Tradicciones

8/3/2019 Tradicciones

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Traditional Halloween foods & customs-The Halloween Americans celebrate today is a very modern twist on an ancient pagan ritual. The recurring themes of fall foods, mumming, and divination are theprimary connectors. Our survey of historic cookbooks and newspapers confirms Americans began celebrating Halloween in the early 20th century. This was a periodwhen theme parties were trendy. Party suggestions for adults, teens and childrengrew as the century progressed. It was not until after World War II that Trick-

or-Treat, as we know it today, originated.

"Halloween...is thought to have derived from a pre-Christian festival known as Samhain...celebrated among the Celtic peoples...Samhain was the principal feast day of a year that began on 1 November. Traditionally, bonfires were lit as partof the celebration. It was believed that the spirits of those who had died during the previous twelve months were granted access into the otherworld during Samhain...Scholars know little about the actual practices and beliefs associated with Samhain. Most account were not written down until centuries after the conversion of Ireland to Christianity...and then by Christian monks recording ancient sagas. /****From the evidence****/, we know that Samhain was a focal point of theyearly cycle, and that traditions of leaving out offerings of food and drink to

comfort the wandering spirits had joined the bonfire custom. Also, the traditionof mumming--dressing in disguise and performing from home to home in exchange for food or drink, as well as pranking,/**** perhaps a customary activity of thewandering spirits,*****/ or simply as a customary activity found throughout Europe--had become part of the occasion...Halloween was brought to North America with Irish and British colonists, although it was not /****widely****/ observed until the large influx of European immigrants in the nineteenth century."---Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Solomon H. Katz editor and chief [Thomson Gale:New York] 2003, Volume 2 (p. 167-9)

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Traditional Halloween foods: United States"Halloween may be the only American holiday that is not associated with a particular feast of recipe. Nineteenth-century Irish immigrants bough the October 31 celebration to the United States. On that night it was traditional to give soul cakes to visitors to their households in return for promises to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives. They also put lanterns made from vegetables in the windows to welcome ghosts and wandering souls...Carved pumpkin jack-o'lanterns are anintegral part of Halloween festivities/****, but they are seldom eaten****/ Smaller species of cheese pumpkin, pie pumpkin, or sweet pumpkin, which have sweeter, less watery flesh, are used for making pies...Some people save the seeds to dry, roast, and salt as a snack... /****American harvest festivals called play parties were a precursor to the modern Halloween*****/. In the mid-nineteenth centu

ry, Snap Apple Night or Nut Crack Night parties were celebrated in some regionsof the United States with games, such as dunking for apples...In the late nineteenth century, middle-class Americans looking toward their Celtic heritage rediscovered (and reinvented) Halloween customs and made them respectable. Beginning in the 1870s, articles on Halloween appeared in periodicals that encouraged a new, more uniformly celebrated Victorian fete. By the twentieth century, Halloweenparties for both children and adults had become a common way to mark the day...Candies made in the shape of corn kernels and pumpkins commemorated the harvest season. The Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia was the first to commerciallyproduce candy corn in the 1880s."---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 585-6)

Recommended reading for history of boxty, colcannon, cabbage, etc.:Oxford Companion to Food/Alan Davidson (1999)


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Pumpkins & turnips: Jack-O'-Lanterns"There are a host of stories to explain the origin of the Halloween Jack-o-lantern. The Irish claim it first, and tell the tale of Jack, a man so miserly that he once tricked the Devil into turning himself into a sixpence, then snapped themoney into his pocket and made the Devil promise not to come for him for a wholeyear. Jack lived another stingy and spiteful year, and when the Devil came backfor him, Jack tricked him into climbing up a tree to pick a big, beautiful appl

e from a high branch. Jack quickly carved the sign of the cross in the trunk ofthe tree so the Devil couldn't climb down, and made him promise not to come forJack for 10 years. When Jack died soon after, he went up to Heaven, but Saint Peter denied him entrance because of his stingy nature. Jack tried Hell, but was surprised to find that the Devil wouldn't let him in. The Devil had to keep his promise, and besides, he wasn't very fond of Jack anyway. For punishment, the nasty old man was sentenced to walk the earth forever with only a lantern made froma carved turnip and one coal for Hell to guide him. When the Irish immigrants arrived in America, they delighted in the size and carving potential of the native pumpkin. The fat orange harvest vegetable was quickly substituted for the turnip, and the carved-out snaggle-toothed Halloween jack-o'lantern was born."---Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Lesley Pratt Bannantyne

