HALLOWEEN OUR FAVORITE SPOOKY CELEBRATION

Halloween is a unique celebration, a patchwork of the occult, religion, paganism and tradition. Here’s how it got started.

Halloween began as an ancient festival practiced by Celtic tribes to celebrate the end of the year, which, according to the Celtic calendar, was on Oct. 31, and the New Year, which began on Nov. 1.

On Oct. 31, the festival called Samhain was celebrated to honor the spirits of dead loved ones who roamed the Earth between two worlds. The Catholic Church banned what it saw as a pagan practice and renamed the celebration All Hallows’ Eve, which eventually became Halloween.

During Halloween, people knocked on their neighbor’s doors offering to pray for dead relatives in exchange for a sweet cake. Failure to deliver resulted in a prank or trick. These pastries were called soul cakes, as they were given in exchange for prayers for the dead.

Europeans were not the only ones honoring the dead. The Aztecs had a month-long celebration that the

Spanish observed when they happened upon the Americas. The celebration included food for the dead and chocolate drinks. Chocolate was an important ingredient, since cacao, the bean from which chocolate is made was used as currency. Chocolate is perfect for Halloween, since it contains tryptophan and high levels of serotonin, which chemically are said to combat fear.

During the celebration, corn, squash and other food that were favorites of the deceased in life were put out to encourage the spirits to visit.

In Mexico, a party to welcome the dead began about 400 years ago. The Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead celebration is a nine-day festival that ends on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day on the church calendar. It features offerings and sweet treats for both the living and the dead to symbolize that death is part of the sweetness of life and not to be feared.

Irish immigrants brought the tradition of Halloween to the United States when they arrived in the new country. Bobbing for apples was a way to determine if you’d catch a husband or wife. Since apples are 25 percent water, they float easily. The immigrants also brought the custom of trick-or-treating. Soon, the harmless ”tricks” became outright vandalism. By the 1930s, it was downright dangerous.

Halloween became safer in the 1950s, when neighbors used it as a way to get together.

Not all spirits were welcomed to the Halloween party. Jack o’-lanterns originated in Europe. Scary faces were carved into beets, apples and even turnips.

A candle was put inside to make the scary face glow in the dark, warding off any evil spirits.

When the Irish arrived in America, they used pumpkins, which were available in abundance.

What happens to all those leftover pumpkins? Folks in Millsboro, Del. send their pumpkins into the air at the World Championship Punkin’ Chuckin’ Contest. This fund-raising event is a happy Halloween sendoff with every kind of pumpkin launcher imaginable.

Halloween fun facts:

– Anoka, Minn., was dubbed by Congress to be the Halloween Capital of the World.

– More parties are thrown on Halloween than on New Year’s Eve.

– Favorite kids’ costumes are princesses, witches, ghosts and vampires.

– Adults like monsters, skeletons vampires and presidential candidates. The candidate whose costume is the favorite at Halloween often wins the election later on.

– The most popular Halloween treat is candy corn.

New York Post Activities:

Halloween Soul Cakes – a Samhain festival treat

This is based on an ancient recipe and uses the pinch-of-this-and-that method. Get an adult to help.

You’ll need 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbls. of butter, pinches of cloves and nutmeg, and a few handfuls of dried fruit.

Mix the flour and sugar. Create a well in the bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the spices, butter and dried fruit. The early recipe called for barm, which was the foam created by brewing ale used to make the dough rise. You can use yeast mixed with warm water.

Mix all the ingredients by hand. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut into cookies. Bake on a well-greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.