Halloween in the Old West?

Halloween was not widely practiced then, and customs were different from today. What nationality are your characters, how long have their families been in the US, and where is your story set?

Our concept of halloween is mostly Irish. Theyre the ones who brought it here. Not sure how mainstream of a holiday it was in the 60s. It was totally mainstream by the 80s, but not sure about the 60s.

Mischief has always been a big part of the holiday. Stealing people's front gates (on their picket fences) was a popular prank. Also soaping windows and, in some places, hitting people with socks full of talcum powder (or some such powder).

No trick or treating yet. No costumes either. Also none of the "spooky" imagery of modern halloween except jack o lanterns. Most of the decorations were more autumn/harvest based. Hay bails, ears of corn, that kinda stuff. Oddly enough, the holiday back then that did involve dressing up and begging for treats--thanksgiving.

The holiday at that time was more about divination and looking into the future. One popular myth said if you looked into a mirror by candlelight at exactly midnight youd see your future husband or wife appear in the dark behind you. Walking down the cellar stairs backwards with a mirror was another popular custom. Not sure what that was about.

People celebrated mainly with parties, especially kids. There were lots of halloween party games, most of which revolved around predicting the future. Also familiar games like bobbing for apples. Thats pretty old.

Go to google books, restrict your search to the 19th century, and search "halloween". There were a ton of books written back then about halloween customs and games-- "how to throw a halloween party", that sort of thing. I came across a bunch of them a while back while investigating the topic myself. Im sure there were also games and customs that were unique to the west. Things were very regional back then.

No problem. Most of my info comes from searching near the end of the century though, so im not sure how far back those customs go. If you can find any Halloween books from the 1860s then obviously it was already popular by then (they often spelled it "hallowe'en" back then, if you want to search that spelling too).

You painted the kids up like Indian warriors, took 'em down to the local saloon, they barged in and yelled, "Trick or treat!" The faux-terrified barkeep came over, gave themt each a shot of rotgut whiskey, you took 'em home, they slept like the dead for 10-12 hours. It would have been great.

caw

Hmm..looking through old newspapers from the 1860s I dont see much mention of Halloween except as a quaint festival celebrated in Britain. It didnt seem to be mainstream in the US yet. But there were plenty of Irish immigrants, or children of immigrants around at that time, so its not unthinkable that it would be celebrated by some in the US.

I thought the concept of Halloween was brought over by the Irish in the 1800s. With the potato famine of 1845-1849, millions of immigrants would have come over bringing their tradition of 'Samhain' with them.

In 1861 (ish) you have the beginning of American Civil War. During the war I find it hard to imagine children taking part in Halloween, because there was still difficulties with the Indians at that time.

Trick-Or-Treating, is a version of 'souling'. Where poor folk would go door-door begging for food and in exchange they would say prayers for the dead. Link I've also heard that people would set 'treats' outside at night on 10-31 to try an appease the spirits that might've escaped the spirit world.

1911 a newspaper mentions trick-or-treating between 6-7pm. I highly doubt anyone would even know what Halloween, and even if they were Irish, I'd suspected they'd call it All Hallow's Evening or Samhain.

Just a thought... Lots of places that don't celebrate Halloween will still have some sort of "harvest festival" that is more like thanksgiving - celebrating a successful harvest. Those very well could have included plenty of games and drinking. I do not know specifically how that would have been celebrated in 1860s Denver.

melindamusil said:

Just a thought... Lots of places that don't celebrate Halloween will still have some sort of "harvest festival" that is more like thanksgiving - celebrating a successful harvest. Those very well could have included plenty of games and drinking. I do not know specifically how that would have been celebrated in 1860s Denver.

Click to expand...

Ah! Good point. Thanksgiving became an official federal holiday in 1863. And I remember reading somewhere that the pilgrims when they had their first Thanksgiving in 1621, it was actually more closely related to the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, which occurs between Sept-Oct.

Lindy said:

ULTRAGOTHA: Thanks for your insight. This particular scene is set in Denver, and my mc is about to be assisted in a jail break. I've just realized that Halloween revelry in town would be a perfect distraction for the situation. The celebrations don't need to be anything specific, I guess I'm just wondering if Halloween in 1861 was a good excuse for drunken shenanigans

Thanks for the great info, snafu1056! I really appreciate the response.

Click to expand...

There has to be an excuse for drunken shenanigans? In a city full of miners?
How about this?
Let's not forget what 'Hallowe'en' aka 'All Hallows Eve' was the eve of:
'All Hallows Day' aka 'All Saints Day' was, in Catholicism and for some Protestants, a day to remember all the saints, known and unknown, and, by association, all the dead. In a lot of cultures, this was the time for families to visit the graves of their dead, tidy the place up, leave flowers and/or candles.
I would imagine that in a brand new city, full of people who had only recently arrived from all over, there would be a lot of remembering families and friends they'd never see again, or graves they would never visit. Then, onto "And who will visit my lonely grave?", and the serious drinking starts.
Sad for them, good for your story.

You might see if you can find any records of Halloween celebrations in Denver in the 1860's. If there were good numbers of Irish, Scots, and Welsh there, then a celebration of some sort might have happened, and including a bonfire and some alcohol wouldn't have been ot of place. It appears that the people of the British Isles have been celebrating Samhain or Halloween since time immemorial. The word "Hallowe'en" goes back to the 16th century.

Searching how people celebrated the day in the mid 19th century doesn't give much good information, but the wikipedia article has some information.

Quentin Nokov said:

I thought the concept of Halloween was brought over by the Irish in the 1800s. With the potato famine of 1845-1849, millions of immigrants would have come over bringing their tradition of 'Samhain' with them.

