Oh the Things You Can Do On Halloween

Jack-o’-lantern are a pretty popular tradition but, some may wonder how it came up. It originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack”. Jack put the coin in his pocket  (which was the Devil) beside a silver cross because it prevented him from changing back. He made a bet with the devil that he would not bother Jack for one year and that when Jack dies, he would not claim his soul. Jack made the Devil climb in a tree and he carved a cross on the tree so that he couldn’t come down.

 The Devil promised not to bother Jack for another ten years. Jack couldn’t go to heaven or hell so he was sent into the dark with a burning coal as his light. The Irish started called his ghost the Jack of the Lantern. Later, they made their own jack-o’-lanterns into potatoes and turnips and put them in the window to scare away jack and evil spirits. The Americans started to use pumpkins.

            Another popular tradition is apple bobbing. You fill a tub or large basin with water and put apples in the water. The apples are less dense than water and can float. The player catches the apple with their teeth. You can’t use your hands or else it is counted as cheating.

The last and my favorite tradition is trick or treating. They ask for candy or in some cultures money. The children go to door and ask trick or treat. The "trick" is a threat to perform mischief on the owners or their property. This has been customary in North America since the late 1940s. Homeowners usually decorate their property with Halloween decorations. In Great Britain and Ireland, children and poor people go door-to-door singing and saying prayer for the dead in return for cakes (souling). These both involved trick or treating. They ask for a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.