// BEGIN editorial data var i = 0; var Halloween_041022 = new Array(); Halloween_041022.ID = "Halloween_041022"; Halloween_041022.ID_WB = 6309584; Halloween_041022.sPubDate = "10/26/2004 8:06:55 PM GMT"; Halloween_041022.navsectionID = "undefined" Halloween_041022.appFmt = 2; Halloween_041022.itemsPerPage = 1; Halloween_041022.appWidth = 460; Halloween_041022.appHeader = ""; Halloween_041022.appNavStyle = 3; Halloween_041022.appLayout = 1; Halloween_041022.copyMargin = 9; Halloween_041022[i++] = new Array("","Celtic Samhain","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Halloween_041022[i-1].body = "In the fifth century B.C., Celts who lived in what is now Ireland, Britain and northern France celebrated New Year – called Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) – on Nov. 1. They believed that on Oct. 31, Samhain eve, the veil between the living and the dead was lifted, and that spirits would search for living bodies to possess. To frighten the spirits away, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, making them frigid and unwelcoming, and dress up in ghoulish attire, noisily parading around town in an unruly and destructive manner. Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn at the stake a person who was believed to have already been possessed as a warning to the other spirits."; Halloween_041022[i++] = new Array("","Roman Pomona Day","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Halloween_041022[i-1].body = "After the Romans invaded Britain in the first century A.D., they merged their Pomona Day festival, also celebrated on Nov. 1 and dedicated to their goddess of fruits and gardens, with the Celtic holiday. The Romans were said to have substituted the sacrifice of humans with burning effigies, a custom that was transferred to England’s Guy Fawkes Day after the notorious attempt to blow up parliament in 1605."; Halloween_041022[i++] = new Array("","Christian All Saints and All Souls Day","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Halloween_041022[i-1].body = "In the ninth century, Christians began to celebrate All Saints Day (All Hallow’s Eve) on Nov. 1 and later All Souls Day on Nov. 2. Present-day trick-or-treating is thought to have originated with Christians going door to door begging for “soul cakes,” or bread with currants. The more cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would say on behalf of the donor’s deceased relatives."; Halloween_041022[i++] = new Array("","Irish bring Halloween to America","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Halloween_041022[i-1].body = "Irish bring Halloween to America: The mix of autumnal harvest traditions was transported to the United States by Irish immigrants fleeing their country’s potato famine in the 1840’s, and the jack-o’-lantern custom was probably brought to America with them. According to folklore, Jack -- a wayward drunkard who tricked the devil -- was denied access to heaven and hell. But the devil gave Jack a single ember to light his way through the emptiness, and he placed the ember inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it from going out. When the Irish landed in the United States, they found that pumpkins were more plentiful than turnips and made their “Jack’s lanterns” out of them instead."; // END editorial data