[Pelican Publishing:Gretna LA] 1998 (p. 78)/****"The vegetable most associated with Halloweenthe jack-o'-lantern, which alsohad its roots in British folklore. Jack was a perennial trickster of folktales,who offended not only God but also the devil with his many pranks and transgressions. Upon his death, he was denied entrance into both heaven and hell, thoughthe devil grudgingly tossed him a fiery coal, which Jack caught in a hollowed turnip and which would light his night-walk on hearth until Judgement Day...The Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1663 for its first printed record of thephrase "jack-with-the-lantern," and 1704 , "Jack of lanthorns," both referringto a night watchman...the jack-o-lantern is definately associated by 1817 with spooky pranks--but not explicity with Halloween or hollowed turnips. Although ever modern chronicle of the holiday repeats the claim that vegetable lanterns were

a time-honored component of Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any primary documentation. In fact, none of the major nineteenth-century chroniclers of British holidays and folk customs makes any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in connection with Halloween....The Oxford English Dictionary provides no clue as to when the Halloween association began; it credits the UnitedStates as the primary source of the modern definition of the jack-o'lantern, followed by England and Ireland, but without dates or citations."---Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, David J. Skal [Bloomsbury:New York] 2002 (p. 31-2)****/

Apples"In old England, apples and nuts were seen as powerful prognosticators. Celtic folk used them in their Halloween divination games for centuries, and there weresome Scottish, Irish and British men and women--people from the northern parts of England--still celebrating All Hallows with apples and nuts throughout the heyday of Guy Fawkes...The night of October 31 was known in parts of the British Isles ad "Snap Apple Night"...the name came from an old game played by tying the player's hands behind his back and having him try to bite an apple suspended froma string...Like their English ancestors before them, Americans used apple dunking to find who will marry first. Whoever could snag an apple from a big bucket filled with water, hands tied behind the back, would be wed soonest."---Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Lesley Pratt Bannantyne[Pelican Publishing:Gretna LA] 1998 (p. 56)

"The Romans brought their own pagan mythology and celebration to Britain, includ

ing the November 1 harvest festival of Pomona, goddess of the orchards, and themasked revels of Saturnalia, the winter solstice. Pomona's association with theapple no doubt fostered the fruit's later prominence in Halloween games and fest


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ivities."---Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, David J. Skal [Bloomsbury:New York] 2002 (p. 21-2)

Cake"People often made cake offerings to dieties to remove their evil influence. They also offered cake to spirits of the dead, believing that the cakes would nouri

sh them during their long journey to the otherworld. One of the best-known examples of cakes for the dead are soul cakes, made on 28 October, in connection withAll Souls' Day. For many pagan peoples/****--the early Celts, for instance--****/this was the day the dead got up and walked around on earth, and unless they were fed, people believed, the spirits might harm the living. In some areas of Germany, soul cakes are black in color, suggesting death. The Ainu people of Germany and Austria left cakes on graves, ad the ancient Egyptians placed them insidetombs. Throughout Europe, people offered soul cakes to the dead to nourish themon their journey to the otherworld, or used cakes as offerings during funeral rights and feasts. Eating cakes on All Souls' Day became common practice. In Belgium, people believed that on this day, one soul was released from purgatory forevery cake consumed." ---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World M

ythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 53-4)Nuts"Nuts have been used for magic since Roman times. Some Scottish and northern English people believed nuts were such powerful sorcerers that they called their October 31st celebration "Nut Crack Night"...Chestnuts and walnuts, both plentifulat harvest time, were popular in early divination games. The most well-known game got as follows: two nuts are named, each for a potential lover, and put on agrate in the fire. She who wants to know the future watches and waits. If a nutburns true and steady, it indicates the lover will have a faithful nature; if itpops in the heat, it indicates the man is not to be trusted."---Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Lesley Pratt Bannantyne[Pelican Publishing:Gretna LA] 1998 (p. 56-7)

/****Kale"In Scotland, young people went blindfolded into the garden to pull kale stalks;later, before the crackling fireplace, the plants would be "read" for revealingsigns of the future wife or husband--short and stunted, tall and healthy, withered and old, and so on. The amount of earth clinging to the root was believed toindicate the amount of dowry or fortune the player could expect from a mate. The stlaks were then hung above the door in a row, and each subsequent Halloween visitor was assigned the identity of a vegetable-spouse in turn. Cabbages and leeks were similarly used."---Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, David J. Skal [Bloomsbury:New York] 2002 (p. 29)****/

Trick-or-treatAfter World War II, the American practice of Trick-or-Treat began in earnest. Sprawing suburban neighborhoods delighted in watching costumed boomer children "beg" from door to door. Traditional Halloween party foods (candied/toffee apples,popcorn balls, nuts) were profered along with pre-wrapped commercial candies. Savvy candy companies capitalized on this lucrative opportunity by selling seasonal packages containing smaller sized products. "Back in the Day" (your editor trick-or-treated on Long Island in the 1960s) it was fairly usual to get little decorative halloween bags containing all sorts of things. These were assembled at home, usually composed of loose candies (candy corn, Hershey Kisses, marsmallows,MaryJanes or Tootsie Rolls, etc.), some pennies and maybe a small toy. We alsocarried little milk-carton shaped boxes distributed in school and said "Trick or

Treat for Unicef." Beginning in 1952, UNICEF's halloween program thrives today.

