,” said White. “You still didn’t have trick-or-treating, but you have vandalism. So people started to organize Halloween parties and community gatherings like harvest festivals aimed at curbing vandalism and mischief.”
After World War II, the presence of the baby boomer generation led Halloween to become a children’s holiday. And as people moved into suburbs and communities became more spread out, White said, harvest gatherings were replaced with trick-or-treating and children going door to door for treats.
During the 1970s and ’80s, trick-or-treating fears arose as stories of candy being poisoned or laced with razor blades developed; however, White and Frank noted they were mostly hoaxes.
Yet, fear and sometimes political reasons have caused some communities to cancel Halloween festivities.
But, White said, “Halloween celebrations always come back.”
In recent years, adults have also come back to Halloween, celebrating by dressing up and having their own parties.
Frank said, “If you head into State College, park yourself in a spot on Halloween, and watch college students walking by. It’s a show.”
In addition, new traditions continue to merge into the American melting pot, such as the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.
Even as the world becomes more sophisticated, Halloween is more popular than ever.
White said, “It takes a light-hearted look at life and death and addresses things that in other times might be frightening. It becomes a way to engage in the topic without the heaviness of the topic.”
Frank said, “I think we love the opportunity to turn the world upside down. In our daily lives, we’re restricted. There’s normal and acceptable behavior, but we abandon those rules for one night.”
And maybe Halloween is the antidote people need for a modern world.
White said, “The supernatural allows you to explain things beyond the mundane in life.”