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History of Fancy dress halloween

It was the Irish who took the Jack O'Lantern story to America

The story goes like this...

Jack was a drunk and known to be tight with his money. One day he (as legend says) tricked the Devil into climbing up a tree to get an apple. Whilst he was up the tree, Jack marked the trunk with a large cross so that the Devil was not able to come down. He made the Devil swear that he would not take his soul, and then he would let him down. The Devil agreed. Jack though, died shortly afterwards.

Jack was refused entry into Heaven as he was a stingy drunk. Looking for a final resting place he approached the Devil. True to his word, the Devil turned him (and his soul) away. "But where do I go?" He asked the Devil. "Back from whence you came" was the reply.

Jack turned to go into the very dark night, he had a long road ahead of him. The Devil threw him a coal from the burning fire of hell. Jack gorged out a hole in the turnip he was carrying and placed the coal in it, using it to light his way. From that day on, Jack has been roaming and searching for his final resting place.

When the Irish settled in America they found pumpkins gave off a better glow and pumpkins have been used ever since.

All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Hollows Day or Halloween...

...or whatever you call it stems from the 5th Century Celts who celebrated the 31st October as the last day of summer. The festival was called Samhein (Pronounced Sow-in)

Trick or Treat probably has a few origins:
During Samhein it was thought that the dead would play tricks on the living, causing destruction. To appease the dead, food would have been handed out to the passing Druids.

There is also a 9th century custom called 'souling'. On November 2nd, all souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for 'soul' cakes. Soul cakes were made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would offer on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. During this time, it was thought that the dead remained in limbo and prayers (even those of a stranger) would speed up the process to heaven.

The wearing of masks during Halloween is very common today. Mask wearing stems from long ago. When disaster struck it was believed that the demons that had brought the disaster would be frightened off by hideous masks. Even after the festival of Samhein had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy at this time of the year. Food would be stored in preparation of the long, hard winter and the house was snug and warm. The ghosts were kept outside and if someone wanted to venture outside, they would wear a mask so the ghosts would not recognise them.

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