/****Times have changed. In the 1980s newspaper accounts of (possibly) tampered


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apples and candy first surface. In the 21st century in our northern NJ suburbancommunity, Halloween trick-or-treating is rare. Cautious parents and social organizations are back to hosting invitation-only theme parties.

"The custom of begging for food from house to house on Halloween came for the old Catholic soul-sale custom. Once charitable in nature, "souling" took a popularturn as it evolved over the years. Irish Halloween begging always involved a ma

squerade... but who did the begging and what they were after varied from regionto region. In Ireland's County Cork, a mummers' procession marked All Hallows...Prosperity was promised to those who gave food, drink or money to the revelers...This custom of taking a masquerade from house to house and asking for food or money was one practiced in America on Guy Fawkes Day, and for some years even onThanksgiving. The Irish Halloween masquerade proved so popular it eventually evolved into 20th-century American trick-or-treating."---Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Lesley Pratt Bannantyne[Pelican Publishing:Gretna LA] 1998 (p. 67, 71)****/

"Trick or treating grew popular between 1920 and 1950, probably finding its first practices in the wealthier areas of the East and slowly spreading to remote ar

eas of the West and South. Reports of trick-or-treaters exist in Wellesley, Massachusetts, as early as the late 1920s, but not until the 40s in North Carolina,Florida and Texas. By the 1950s, every child in America had heard about the custom...The origins of Halloween trick or treating are very old indeed. A early American antecedent was Guy Fawkes Day. The celebration, popular in parts of the east during the 17th and 18th centuries, died out in most communities around the American Revolution. Thanksgiving, however, was being celebrating with some regularity at that time, and it became a Thanksgiving custom for children to dress upand beg from house to house on the last Thursday in November. At first the poorer children would dress in cast-off ragged clothes and beg "something for Thanksgiving" from their wealthier neighbors. Soon all kinds of children got involved,and the custom grew more popular and costumes more elaborate. The Thanksgivingmasquerade existed as late as the 1930s, then suddenly vanished, and Halloween c

ostumes and parades began to gain national popularity...As for begging, the notion of receiving gifts of candy on Halloween owed something to the public partiesof the previous decades."---Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Lesley Pratt Bannantyne[Pelican Publishing:Gretna LA] 1998 (p. 142-3)

/****"Sometime in the middle of the 1930s, enterprising householders, fed up with soaped windows and worse, began experimenting with a home-based variation on the old protection racket practiced between shopkeepers and Thanksgiving ragamuffins. Doris Hudson Moss, writing for American Home in 1939, told of her success,begun several years earlier, of hosting a Halloween open house for neighborhoodchildren...The American Home article is significant because it is apparently thefirst time the expression "trick or treat" is used in a mass-circulation periodical in the United States...It is probably that trick-or-treating had its immediate origins in thy myriad of organized celebrations mounted by schools and civicgroups across the country specifically to curb vandalism...It is the postwar years that are generally regarded as the glorious heyday of trick-or-treating. Like the consumer economy, Halloween itself grew by leaps and bounds. Major candy companies like Curtiss and Brach, no longer constrained by sugar rationing, launched national advertising campaigns specifically aimed at Halloween. If trick-or-treating had previously been a localized, hit-or-miss phenomenon, it was now a national duty."---Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, David J. Skal [Bloomsbury:New York] 2002 (p. 52-5)****/

/****Halloween candies of the 1900s"Candies for Hallowe'en. Every ounce just as good as it tastes! We make these candies in our own spotless candy kitchen and when we tell you that they are pure,


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wholesome, and good to eat, we know what we are talking about. A few of to-day's specials: Nut Kisses-- Meixan, vanilla and strawberry,/**** lb...25 cents****/; Buttercups--all flavors, nut and cream centers,/**** lb...25 cents****/; Meadowbrook Caramels-- our famious full cream caramels, vanilla, vanilla English walnut, vanilla filbert, maple.../****lb25 cents****/; Wladorf Chocolates and Bonbonor all Chocolates, /****lb25 cents****/; Hallowe'en Favords--/****each 5 cents to50 cents [no description]****/."

