Mike
Carruthers:
Halloween has become big business.
Kenneth C.
Davis:
Halloween is now the second leading retail holiday in the country
after Christmas.
Kenneth C. Davis,
author of the book, Don't
Know Much About Mythology says the origins of Halloween
go back a few thousand years to an Irish harvest festival, which
included a big bonfire. And the origins of the jack-o-lantern
are there too.
People who collected
at this great communal bonfire took bits of the fire home to
light their hearth fire for the coming winter. And they usually
did that in some carved out turnip.And when the Irish came to
America they discovered pumpkins made much better things to
carve than turnips. And that's why we have the modern day jack-o-lantern.
Halloween is
celebrated in many countries around the world and Kenneth believes
it's popularity is easily explained.
We love to party,
we like to dress up, we like to scare ourselves, we like to
tell scary stories in the hope that the bad things in the night
will go away.
And one of the
more recent Halloween traditions goes back to the mid 50's.
A minister in
Philadelphia said, "well we have all these kids going around
asking for stuff." He cut down some milk cartons and he
started to ask for money and that became the beginnings of trick
or treat for UNICEF. Which, I think they raised seventeen dollars
that first year. Last year trick or treat for UNICEF raised
five million dollars.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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