Also, ever try to explain Hallowe'en to recentish immigrants? Kinda hard to do. Remember once spinning the story for a bunch of Bangladeshi guys watching their kids mill about in costume.
Before the Christians came, the people who lived in what are now the British Isles and Ireland were Earth worshippers, and they followed the cycles of the sun and moon very carefully. On this day, they had a celebration called Samhain (pronounced SOW-enn fyi). By then, the harvest was done and they believed this was the transition from the time of the living to the dying, and on this day they believed the veil between the living world and the spirit world was at its thinnest, and beings from the Other Side were most easily able to come across and influence people here. Christians came and wiped all that out. Everything about the old ways was demonized; the Druids and Priestesses of the old ways became witches and warlocks, the spirits of wood and stone became demons and imps.
*questions from the kids about the word "Druids"*
Druids = priests and masters of the Old Earth Magicks; those who wielded the powers of transformation and the Second Sight.
*general scoffing about how magic isn't real*
Isn't it? Or did they just know things about the world that have been forgotten? Besides, any self-respecting God only shows their best tricks to those most dedicated to them.
Anyway, as the years went by, the people still remembered this day but it became the day when the demons were strongest and came to torment their human prey. Instead of celebrating a harvest, they put offerings of food and water on their doorsteps to appease the demons. Now, the kids in costume play the role of demons, made up to confuse the people to get what they want. "Trick or Treat!" That's actually a threat. That's that little demon saying: "Give me a treat or I'll give you a trick. And you won't like it."
One of the kids piped up about what a Jack O'Lantern is.
Also from Old England, but much further on. In middle ages, if you owned an inn or a pub, you would hang a lantern over your door at night so a traveler could see your door from a distance and know they could find food and shelter there. Of course they didn't have gas stations or strip malls or lighted streets back then, so that's what they did. But sometimes, that light in the distance wasn't an inn or a pub. Sometimes, it was a man with a lantern in one hand...and a knife in the other. Jack. Of the lantern.
True story.