---display ad, Siegle Cooper Company NYC, New York Times, October 31, 1906 (p. 5)****/

/****Halloween candies of the 1920s"There was a profusion, even a confusion, of candies in orange and black. Therewere orange gumdrops, orange jelly beans, orange buttercups, and chips and hardcandies. And there were black (licorice) gumdrops and jelly beans and buttons and all possible devices that were ever seen in black candies...There were lovelyand dainty opera sticks in both orange and black, tied often with ribbon and forthe center of some of the endless arrangement of these things in Halloween candy boxes--witch and black cat decorations on them--and ultimately tied with wonderful pompons of black...ribbon."

---"Halloween Fal-Lalls and Fare," Jane Eddingon, Chicago Daily Tribune, October23, 1921 (p. E6)

& the 1950sAn an placed in the Washington Post October 28, 1951 (p. M7) lists these items under the heading "Trick or Treat Candies":Goeltiz Candy Corn, Brachs Harvest Jelly Beans, Brach's Harvest Panned Mix, Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's Miniatures, Butter Cream Pumpkins (pound bulk), Fleers Double Bubble Gum, Pure Sugar Apples, Jordan Almonds, Goetzes Caramel Creams, Reed's Buterscotch Squares, Midgee Tootsie Rolls, Starlight Kisses, Roasted Peanutsin Shell, Tootsie Roll Handi Pak, Chocolate Bridge Mixture, Spiced Jelly Drops,Chocolate Nonpareils, and Fireside Marshmallows.

Where does candy corn fit in?The earliest references we find to candy corn (aka chicken feed) credit Goelitz(now the Jelly Belly company) for introducing this confection the American public. No particular connection with Halloween or fall season:

/****"1898. Goelitz Confectionery Company begins making candy corn or "chicken feed." They continue to make this Halloween favorite longer than any other company."---Candy: The Sweet History, Beth Kimmerle [Collectors Press:Portland OR] 2003 (p. 32)

Certainly there is a connection between corn and fall and harvest time. Some people decorated their houses with cornstalks around Halloween time. Our survey ofhistoric American newspapers confirms candy corn was special to many folks, butnot necessarily connected with Halloween. We found ads published throughout theyear. For example:

"Pre Holiday Sale...Goelitz Candy Corn, pound cello bag, 25 cents. Butter creamcandy in three colors and shaped like a real corn kernel. Worth crowing about."---advertisement, Washington Post, July 1, 1951 (p. M7)[NOTE: This holiday promotion targets Independence Day!]

"When a person starts talking about the good old days, it is said to be sure sign of age creeping up. Maybe I am already reverting to my second childhood because the other day I had a sudden longing for chicken-feed corn and jelly beans and

when I looked into my corner store none was to be found..."---"Childhood Memories of Good Old Home-Made Fudge, Penny Candies," Langston Hughes, The Chicago Defender, December 18, 1948 (p. 6)****/


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Candy corn, like many other candies we enjoy at Halloween, was promoted as treats for Halloween by candy companies after WWII. Candy corn might have been especially popular because it was also a seasonal (fall) confection. Popcorn balls andcandied apples are other seasonal (fall) treats conventinetly transitioned to Halloween. Additional notes here.

Historic American Halloween party menusIf you would like recipes for any of items listed below, let us know. Happy to supply!****/

/**** [1901]"Halloween PartyWhile the dictionary definition of Halloween is rather different than the mo

dern small boy's interpretation of it would indicate, yet we say with all earnestness, give the boys a good time occasionally, and why not on Halloween?...Boyswill be far less apt to carry off the clothes-posts, unhinge the gates, and makenight hideous, if you give them a part in keeping with the occasion--a party where tin horns from the first course at the dinner-table--where colored paper, na

pkins, folded to represent the "jack-be-nimble" and "jack-be-quicks," "toads," "monkeys," and "parrots"; where paper caps adorn the head and where jack-lanternsadorn the room...

Refreshments Bouillon, de Jolly Boys, Celery, Kindergarten Crackers, TurtleSandwiches, Little Pigs in Blankets, Orange Jelly, Olives a la Natural History,Sugar Off, with maple syrup, Nut Cartoons, lemonade."

