Halloween thrives on new, old traditions

Halloween traditions are very important to many people. Many families carve pumpkins, creating Jack o’ Lanterns to celebrate. Halloween is the one time of the year that you can dress up as whoever you want. Several families dress up and go trick-or-treating. You can go trick-or-treating with family and friends. 

This is the story that started why people carved pumpkins. The story is about the Devil and Stingy Jack. Stingy Jack asked the Devil to have drinks, but Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to transform into a coin so he could buy them drinks. After the Devil turned into a coin, Jack put the coin into his pocket next to a silver cross, making it so the Devil couldn’t change back to his original form. Jack freed the Devil after they made the agreement that the Devil had to leave Jack be for a year. If Jack were to die, he would not claim Jack’s soul. 

One year later Jack tricked the Devil to climb up a tree to get a fruit. While the Devil was climbing the tree, Jack carved the sign of a cross into the tree making it so the Devil could not come down. Jack let him down after the Devil promised he would not bother him for 10 more years. Soon after Jack died. God wouldn’t allow Jack into heaven because of him being a trickster. The Devil, upset by all the tricks Jack played on him, didn’t allow him in hell. The Devil sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved out turnip. It is said that Jack has roamed the Earth ever since. There are different types of the story. Some people believe Jack tricked the Devil more and others believe this one.

People in Ireland would carve faces into vegetables to scare off Stingy Jack. Immigrants that moved to the United States still carved faces into vegetables, even when they moved to the United States. The Immigrants realized that pumpkins are a much easier, larger vegetable to carve. 

Trick or treating originates from guising. Guising is a tradition Scottish and Irish did where children would go around in costumes knocking door to door. They would perform songs, jokes or poems for food, candy or money. Scotland and Ireland still use guising today. Though it is mostly known as trick or treating, they still do the trick for a treat instead of just giving the kid the treat.

Peet social studies teacher Colby Grothoff’s favorite Halloween tradition is when he used to “go to a carnival where we would draw costume contests, a cake-eating contest, a bunch of games, and we would go with friends.” 

His favorite tradition is trick or treating because “we had a lot of fun, and we competed to see who got the most candy, and then we would fight over it in the front yard.” 

He said his favorite memory of Halloween is when he “won the costume competition as a sumo wrestler and my brother chucked me into a wall in front of everyone. Embarrassing at the time, but funny when you remember it.”

He said his favorite costume he dressed up as when he was younger  was “Maverick from Top Gun about five different Halloweens in a row.” 

To celebrate Halloween these days, Grothoff and his wife put “candy, generally some gummy worms, stuff like that are sugar-free.”