My parents are in town, first my dad's IJN appointment and secondly for Niki's forthcoming birthday this Saturday. It was Halloween yesterday and dang, its not a big thing here, if only - it'll be so much fun dontchathink? Trick a treating for the kids and the adults get to go with them and take a peek at their neighbour's without looking like a big kay-poh!
For the uninitiated here's a couple of interesting facts and origins of Halloween,
The youths of agrarian societies of Scotland and Ireland celebrated ‘All Hallow’s Eve’, the forerunner of Halloween, as the occasion to indulge into foretelling of their marital prospects using crops. Halloween basically originated in Scotland and Ireland as All Hallow's Eve. With time, these casual games turned into customary Halloween rituals. Scottish youths used to go out in the night of Halloween blindfolded. They would pluck the first colewort (a type of cabbage) that comes their way along with the roots. The length of the stalk was used to determine the height of the future spouse and the amount of earth clinging to the roots was thought to be the indicative of the wealth and prosperity of the couple.
Some youths would even hang the stalks over the door and would try to guess the names of their future spouse from the first names of the people who enter or leave the door. Scottish women also used to place two nuts in the fireplace. They named the nuts after themselves and their boyfriends. This Nut Cracker ritual was believed to indicate the faithfulness and loyalty of the couple towards each other. The nut that jumped or cracked was thought to be indicative of unfaithfulness of the person after whom that nut was named. If both the nuts burned silently and simultaneously, the couple was said to be faithful towards each other and was indicative of their marriage.
Jack-o'lanterns have their origin in a legend of Ireland. There was an old man called Jack who had never done a good thing in life. He would just drink and play pranks upon people. Thus he was a favored servant of Satan. However, once when Satan was about to win over God, Jack tricked him into defeat.
After his death, he could not enter the heaven because of his evil ways. He went to Satan for help who only threw a burning coal on him. The coal landed into the half-eaten pear (another version cites turnip) of Jack and thus it became the first lantern of Jack or Jack-o'lantern. In United States, pumpkins replaced pears/turnips as they were bigger and easier to hollow out and were readily available. Pumpkin carving and making Jack-o'lanterns are popular activities of Halloween.
Aight, its lunchtime and its raining, so whatever shall I have for lunch? Any ideas?