---The Blue Ribbon Cook Book, Annie R. Gregory [Monarch Book Company:ChicagoIL] 1901 (p. 31)

[1905]"Hallowe'en Box CakeThe newest fashion in Hallowe'en supper-table decoration is a cake made of w

hite pasteboard boxes, in shape like pieces of pie, which fit together and givethe appearance of a large cake. Each one of the boxes is covered with a white paper which resembles frosting. At the close of the feast the pieces are distributed, each box containing some little souvenier sutiable to Hallowe'en. One box, of course, contains a ring, another a thimble, a third a piece of silver, a fourth a mitten, a fifth a fool's cap, and so on. Much fun is created as the boxes are opened, and the person who secures the ring is heartily congratulated. The unlucky individual who gets the fool's cap must wear it for the evening." (P. 86)****/

"Hallowe'en PartyAll formality must be dispensed with on Hallowe'en. Not only will quaint cus

toms and mythic tricks be in order, but the decorations and refreshments, and even the place of meeting, must be as strange and mystifying as possible. For thecountry or suburban home a roomy barn is decidedly the best accomodation that can be provided. If this is not practicable, a large attic, running the entire length of the house, is the next choice; but if this also is denied the ambitious hostess, let the kitchen be the place of meeting and of mystery, with the dining-room, cleared of its usual furniture and decorated suitably for the occasion, reserved for the refreshments. The light should be supplied only by Jack-o'-lanterns hung here and there about the kitchen, with candles in the dining-room.The decorations need not be expensive to be charming, no matter how large the room. Large vases of ferns and chrysanthemums and umbrella stands of fluffy grasses willbe desirable; but if these cannot be readily obtained, quantities of gayly tinted autumn leaves will be quite as appropriate. Festoons of nuts, bunches of whea

t or oats, and strings of cranberries may also help to brighten the wall decorations, and the nuts and cranberries will be useful in many odd arrangements for ornamenting the refreshment table. Have the table long enough (even if it must be


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extended with boards the whole length of the barn or attic) to accommodated allthe guests at once. Arrange huge platters of gingerbread at each corner, with dishes of plain candies and nuts here and there, and pyramids of fruit that willbe quickly demolished when the guests are grouped about the table. No formal waiting will be desirable. (p. 88-9)

Hallowe'en Suggestions

"Browning nuts, popping corn, roasting apples, and toasting marshmallows will add a great deal to the pleasure of the evening. The dining table should be draped in pale green crepe paper, the lights above being shrouded in gorgeous orange. Pumpkins of various sizes should be scooped and scraped to a hollow shell and, lined with wax paper and filled with good things to eat, should be placed inthe centre of the table. Lighted candles and quaint oriental lanterns will add greatly to the decorations." (P. 90)

---Bright Ideas for Entertaining, Mrs. Herbert Linscott [George W. Jacobs:Philadelphia] 9th edition, 1905/****

[1911]"Hallowe'en Spreads

Menu No. I: Ganser Salad, Brown Bread Sandwiches, Raised Loaf Cake, PricillaPopped Corn, Hot Coffee.Menu No. II: Rob's Rarebit, Zephyrettes, Sultana Fudge, German PunchMenu No. III: Hamlin Ham Timbales, Ribbon Sandwiches, Nut Ginger Cookies, Pe

neuche, Cider" ---Catering for Special Occasions with Menus & Recipes, Fannie Merritt Farmer [David McKay:Philadelphia] 1911 (p. 129-141)

[1914]"Never were Halloween Decorations so Gay as This Year--Some Delicious Candy

Recipes for the FestivalEach year there are so many new decorations for Halloween and so many good o

ld ones revived that the only shame is that Halloween doesn't last for a week. And surely never before were there such attractive Halloween decorations as there

are this year...For a centrepiece on the table on which the refreshments are placed at a children's Halloween party are set forth, nothing is more interestingthan a huge paper pumpkin, with green leaves and a greed stem. After the pumpkinand leaves are made, they can be varnished to make them stiff. A little doll, dressed in yellow crepe paper, is seated on the top of the pumpkin and it is drawn by half a dozen little gray mice, that can be bought at any toy or favor store. Each piece has a piece of yellow ribbon tied about its neck, with the other end in the hand of the doll Cinderella...Another Halloween idea that is good is abig Japanese paper parasol covered with yellow crepe paper, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth cut out of black paper, and touched up with white paint. These arefastened on the outside of the parasol, the nose over the tip, and the effect is delightful. Small gummed seals that can be used for decorative purposes come cut out and sold in packages. There are owls and witches, pumpkins, imps, and cats. An effective but easily made place card is a small white card with a seal pasted in one corner or at one end."

