Halloween Harvest
For those of you with kids going trick or treating this year, you may like to know that in the U.S you are not alone. In fact according to the U.S. census bureau, 36.1 million kids are between 5 and 13 years old in 2006- the prime age for trick or treating. This is down by 45,000 from 2005.
Halloween Parties
There has been some concern about safety going door to door and
accidents due to costumes tripping up youngsters or not having the
visibility to see obstacles. Many costumes are dark colored and so
visibility crossing roads has been an issue too. However 93% of
households consider their neighborhood safe and 78% were not afraid to
walk alone at night according to the Census Bureau.
Some parents are turning to Halloween parties instead of going door to
door. This in fact brings the kids closer to the origins of Halloween
as a Celtic harvest festival. In Ireland, where I grew up, we would bob
for apples in a basin of water, trying to grab onto it with our teeth,
no hands allowed. Also we would tie an apple from a string and again
try to take a bite without using our hands.
The Barnbrack
The highlight of dinner on Halloween was the barnbrack. This is a
traditional tea cake with fruits in it. Are we seeing a harvest theme
yet? The special thing about the barnbrack was that hidden in it was a
pea, a stick, a coin and a ring. To find the pea in your slice of the
cake meant you would be poor, the coin - that your would be rich, the
stick - that you would be boss of the house and the ring - that you
would be married.
For safety reasons, many commercial barnbracks no longer have solid
objects in them and have pieces of paper instead. However many homes
still bake their own and include the traditional items sometimes
putting in a rag instead of the pea but with the same meaning. Note
that barnbrack can also be spelled barmbrack.
Candy and Halloween 
The Census Bureau also notes that 26 lbs of candy and sweets per
person were eaten by Americans in 2006 and it is believed that a large
proportion of this is eaten around Halloween. Perhaps honoring the day
as a harvest day with fruit and nuts would help offset this large
intake of sugar.
In the U.S., there are still some elements of the harvest nature of
Halloween with pumpkins both displayed and eaten at this time. A total
of 1 billion pounds weight of pumpkin was produced in 2006. Illinois
led the country by producing 492 million pounds of the vined orange
gourd. Pumpkin patches in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania also
provided lots of pumpkins with at least a million pounds weight each.
The Census also provided some interesting places to visit on Halloween
- Transylvania County, N.C. (29,780 residents).
- Tombstone, Ariz. (population 1,571).
- Pumpkin Center, N.C. (population 2,228); and Pumpkin
Bend, Ark. (population 307).
- Cape Fear in New Hanover County, N.C.; and Cape Fear
in Chatham County, N.C. (the townships have populations of 15,711
and 1,170, respectively).
- Skull Creek, Neb. (population 281).
How Halloween got its name
The original harvest festival was a pagan druid Celtic festival
called Samhain. Even today in the Irish language, Halloween is called
Oiche Samhain. (Oiche means night). When Catholicism came to Ireland
and other Celtic centers, the church clergy were not happy to have the
population celebrating a festival that centered on pagan spirits. Since
the following day was the Catholic church celebration of All Hallows
Day, they decided to call Oiche Samhain, All Hallows Eve. Over time
this was shortened to Halloween.
So with that, I wish you a happy and fun Oiche Samhain
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