Hallowe'en does not have origins in paganism, Satanism, Samhain, Druidic festivals, or the occult. It's purely Catholic, just like Christmas, and like Christmas was commercialised by American big business.The Feast of All Saints was originally only a local feast day in Rome. Pope Gregory III transferred the Feast of All Saints from May 13th to November 1st. Pope Gregory IV then extended this feast to the Universal Church. This was before the Great Schism, when the Orthodox recognised the primacy of the Pope. The Americans received Hallowe'en originally from England. The English Halloween tradition was apple dunking but I never came across it.
Americans say "bobbing for apples" rather than apple dunking. I have seen it done, though probably close to fifty years ago. As it happens, the context was Catholic, a party in a parish hall.
ReplyDeleteIn the US, Halloween as commercialized as one wishes to make it. Our outlay amounted to the cost of a pumpkin for the jack o'lantern and about $30 for candy. The chief feeder of Halloween excess seems to be the availability of junk--plastic gravestones and skeletons, plush spiders, etc. etc.--that I suppose to be made in China.
I apologise - apple bobbing is the phrase in the old country too. Not dunking which is putting biscuits in coffee etc.
DeleteWikipedia: In Scotland, this may be called "dooking" (i.e., ducking). In northern England, the game is often called apple ducking or duck-apple.
DeleteMore banging on about America from someone who has barely set foot there. Halloween in America is usually a neighborhood and community event, and although it has become popular with adults it is mainly put on by adults for children.
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