---"What Every Woman Wants to Know," The New York Times, October 25, 1914 (p. X5)

[1932]"Hallowe'en PartiesThe colors of Harvest time make Hallowe'en party decorations the gayest of a

ll the year. Color and the mystery of benevolent witchcraft are a great help tothe gayety of such a party and should set the pace. Once of the most successfuldecorations for a Hallowe'en party I ever used was a large copper tray loaded with fruit. The tray was oval. In the center was a small pumpkin surrounded with a

pples, oranges, pears and clusters of green and purple grapes. The grapes trailed gracefully over the sides. A decoration of this sort arranged ona table or sideboard and flanked by 8 or 10 candles of orange color suggests the opulence of h


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arvest. Candle light is so appropriate for Hallowe'en it is a good idea to havethe rooms lighted entirely this way with orange candles in sticks everywhere. Another attractive lighting arrangement is orange colored paper lantersn. Paint Jack O'Lantern faces on the lanterns with black India Ink. A large pumpkin with eyes, nose and mouth cut out and burning candle should occupy a prominent place inthe room. Of course, witches, black cats and skeletons should b purchased and hung about the room. A successful table decoration is made from oranges. Cut the

tops from the oranges, scoop out the pulp with a teaspoon. Cut Jack O'Lantern faces in them. Place a tiny candle holder and candle in the lanterns. The holdersand tapers used form birthday cakes are excellent. Marigolds or orange and yellow button chyrsanthemums are the flowers to use for the supper table. Sprays of orange Japanese Lantern flowers are beautiful and just the color for a Hallowe'enparty. Now for the menus. There is as much orange in the mens as possible, so that the Hallowe'en color scheme may be carried out.

Menu No. 1 Glorfied Club Sandwiches, Spiced Pears, Olives. Mince or PumpkinPie, Coffee, Sugared Nuts, Hallowee'en Candies

Menu No. 2 Shrimp Wiggle, Celery Curls, Mixed Sweet Pickles, Orange Cream inOrange Baskets< Assprted Frosted Cakes, Coffee, Nuts and Cluster Raisins, Hallowee'en Candies

Menu No. 3 Chicken or Oyster Patties, Sweet Pickled Gherkins, Cranberry Jelly, Ice Cream, Hallowe'en Orange Cake, Salted Almonds, Candied Ginger, Candies, Coffee

Menu No. 4 Chicken Bouillon with Whipped Cream, Cheese Crackers, Crab Salad,Hot Buttered Rolls, Dill Pickles, Orange Sherbet, Assorted Frosted Cakes, Candy, Coffee, Nuts."

---Bamberger's Cook For the Busy Woman, Mabel Claire [Greenberg:New York] 1932 (p. 244-249)

[NOTES: (1) This book was published under several names in partnership withdepartment stores (Macy's, etc.) (2) Mabel Claire was an accomplished artist, hence her attention to color schemes in her menus.]

"A Halloween Ghost Party

Everyone loves a ghost party, whether he is fourteen or ninety. The invitations may be decorated with skull and crossbones and instruct the guests to come in ghostly garb. Have the room darkened, and as they enter the guests should be greeted with a ghostly handclasp; a wet glove filled with sand gives the desiredeffect. On the hearth bubbles a witch's cauldron (made from a cooking pot), stirred by a crone who sings the incantation from Macbeth as she tosses in toy snakes, frogs, and so forth. She also draws out fortunes for the curious. The buggetsupper table for a ghost party may be covered with a black paper cloth on whichwhite ghosts are pasted. The center peice might be a witch's cauldron (a black pot with a grinning face chalked on one side), filled with tiny dangling ghosts made from pipe cleaners, which act as favors. White tapers stuck in black bottlesfurnish the only light.

A Hallowe'en Midnight Supper: Hot Ham Shortcakes with Cheese Sauce, Dill Pickle Sticks, Celery Curls, Radishes, Pumpkin-face Tarts, Ice-cold Coca-Cola, Chicken Corn (candy), Nuts, Apples on a Stick."

---When You Entertain: What To Do, And How, Ida Bailey Allen [Coca-Cola Company:Atlanta GA] 1932 (p. 94-5)

[1937]"Hallowe'en SuppersHallowee'en SaladCream Cheese SanwichesNuts, Apples, TaffyOrange-filled Cup Cakes, Sweet Cider

Goblin-faced Meat Pies (faced slashed in crust)Julienne Carrots


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Orange Ice in Orange CupsChocolate Cookies, Ginger Ale."---America's Cook Book, The Home Institute of the New York Herald Tribune [C

harles Scribner's Sons:New York] 1937 (p. 861)

[1942]"Hallowe'en Party

Write your Hallowe'en invitations on cutouts of black cats, cauldrons, scarecrows, pumpkins or witches. Use black or orange paper and write the invitation in the form of a jingle or just a note. Room decorations are a simple matter forthey can be as casual as you like. Spread a few sheaves of corn around the roomor stand up some stalks of corn amid a profusion of gay autumn leaves. Orange orblack candles or orange bulbs--just a few to create an eerie effect--can be used to provide the light. Large cutouts of black cats, witches, or pumpkins pinnedto the walls around the room, brilliant orange, yellow, or red tablecloths of cotton or old sheets dyed in any of those colors enhance the them of the party. Playing games that originate from the character of the occasion, like pulling fortunes form the witches' cauldron or spirit rapping, are times fo interest for this type of party. And don't forget that traditional cider and doughnuts, orange

and black candies, ice cream molds with a pumpkin, or made-with-honey pumpkin pie contribute much in a decorative way."---Wartime Entertaining, Ethel X. Pator [Consolidated Book Publishers:Chicag

o] 1942 (p. 49)