In 1861 (ish) you have the beginning of American Civil War. During the war I find it hard to imagine children taking part in Halloween, because there was still difficulties with the Indians at that time.

Trick-Or-Treating, is a version of 'souling'. Where poor folk would go door-door begging for food and in exchange they would say prayers for the dead. Link I've also heard that people would set 'treats' outside at night on 10-31 to try an appease the spirits that might've escaped the spirit world.

1911 is the first newspaper mention of Halloween in North America. I highly doubt anyone would even know what Halloween, and even if they were Irish, I'd suspected they'd call it All Hallow's Evening or Samhain.

Click to expand...

1911? No way dude. I found tons of mentions of Halloween in the US going back to the 1870s. There was also a popular poem by a Scottish poet called Halloween that got a lot of media attention earlier in the century. Trick or treating and costumes probably became common around 1911, but the holiday itself had been around for a while.

heres an interesting description of Halloween in the UK from 1832
http://books.google.com/books?id=K0...&sa=X&ei=ItbKU-mhLtaiyATMjYAY&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBg

snafu1056 said:

1911? No way dude. I found tons of mentions of Halloween in the US going back to the 1870s. There was also a popular poem by a Scottish poet called Halloween that got a lot of media attention earlier in the century. Trick or treating and costumes probably became common around 1911, but the holiday itself had been around for a while.

heres an interesting description of Halloween in the UK from 1832
http://books.google.com/books?id=K0...&sa=X&ei=ItbKU-mhLtaiyATMjYAY&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBg

Click to expand...

Oh, thanks! In 1911 a newspaper mentioned Trick-or-Treating between 6-7pm, so perhaps you're right about trick-or-treating and costume becoming common in/around 1911.

Cool link by the way. And by chance do you remember the name of the Scottish poet?

Quentin Nokov said:

Oh, thanks! In 1911 a newspaper mentioned Trick-or-Treating between 6-7pm, so perhaps you're right about trick-or-treating and costume becoming common in/around 1911.

Cool link by the way. And by chance do you remember the name of the Scottish poet?

Click to expand...

Is it this long one, by THE Scottish poet, Robbie Burns?

http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blburnshalloween.htm

It's verra long, and probably needs a translator, being heavy on the dialect. In essence, it's about young people partying in the fields at Hallowe'en and folkways of fortune-telling. (Footnotes explain the fortune telling, you have to work out the language on your own.)

Yeah, it was by Burns.

Funny quote I came across about Halloween from an 1852 newspaper:

"Little attention is paid to the holiday here in this country, save in some of the New England states, where it is partially observed. It is becoming neglected, however, everywhere, and in the course of time will be entirely forgotten."

He sure called that one wrong.

Not forgotten, but very much changed. It seems to have gone from a holiday for adults - the parties, the fortune telling, the pranks (apparently tipping over out-houses was considered a hoot) to a holiday for children- in the '60's when I was a kid, the only adult roles were escort or treat-giver. Now, it's turning back into a less-rambunctious adult festivity. The decorations are getting more expensive and elaborate, the adults are dressing up and going to clubs and parties, while in a lot of areas children are shuffled off to organized events rather than allowed to go trick or treating.
OT and probably more than the OP wants, but I wonder if anyone has written a version of Stephen Nissenbaum's 'The Battle for Christmas' for Hallowe'en? Something about the changing way we celebrate and why?

Since I think OP has had some good answers, I'm going to divert just a little.....
I'm startled by how people are saying Halloween started in the UK - we certainly did it a little when I was a kid - apple bobbing, hollowed out pumpkin with a face in it and candle (only once, my mother said it was really hard carving out the pumpkin and never again). There was no trick or treating. I think there was one kids party with apple bobbing and other suitable games but might have been a birthday party at that time of year, not sure.
Anyway, halloween was massively overshadowed by Guy Fawkes Night and "Penny for the guy" - kids, more usually boys, with a dummy made of old clothes - the guy - and it was towed round on a home made go-cart usually. The pennies collected went to buying fireworks. Not seen penny for the guy in years. I've had the vague impression that Halloween has been deliberately promoted here to get away from fireworks on 5th November as a health and safety thing. Possibly also a commercial thing as there was no fancy dress or candies associated with Guy Fawkes night so more marketing available with Halloween

"Helicopter parenting" has definitely ruined Halloween for kids. I dont think kids of today will be as nostalgic for Halloween when they grow up. I think its just another play date for them.

Some other odd (and now defunct) Victorian holiday traditions Ive come across--
April Fools candy. It used to be customary (in the US anyway) on April Fools day to hand out treats that looked like food but were actually inedible things like soap or chocolate covered pencils. I believe more than a few kids died from this. Also Thanksgiving begging. Basically trick or treating. On Thanksgiving morning kids would dress up in costumes, parade thru the streets (ragamuffin parades is what they called them in New York), and then go door to door begging for pennies.

My family was first introduced to trick or treating on or about 1950. And I am a New Englander, living in southeastern Massachusetts. (I wasn't around in 1950, btw.)

My mother knew about the holiday, of course, but never participated in it until some kids came to her door around 1950 asking for 'treats.' The following year she dressed up my (older) sister and took her trick-or-treating.

I think it wasn't well-known or popular in my part of MA because there were not (yet) a lot of Irish people in the town we lived in. But the custom slowly, then rapidly spread all over. According to my mother, within a year or two everyone was talking about trick-or-treating and looking forward to it, and Halloween parties for kids (and adults) became very popular.

Hey, same with Christmas and Christmas trees. I have a diary of a great-grandfather in which he states, in 1904, that he went to a friend's house to 'see the Christmas tree,' which he thought very unsafe. (He was referring to the lighted candles on the branches.) Within a few short years everyone they knew had to have a decorated tree in their house. (And his wife was from Germany, too.)