Have you ever heard the story of Samhain or Stingy Jack? I hadn't so I thought in time for Halloween I would share the Coles notes( am I dating my self there?)
Traditionally here in Canada we celebrate Halloween by carving pumpkins and handing out candies to ghosts, goblins and K-pop demon hunters, but way back in the beginning folks in Ireland celebrated Samhain. Samhain is an ancient Celtic Festival where folks believed that the veil between the world of the living and the dead thinned between October 31 and November 1st making it easier for ancestors, fairies and spirits to travel into the world of the living.
The people would light massive ritual bonfires on hilltops to honour their gods and protect their villages. On this night people would leave food and drink outside their door as offering to the spirits and would wear masks while out during the festivities to confuse and hide from the spirits. They would also carve faces into large root vegetable and put burning embers inside them to to ward off evil entities. Those must have been some seriously large turnips!
So, as you would see the natural evolution here in our country is made of modern convenience with the use of pumpkins ( which naturally grow quite large) and with costumes of all sorts for our children and ourselves to wear.
There is also the story of Stingy Jack which does the job as well, I would check out https://oldsoulartisan.com/blogs/library/the-legend-of-stingy-jack?srsltid=AYCX9vKATRB-Uv850rLf3QlHFb6jargBQOBEYzzlAUFcrXiOUtVQS01m (opens in a new tab)
as they do a wonderful job of describing the story.
Happy Halloween Friends