[1949]"Witches and hobgoblins have come to town, ready to appear at the children's

Halloween parties. Never since before the war have the stores been so well stocked with paper masks, favors and other festive decorations in orange and black.bakeries ofer ginger-cookie owls and frosted cakes atop which the old lady ridesher broom. She's also to be found molded in milk chocolate at some candy storesand, most wondrous of all, modeled in ice cream. Halloween means pumpkins witheyes, ears and noses cut out and a candle burning in the hollowed center...In th

e eyes of children, "homemade" surprises are just as enchanting as those boughtat the store. They'll be delighted to find a marshmallow face floating in theircup of hot chocolate. Two dots of melted chocolate or frosting squeezed througha pastry tube make the eyes, one dot the nose and a line the mouth. Or, again, with a pastry tube, sketch a whiskered cat's face on an orange-frosted cake. Makepopcorn balls, top them with crepe paper hats and give them frosting faces."

---"News of Food: Parties," New York Times, October 26, 1949 (p. 31)

[1952]"Parties on Halloween are an old, old custom and one we especially like to o

bserve. Children and grown-ups alike love the party-giving spirit of this old fateful night so let's plan a Halloween party today. Refreshments that emphasize the eerie atmosphere of the old traditions will delight the merrymakers. WitchesCandle Cakes, flavored with mint chocolate wafers, are sure to triumph whether you serve them with ice cream, fruit or hot cocoa...Popcorn too should be in appearance at a Halloween party, as should apples."

---"Apples, Popcorn Still Liked by Halloween Party-Goers," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1952 (p. B4)

[1956]"Halloween Refreshments(1) Cider and Doughnuts(2) Pigs in Blankets, Carrot Straws, Ripe Olives, Orange Sherbet, Chocolate

Cupcakes with Orange Butter Icing (Jack O'Lantern faces traced on icing with melted chocolate)."

---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, revised and enlarged second edition [McGraw-Hill Book Company:New York] 1956 (p. 51)


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[1957]"Halloween night is an all-important knight for the small fry. Whether you'r

e planning a large-scale party or merely treating the visiting spooks, a table of clever edibles, with decorations to fit the occasion, will make you a popularhostess. The eerie atmosphere can be created simply and inexpensively with impish orange candles. Take bright-colored oranges and draw faces, using crayon, softpencil or black enamel...Another great for the pigtail crowd are Halloween Cand

y Apples....Of course, Halloween parties are not limited to the youngsters. it'sthe perfect time to start the fall entertaining season."

---"How to be popular on Halloween night," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1957 (p. M36)

[1963]"Halloween PartyNo other time of year provides a better opportunity fo rthe colorful decorat

ions children love so well...Use Halloween paper plates and napkins. Fill smallpaper cups with assorted Halloween candy; set at each place. Let your child helpmake the invitations--orange jack-o-lanterns or round black cats, cut out of construction paper. Make costumes mandatory. Have a prizes for the best. Menu: Slo

ppy Joes, Halloween Cake (Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting, Decorated with Candy Corn, Ice Cream, Hot Cocoa."---McCall's Cook Book [Random House:New York] 1963 (p. 634-5)

[1964]"Halloween Party****/Bob for apples, carve a pumpkin, play spooky games...Menu: Witches' Cauldron

Soup, Goblin Franks, Vegetable Relishes, Ice Cream Jack-O'-Lanterns, Milk Halloween Cookies."

---Betty Crocker's Parties for Children, zlois M. Freeman [Golden Press:NewYork] 1964 (p. 161)

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) [Mexico]

Historians generally agree that modern Day of the Dead festivities are Christianized versions of ancient pagan celebrations. There appears to be some conflicting reports regarding exactly which festivity was morphed. The Aztecs recognized two gods of death. Mictecacihuatl was the darker of the two. His celebration wastraditionally held in the Ninth month (August in our calendar). The other god was kinder and gentler; his celebration coincided more with today's dates.

