Halloween Haunts: Halloween Traditions Come Full Circle
by Amber Jourdan
Traditions of Halloween
Growing up tradition has always been a strong and present concept in our home. It was very important to my mother that she instill tradition into our life experience. Of course, the holidays were ripe territory for tradition. Every holiday governed over it’s own set of traditions, administering them fairly stringently, not missing a beat until my latter teen years. As the youngest I saw all of our traditions wane against the rising tide of years. Fitting as most holidays mark the passage of time forward, moving from one stage to the next. But in my childhood, in the prime of our family life, I got to experience them all.
Each Halloween our home had already been decorated for weeks in fake spider web adorned with fake spiders, and some years in more colors than the traditional black and white. Rubber bats hung randomly from the ceiling, some strategically placed near a ceiling fan so air flow could provide the idea of flight. Plastic pumpkins, skeletons, and witches completed the late 80s and early 90s eclectic holiday vibe. So of course excitement hung in the air on Halloween night.
Every year mom donned the same floor length black dress, the same moon and stars earrings, and used the same midnight blue eye shadow to make her face appear deathly. She cooked a big batch of chili for dinner and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters this way all evening long. Meanwhile Dad would grab a tried and true staple from the costume chest- we had some clowns and some prisoners in there, and each year some more kid costumes would be added, such as a Peter Pan that I put on my Collie one year- she looked quite adorable. After he was dressed and we were in the costumes Mom made for us, we would go out and be trick-or-treaters ourselves. Hours later, full of Halloween night energy, we would eat our bowls of Chili, watch Garfield’s Halloween, and go through our candy, checking for tampered candy and that which we wanted to trade with our siblings.
All this tradition and creativity inspired for me a life long love of Halloween. Halloween inspired my yearly life, not just the season of my birth. As a fall baby Halloween was kind of mine in my mind. Which in turn had me make Halloween mine. I took my mother’s instruction and ran with it. Some years I fashioned my own costume- like the legendary Spaghetti and Meatballs costumes my best friend and I created when we were twelve. My Dad still talks about that one to this day, and obviously, I do as well.
Creating our own Traditions
When my husband and I began our own family it was already well clear to him I have a deep love for Halloween. It is my very favorite holiday, with Easter in a close second, as I have an absolute affinity for eggs. I loved the traditions I grew up with and I wanted that same kind of traditional foundation for my own children. Their traditions may not have been the exact same as their peers, but they were our traditions, from a long line of strong family ties on both sides. Our children would have Halloween, and not just Halloween, but extravagant Halloween. Heavily laden with traditions of all kinds. Our oldest daughter was privy to quite expensive costumes (Disney Store Eeyore say what?) but once we had multiple daughters we fell back to the tradition of homemade costumes. I would have my daughters work with me to create the costume they wanted. Which led to them designing and fashioning their own costumes in later years.
Unlike my upbringing, early on we established a Halloween party the weekend before October 31st for our daughters. We made little carnival games with, surprise, Halloween candy prizes. They got to dress up in a different costume for this party than what they had crafted for their Halloween costume, so more opportunities to dress up during the season. Because if I am being honest dressing in costume IS the best part of Halloween. So I wanted my daughters to get to be as many things as they wanted. Tis the season, after all.
I wanted my daughters to have the same traditions I loved growing up. But I wanted for them what I didn’t have. I cooked chili on many a Halloween. But we had pumpkin shaped pizza on years that they had lost a taste for chili. We carved pumpkins just like I always did growing up, but we would also take our girls to pumpkin patches. We went through corn mazes and hay rides, but I also wanted them to get to bob for apples. I wanted their traditions to be something they could carry forward with their children. Continue that strong foundation.
Truly Halloween is the season for many things, instilling tradition a huge part of that. So before I even knew how important it truly is for the human spirit, I wanted it in my girls’ spirits. So traditions were firmly instilled, with a party every year that grew with them. Becoming a yearly tradition for many of their friends. Parents would even thank myself and my husband for throwing the party annually, so their kids had that to look forward to and experience. More tradition. More people honoring the spirit of the season by engaging in the tradition.
Being my favorite season I have always packed in as much as I could. My mother passed down her black gown and earrings. I was on my own for the make up, however, and generally opted for purple or green, as blue may be my signature color but not a color of eye shadow I own. Unlike my mother I didn’t dress as the same witch every year, I like to mix it up. These days I’m always a witch of some kind, and sometimes I bust out the tried and true black gown.
Halloween Traditions Come Full Circle
I have been practicing witchcraft for years prior to starting my family. So to me Halloween was already more than plastic decorations and parlor games. It was a feeling in the air that awakened my spirit. It was a time to be still and experience everything happening around me. I was born in the autumn, and have been deeply connected to the season. My soul awakening with the changing of the leaves each and every year. Halloween is the culmination of all these things and more for me. Although, do not misunderstand, it is about the decorations and the games. It is very much those physical things too.
