Fun Fact Friday!

This week's installment is quite spooky! Ok no, it's not. As a matter of fact the only thing that might be considered scary would be my vocabulary. Spooky? When am I going to learn that grandma ISN'T up to date with her slang? Anyway since it is Halloween today I felt that a little history lesson was in need to understand why we dress up, ask strangers for candy, or get drunk. The quasi-holiday began in Celtic times in Ireland to celebrate the end of the harvest season. Around this time of year in Ireland, along with Oregon, crops start to die off because of the crappy weather. Well the Celts saw this as a mixing of the living world and the dead world; thus the Celts felt a need to scare off the dead world by having animal sacrifices and burning the animal remains in a large fire. At the same time they would be wearing masks and costumes in attempt to copy the dead.

The Irish immigrants spread this wonderful day to the US in the 19th century where we have put our own traditions in place, most notably, the pumpkin Jack-O-Lantern. The Irish would carry a light, but instead of it being in a pumpkin, the light would typically be in a turnip or rutabaga. The Irish always used the head of the plant because the head was seen as the most powerful part of the human body, thus making it the best weapon to fight off the dead and their spirits. The name Jack-O-Lantern came from Irish lore as well. It's been told that a farmer known as Stingy Jack tricked the Devil up a tree, then carved a cross on the tree, in attempt to keep the Devil there. In turn, the Devil laid a curse on old Stingy Jack that forced him to walk only at night, with his only light being a candle inside a turnip. The reason why we use Pumpkins is because we have a better inventory of them, and they just look cooler.

Well have a safe Halloween, get some free candy, enjoy the Simpsons Haunted Tree House episode on sunday, and...............PROUST!