HALLOWED DAY

Halloween started  a sacred Celtic festival known as Samhain and was to celebrate the end of the harvest season within the Gaelic culture when the ancient pagans stocked foods ready for winter.  The ancient Gail's believed that October 31st the boundaries between the living and the dead overlapped and that on this day they would come back and cause mayhem and damage crops or cause sickness.  Crops were damaged by insect swarms so they lit bonfires to attract the insects which would then in turn attract bats to eat the insects. Families gathered around the fires and would take some home and place in the hearth and if it would not relight it was said there would be a death.
 The wearing of Halloween costumes was to mimic the evil spirits and appease them.  There is evidence going back to the middle ages for trick or treating, dressing up and going door to door for treats and there was a late medieval practise known as "Souling" where poorer people went door to door receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day November 2nd, this practise was mentioned in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona when the master is accused of  Puling Like a beggar at Hallowmas.  There are lots of references through the 1900's to the stories around Halloween but the the commercial use of Halloween came in the 1930's when costumes where mass produced,  before that people made their own.  i love the early Halloween costumes of the early 1900's...much more spooky than the shop bought ones of today.  So when you are putting your outfit together...be original...like these spooky folk :)

The Giving of cards at Halloween was also very popular in the earlier part of the 1900...one which has petered out surprisingly as we  have become a nation of card givers.  Cards with spells and pictures of witches, black cats and ghouls and Pumpkin's featured a lot on cards in the early 1900's which gives a nod to America as we in the UK used to use turnips as that is what the winter harvest was.  Anyway i love the spooky cards so i have picked out a few to give you all a smile this Halloween.

I could show you these all day....  in fact i feel a bit of a collection coming on here, they would look fab framed up and set in a picture collage in say the toilet, stairs or landing...certainly interesting