Halloween Has Evolved Into A Reason To Party

A glitzy NYC Halloween party of the twenty-first century retains filmy echoes of history. The end of October offers festivals filled with imagery of falling leaves, plump pumpkins, clacking skeletons, and things that go bump in the night. Halloween's roots grow deeply into history and are buried in the primeval festival of Samhain, a name derived directly from the Gaelic word for the end of summer. As daylight grew shorter, ancient Celts lit bonfires to ward off the evil spirits of the night.

Halloween celebrations got off to a slow start on American shores. It's not that the Pilgrim Fathers selectively exiled Halloween as a pariah, they didn't celebrate Christmas either. Instead, the Puritan end of summer feasts were common community events in colonial America. The chief difference being that rather than appeasing spirits of the dead, the settlers chose to thank God as their provider.

In an era before incandescent bulbs, telling stories around bonfires on cool evenings remained a chief form of entertainment. Some stories developed into classics of early American literature. The Dutch settlers of New York had their tale of Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow's headless horseman galloped out of the mists in New England carrying his pumpkin face under his arm.

Indeed, one of the foremost American contributions to Halloween traditions was the introduction of this horticultural specimen. Pumpkins were among the fruits and vegetables that the New World explorers discovered and transported back to Europe. Here was a plant worthy of being carved into jack-o-lanterns, replacing the turnip lanterns of the Celts.

A few Catholic settlers celebrated All Saints Day, but Halloween did not fully catch on in the United States until the Irish potato blight of the 1840s. This sent a million emigrants to the US, bringing their cultural traditions with them. The influx of the Irish boosted the popularity of masquerades, especially among young adults. Influenced by the Victorian era, masked balls added playful and romantic facets to Halloween.

As the emphasis moved away from graveyard monsters to matchmaking prognostication, a celebratory ale drink called Lamb's wool, presumably for its smoothness, came into style. It was a blend of mulled ale, spices, sugar and the pulp of roasted apples. Apple flavored beverages, both the sweet and hard ciders, remain as seasonal favorites.

The turn of the twentieth century was the heyday of penny postcard collecting. Artwork on these cards popularized the folklore of witches, black cats, and glowing pumpkins as visual symbols of Halloween. Their mass popularity during the Roaring 20s also lit the fuse of commercialization. Within a decade, costumes were being mass produced.

During the post WWII baby boom, dressing up became a main feature in celebrations for children. Candy companies, eager to recover from wartime rationing of sugar, advertised trick-or-treating. Candy and costumes became an integral part of Halloween partying. Today, entire costumed families, roam neighborhoods remanding treats.

A New York Halloween party is one more step in the long evolution of Halloween. As elaborately and imaginatively attired party goers dance the night away at dozens of famous night spots, the new era has begun. However, spirits of the night are more likely to be embraced in a form of revelry than feared as bogeymen.