Garrison Keillor gave a brief history of Halloween on NPR during writer's almanac this morning. Did you know that Halloween started with the celts. They believed that the spirits, ghouls, ghosts, faeries and goblins walked the earth on this night, so they dressed up as ghouls, etc to try to scare them off, and they put liquor on their doorsteps for the spirits of their ancestors. Liquor. For the Spirits. Hmmmmm.
Here's the part I love. Pope Gregory III tried to turn it into a Christian holiday and encouraged people to dress up like saints and help the poor. But those fun-loving Irish decided to use the holiday for blowing off steam by partying and playing pranks on each other.
It wasn't until the 20's here in America that Ladie's Home Journal told kids to get out there and go door to door for candy, and now we're stuck with the cute little beggars.
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