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The Lumberjack Are in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in JENNIFER WEBB return for their promise to Managing Editor pray for the family's dead relatives. The practice was Halloween's origins eventually taken up by date back to the ancient children who would visit the Celtic festival of Samhain houses in their neighborhood (pronounced sow-in). The and be given ale, food, and Celts, who lived 2,000 years money. ago in the area that is now The tradition of dressing Ireland, the United Kingdom, in cos~e for Halloween has and northern France, both European and Celtic celebrated their new year on roots. Hundreds of years ago, November !51 • This day winterwasanuncertainand marked the end of summer frightening time . Food and the harvest and the supplies often ran low and, beginning of the dark, cold for the many people afraid of winter, a time of year that the dark, the short days of was often associated with winter were full of constant human death. Celts believed worry. On Halloween, when that on the night before the it was believed that ghosts new year, the boundary came back to the earthly between the worlds of the world, people thought that living and the dead became they would encounter ghosts blurred. On the night of if they left their homes. To October 31, they celebrated avoid being recognized by Samhain, when it was these ghosts, people would believed that the ghosts of the wear masks when they left dead returned to earth. In their homes after dark so that addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. The American tradition of"trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter. In the second half of the nineteenth century, I Editorial We Being True America was flooded with leaders to take anything newimmigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to pQpularize the celebration ofHalloween • nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century. By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community- centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations m many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Does this mean that we've gotten away from what Halloween was originally intended to be or, have we just evolved with the times? Halloween has become the second largest Page7 To Tradition? commercialized holiday, only to Christmas, with Americans spending $2.5 billion annually. Most of this money is spent on or for children, I believe Halloween has gotten away from what it was meant to be. It has become a holiday for children to play in the streets. How many adults do you see each year at your door, trick- ur- treating? I think that if we continue to use Halloween as a night to let kids get dressed up and try to out do each other,just to wander around the city streets in the dark, we should renamed it. The word and holiday Halloween has great meaning in many cultures, we are exploiting it, tainting the tradition. It is not the same as the Halloween of yesteryears so why call it the same thing? The Lumberjack Contrib Editors: Managing Editor:Jennifer Webb · Senior Editor:Tris Coffin News Editor: Steph Nehring Feature Editor: Eric Benac Entertainment Editor: Ryan Spaulding Art Editor: Chris Oposnow Photo Editor: Joshua M. Brege Sta MriEEr s : David Brown Sarah Diem Darlene Fialkowski James Gwilliam Jesse Harvey Julie Hoover Scott Johnson Joshua Kurits Jennifer Manning Erin McDonald Benjamin Padua Erik Parker Kelly Potter Haley Romel Sonia Sauve Jessica Slominski Traci Sobeck Ronda Sommerfeld Jessica Thiem Heather Watson Philip Wenzel LeAnn White The Lumberjack is published on the first Tuesday of October, November, December, Feburary, March, April, and May. As an independent student publication, opinions expressed are strictly those of the writer and not endorsed by Alpena Community College or the entire Lumberjack staff. Signed contributions can be dropped off at the Lumberjack Office, BCT 106 or call us at 989-3S6-9021 ext. 7264. Mail correspondence to: The Lumberjack, Alpena Community College, 666 Johnson Street, Alpena, Ml. 49707. t he_ lwnberjack_news@hotmail.com t