|
NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY
Vol. XXIX, No. 3, September, 1973
HALLOWEEN
Catherine Harris Ainsworth
HALLOWE’EN among the peoples of Celtic descent and
influence is an old and persistent celebration. As it stands
today, it appears to be the most spontaneous, the most
child directed and influenced of all our holiday customs, the least
self-conscious, and the most truly folk developed. Eleanor Hull in
her Folklore of the British Isles gives an account of the origins
and ancient practices of this present-day vagabond child-adopted
holiday. Of the origins in certain parts of the British Isles she says:
The festival of decay and winter naturally connected itself
with the idea of death, and became the commemoration of
the dead. The Christian Church here, as elsewhere, was
forced to accommodate itself to the general tendency, and
to substitute a Christian celebration of a similar kind. All
Saints’ Day was instituted in the first half of the eighth century
by Pope Gregory II, and placed at the same date as the
pagan festival of death. Still later, in 998, Odilo, Abbot of
Cluny, added the celebration, on the following day, of the
Feast of All Souls, to meet the general craving for a day of
commemoration of the departed.
In the 1950’s in Holly, Michigan, my small daughter rated
Hallowe’en second to Christmas among her childish pleasures
and delights; and again in 1972, a student, in recording a Hallowe’en
experience within the last ten years, also spoke of it as
being as much fun as Christmas. This high esteem among children
of the United States is a recent development, or reversion, ....
Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society today.
TO PURCHASE A BACK ISSUE of the New York Folklore Quarterly, visit our online book store.
TO PURCHASE THIS ARTICLE from the New York Folklore Quarterly, use the form here.
 BACK TO THE NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY.
|
|
New York Folklore Quarterly
PURCHASE A SINGLE ARTICLE
To order a single article, please enter volume number, issue number, and title of the article you wish and click on an order button below to purchase through Paypal or with your credit card. We will send you a PDF of the article via e-mail upon receipt of your order.
ITEM #603
Single Article $3.00
|
|
|
Member Price $2.00
|
|
|
|
|
