Happy Heebie-Jeebie Holidays!
I intended to post a history of Halloween this month for all you avid neophytes of knowledge, but instead i will offer a link that does an excellent job to the delightful dark history of October 31st (in the luminous sense) – and a few odd words to finish this post.
First, a superb summation from the website Ancient-Origins.net –
Halloween, or the ancient Samhain, is considered the time of year when the veil between our world and the spirit world is at its thinnest. As darkness falls and families light their pumpkin Jack-o'-lanterns, they are, perhaps unknowingly, repeating the ancient traditions of honoring the dead and marking the beginning of the ‘dark half’ of the year. . . Many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them. Samhain (like Beltane) was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies could more easily come into our world.” Fires, and later candles, were lit to mimic the sun and hold back the dark of the oncoming winter.
Now, a bit of October etymology. . .
PUMPKIN (n.)
From Greek pepon "melon," probably originally "cooked (by the sun)," hence "ripe;" from peptein "to cook”!
America's a dandy place:
The people are all brothers:
And when one's got a punkin pye,
He shares it with the others.
[from "A Song for the Fourth of July, 1806," in "The Port Folio," Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1806]
Halloween (n.) (Also Hallow-e'en, Hallow e'en) 1781
In a Scottish context, the word and the magical lore about the date were popularized by Burns' poem (1785, and he attached a footnote explaining it), but it probably dates to 17c. in Scotland and is attested as the name of a tune in 1724. The tune is mentioned again in an English-Scots songbook ("The Chearful Companion") in 1783, and Burns was not the first to describe the customs in print.
Hallow-E'en, or Holy Eve, is the evening previous to the celebration of All Saints. That it is propitious to the rites of divination, is an opinion still common in many parts of Scotland. [John Main, footnote to his poem "Hallow-E'en," Glasgow, 1783]
It is a Scottish shortening of Allhallow-even "Eve of All Saints, last night of October" (1550s), the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year's Night, a night for witches. A pagan holiday given a cursory baptism.
Heebie Jeebies...
The mysterious term is sometimes attributed to Billy DeBeck, citing a 1923 cartoon of his in the October 26 edition of the New York American:
You dumb ox – why don't you get that stupid look offa your pan – you gimme the heebie jeebies!
It appears to share a similarity to earlier rhyming phrases, such as hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo and the bee's knees.
Stay spookey my friends.....
Gullosopher
