'Give me something good to eat'
By SHARON BAUMBAUGH

It is the eve of All Saints' Day or Hallowmas. The day before the Nov. 1 "holiday" was originally a Celtic festival to make the new year, a welcoming of spirits of the dead and a way to assuage supernatural powers. The annual marking of this Oct. 31 date has evolved into a time of party and treats - or tricks - when youngsters dress in costumes on Halloween to scare or amuse, to be a favorite story or cartoon character, travel to neighbors' doors and wait to be identified and then given special candies for the effort. What has become one of the "top selling" events, in costumes and candy, was introduced here by the Scot and Irish immigrants.

Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine in the 1840s brought to America the Halloween customs of costume and mischief. The favorite pranks played by New England's Irish youth on "mischief night" were the overturning of outhouses and unhinging front gates.

Just after the "holiday" in 1898, the local paper reported that Hallow E'en was observed with the usual amount of funmaking all over the town. Many people "prepared for the depredators and closed their shutters and took in everything that was movable." Many of the town's pedestrians were pelted with corn, it was also reported. The usual door bell ringing was indulged in and porches and gates were carried away from the front of many residences, but the night passed with no injury or excessive damage. That same year Miss Belle Hostetter entertained the Travelers Club on Hallow E'en. Mystic rites and stories appropriate to the theme were offered followed by refreshments of all sorts.

I guess this could be considered a "trick." Note the line under the picture on this post card - "Martin's Mill Bridge, Chambersburg, Pa.", we don't think so… since the 205 foot span was built across the Antrim Township part of the Conococheague Creek in 1849.

Burgess Carl authorized the local newspaper to announce that no rowdyism would be tolerated in town the next Tuesday evening, Hallow E'en, Oct. 31, 1916. The authorities would not interfere with innocent fun but any rodyism or damage to property would be met with instant arrest and prosecution. Just a few days later, extra officers were added to the town's force with a proclamation warning all that an attempt to repeat the disorder of the past two nights will be met with instant arrest. "No bon-fires would be permitted nor any disorder of any character whatever." The citizens of the community were indignant over the misconduct that had disgraced Greencastle's streets and something was to be done.

Misses Edna and Mabel Hassler entertained the WEO Club and a number of their other friends on a Tuesday evening in their East Baltimore Street home. A miscellaneous Hallow'en shower was given in honor of the Misses Ruth and Anna Strock, whose engagements were announced earlier in the year of 1926.

Tommy Brumbaugh, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Neill Brumbaugh of South Washington Street, entertained a number of his young friends on a Friday in October 1928. The house was decorated with the Hallowe'en colors and the games and refreshments were in keeping with the season.

In 1939, the Castle Club announced that it would host a Halloween Party for the young people under the age of 12 in its club rooms in the former Windsor Knitting Mill property on South Carlisle Street. Refreshments would be part of the gathering as the children were invited to come in costume. Miss Margaret Martin entertained a crowd the next year at a Hallo E'en party at her home. The house, it was reported, was decorated in autumn foliage with fortune telling and games part of the evening, for this "older crowd."

This time of year is the time for superstitions, tales of black cats (no pun intended), use of the number 13 in everything black and orange and costumes of that fortune teller to Dracula to a princess or a mighty ranger or whatever other character is most in the minds of children (this year I understand "princess in jail" is a good seller - Paris Hilton in a fancy dress of black and white stripes).

It was also those Irish immigrants who told of the jack-o'- lantern. This bit of Irish folklore tells of a man named Jack, notorious for his drunken ways who tricked the devil into climbing up a tree, then Jack carved a cross into the tree's trunk thus trapping Satan until he swore that he would never again tempt Jack. Following Jack's death, he was barred from entering the gates of heaven for his repeated sinning, and also refused entry into hell from the unforgiving devil. Condemned to wander in the cold darkness until Judgement Day, he asked the devil for some light to help his sorrowful travels. Jack was given a bit of coal that would last only a short time; they were put into a turnip that he had made hollow - forming Jack's lantern. Now those lanterns are made from hollowed pumpkins.

There are all kinds of bad luck superstitions from walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors or placing a hat on the bed, spilling salt, breaking a mirror - all are no nos. Or, some would cross their fingers, hang a horseshoe or hold onto a rabbit's foot for good luck, finding a four-leaf clover is sure to bring good things but never, never begin a trip on the 13th, especially if it falls on a Friday - or, so "they" say.