Nicole McIsaac
In Focus

The leaves are changing colours, there’s a chill in the air and we’ve stuffed ourselves full of turkey. That can only mean one thing: it’s time for Halloween.
For second-year fashion arts student, Shantel Rousseau, 19, it’s also prime time to party.
“Its fun, you’re allowed to dress up and be creative,” she said.
Humber sociology teacher John Steckly said fantasy is a popular commodity, given the times we live in.
“It has become a form of escape,” he said.
Halloween did not always have the same connotations that it does now, said Nicole Cooper, a second degree priestess of the Wiccan Church of Toronto.
The holiday originated in early England with the Celtic people. During this season change, it was believed that the night before Nov. 1 blurred the boundaries between the living and the dead, said Cooper.
“The energy between the worlds thinned and it became easier to communicate with the spirits.”
Steckly explained that with the appearance of winter, there was a lot of concern relating to change. “Relying on the predictions of the spirits for the future was very important.”
During the pagan celebration of Samhain, the Celts would kill animals they would not be able to feed during the winter due to a lacking harvest. The animals would be offered as sacrifices to the spirits of their ancestors over a large bonfire, Cooper said.
This is one tradition that has been eliminated from modern celebrations.
“People simply assume that we’re making animal sacrifices this time of year,” said Cooper. “Which of course we don’t.”
As a part of Samhain, pagans and Wiccans actually honour the spirit of animals as companions.
The jack-o’-lantern comes from an old tale about a man who had tricked the devil and upon his death was not allowed into heaven or hell and was therefore forced to walk the earth with only the light of a coal which he placed in a turnip. People in England began placing candles in vegetables by their doors, and later pumpkins carved with scary faces, in order to scare him and other evil spirits away.
Trick-Or-Treating also came from early times in England when poor people would beg for food during the parades and bonfires of Samhain and during the parade on All Saints Day, Nov. 1.
The act of going door-to-door is mimicked in the act of costumed Mummers, who would go door-to-door in raggedy clothes begging for money around Christmas time, said Steckly.
For Wiccans, many of the old traditions are mixed with the new.
“The cycle of seasons is a reflection of the divine God and Goddesses and their presence and their gifts in our life.”
There are festivals and ceremonies on Halloween that wiccans participate in such as communion, contact with the spirits and honouring their ancestors. 뭞