As a hedge-witch and a death-witch a huge part of my practice is knowledge. Studying the practices of things in the old world. Finding out the connections of spiritual and religious practices throughout the world. And at this point in my journey I have learned so much more about the Season of the Witch, i.e. Autumn, Halloween and Samhain, the celebrations of the dead. These celebrations exist throughout the world.
No, not all are called Halloween, or Samhain. However these two are eternally connected. All Hallow’s Eve being the Christianized version of the Celtic autumn celebration. Samhain is the last harvest festival on the Celtic wheel of the year. When you take a look at the traditions practiced in America regarding Halloween you can draw direct correlations to the practices found at Samhain. Activities like fortune telling, carving vegetables (turnips in the Celtic lands, not pumpkins) and wearing costumes to confuse and deter the dead who walk the earth on the night when the veil is at it’s thinnest.
Some of these autumn celebrations are called The Day of the Dead such as those celebrated in Mexico and in the Philippines. In China they have the Double Ninth Festival. The Slavic lands have Dziady- Grandfather’s Day. These are all practiced very similarly in going to the places of the dead and cleaning their grave sites, sometimes leaving food offerings. Most spending time and feasting with the dead even if they do not make or leave food offerings.
All of these fall celebrations of the dead are based on repercussions of the same event- the Younger Dryas Impact Event. Because once upon a time very long ago in human history the whole world fell victim to a vast cataclysm at this time of year. They have different names and differed customs, but they all have a central theme. Honoring the dead. And honoring the dead at the same time of the year. Approximately twelve thousand years ago during the Younger Dryas everyone experienced great loss from an impact event that resulted in mass flooding. Populations across the globe were affected. All from the same event. And the survivors who were left behind honored those fallen every year after. But they also disguised themselves to counter the death that comes this time of year, so they do not fall victim as their former brethren, and then later their ancestors. They put icons of death outside their homes, and inside, to fool the energy of that mass death, to turn it away and prevent another such event. And as long as we hold these traditions strong with our rubber bats and plastic skeletons, we are truly honoring the dead. We are following one of the oldest human traditions that still exists. And we are keeping death at bay, for at least one more year.
Amber Jourdan is a pagan witch and channeling medium who has been practicing witchcraft since 1997. She produces content online under the handle Amber is the Color providing daily magic through her Your Morning Witch series as well as engaging spiritual conversation. Amber in the Shadows is the online persona she produces her author content through. Amber co-hosts the podcast Witches Talking Tarot (and other things…) with her best friend, author MC Smothers. She is a new member of the Horror Writers Association and she is a writer and co-producer for Octoberpod AM and Octoberpod Home Video. In her Tales from a Witch series mysterious and dark stories come to life from the inspired imagination and real world folklore research of the witch behind the words- Amber Jourdan.
You can find Tales from a Witch: Terrifying Travels and Traditions in paperback and eBook on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRYYGF5C
Excerpt from the short story “POV: Your Birthday’s on Halloween,” in Tales from a Witch: Terrifying Travels and Traditions
“My darling child, it’s tradition. We all went through in our sixteenth year, and you will as well.” My grandmother did her very best to sound both upbeat and encouraging, but I am sixteen and Samhain is two days away. I have much more on my mind than following some stodgy old family tradition. I know my friends will want to harvest apples for bobbing and making sweet treats, and I have to get my costume together, can’t celebrate properly without that. Siobhan said she was going to have a surprise for us all, and I want to be able to do the same myself. We’ve all four been the very best of friends since as far back as I can remember. Siobhan is always so thoughtful, and the rest of us should do something special for her as well on such a special day. Samhain is the holiest day, and we will have so many folk to see, it will feel like a whirlwind by morning.
As my grandmother kept going on about whatever her tradition is for me to follow, I thought about everything I need to get together, two days is not a lot of time and I haven’t started on anything yet. “… and you’ll need to make sure to get a name…” My lace gloves, lace legg-ons, vermilion gown, ruby jewels, the mask I made at Nochlannoghan… “…best to let them speak first. Best to let them do most of the talking, as long as it looks good to you…” My Samhain lantern is in the closet and must be fetched. Cream and honey for my bath. Cinnamon, clove, frankincense… “Wrennick, darling, are you taking note of everything?” Grandmother asked me in the middle of my list-making.
Allowing interest to alight my eyes, I smile sweetly, “Of course, Gran. I’m making a mental list of everything I will need. I’m so excited for Samhain! It’s my favorite night of the whole year, there’s something so very special about the air. You touch it and it has a different texture!” I end my convincing little speech with a flourish of my hand. Being born on Samhain I definitely feel connected to the whole of the energy this time of year. The excitement is not faked, just my interest in the tradition.
“You’re positively aglow my girl! I’m so glad you’ve decided to embrace it all and carry on with our family tradition!” Gran exclaimed smiling from ear to ear, positively glowing herself, and embraced me so tightly we came off the ground. It feels nice to make Gran so happy after all she’s done, when things can be so dark, why not let there be some light? Besides, what Gran doesn’t know won’t kill her. Let her think I’m still her little fairy princess with gossamer wings. Just a little bit longer.
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