Ancient Aztec perspective on death"To the Aztec, cosmic balance and therefore life would not be possible without offering sacrificial blood to forces of life and fertility, such as the sun, rain, and the earth. Thus in Aztec myth, the gods sacrificed themselves for the newly created sun to move on its path...The sixteenth-century accounts written in Spanish and Nahuatl provide detailed descriptions of Aztec concepts of death and the afterlife...People who eventually succumbed to illness and old age went to Mictlan, the dark underworld presided by the skeletal god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, and his consort Mictlancihuatl. In preparation for this journey, the corpse was dressed in paper vestments, wrapped and tied in a cloth bundle, and then cremated, along with a dog to serve as a guide through the underworld. The path to Mictlan traversed a landscape fraught with dangers... With no exits, Mictlan wasa place of no return. /****Aside from the dreary...realm of Mictlan, there was the afterworld of Tlalocan, the paradise of Tlaloc, the god of rain and water. Aregion of eternal spring, abundance, and wealth, this place was for those who died by lightning, drowning, or were afflicted by particular disease...Rather thanbeing cremated, these individuals were buried whole with images of the mountaingods, being closely related to Tlaloc...For the Aztec, yearly ceremonies pertai

ning to the dead were performed during two consecutive twenty-day months, the first month for children, and the second for adults, with special focus on the cult of warrior souls.****/ Although then occurring in the late summertime of Augus


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t, many aspects of these ceremonies have continued in the fall Catholic celebrations of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Along with the ritual offering of food for the visiting dead, marigolds frequently play a major part in the contemporary celebrations, a flower specifically related to the dead in Aztec ritual."---"Aztec Religion," MacMillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, Robert Kastenbaum editor [McMillan Reference:New York] 2003 (p. 52-53)

/****Ancient Aztec celebrations of death"It was on the eighth month of August by our calendar that these [Ancient Aztec]people observed the ninth month of the year of twenty days, like all th rest. The festival celebrated at the beginning of this month was performed with great rejoicing. It was called Micialhuitontli, which is a diminutive and means Feast of the Little Dead. According to my information, it was the commemoration of innocent dead children, and that is why the diminutive was used. In the solemn ceremonies of this day offerings and sacrifices were made to honor and venerate thesechildren. The second reason this feast was named in the diminutive is the same[as that] used for the previous feast. That is to say, it was a preparation or anticipation of the coming festivity, called the Great Feast of the Dead, when adults were to be remembered. There was another reason (and this is the main one),

founded on omens and superstition. This feast fell on the eighth of August...and so these people feared the loss of their crops owing to frost at the beginningof August. Thus the natives prepared their offerings, oblations, and sacrificesfor this feast and for that of the following month. I have already mentioned that the first reason for the name Feast of the Little Dead was due to the offerings made for deceased children. I wish to refer to something I have seen taken place on the Day of Allhallows and on the Day of the Faithful Departed. When I asked why offerings were made on the day of Allhallows, I was told that this was inhonor of the children, it being an ancient custom which had survived. I inquired whether offerings were also made on the Day of the Faithful Departed, and theanswer was, 'yes, in honor of adults.' I was sorry to hear these things becauseI saw clearly that the Feast of the Little Dead and [the feast] of the Adults were still being celebrated. On the first I saw people offering chocolate, candles

, fowl, fruit, great quantities of seed, and food. On the next day I saw the same being done. Though this feast fell in August, I suspect that if it is an evilsimulation (which I do not dare affirm) the pagan festival has been passed to the Feast of Allhallows in order to cover up the ancient ceremony...This main festivity of theirs lasted the entire month, until the beginning of the Great Feastof the Dead. On this day an enormous thick tree trunk was cut--the largest thatthe woods could produce. The bark was stripped off and smoothed. Once this had been done, it was brought and set up at the entrance of the city or town. Upon its arrival the priests came out of the temples with trumpets, singing and dancing. The common men appeared with conch shells, offerings, food, incense burners filled with copal, and other types of incense."---"The Ninth Month of the Year," Book of the Gods and Rites and The Ancient Calendar, Fray Diego Duran [University of Oklahoma Press:Norman OK] 1971 (p. 441-443)[NOTE: Preh-Hispanic Cooking, Ana M. de Benitez offers that modern Day of the Dead was similar to the ancient Twelfth month celebration of Teotelco (p. 26).]****/

The Catholic Church Connection"Early Spanish observers...remarked on the fabrication of idols from edible grains and their distribution as talismans or articles of communion...pre-Columbianpractices were simply annexed to the festival of All Souls'; sometimes with a convivance of Franciscan friars who wished to encourage the rapid conversion of the indigenous population to Christianity...Writing in 1580, Father Diego de Duranwas troubled by the way in which indigenous cults of the dead were transposed t

o All Saints' and All Souls'. He was particularly concerned that All Saints' hadbecome a festival devoted to little children who had died, thereby emulating the pre-Christian feast of Miccailhiotontli...which had traditionally take place t


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wo months earlier. Mexican scholars disagree over the influence of these ancientfestivals on the popular practice of Todos Santos...as the Day of the Dead is sometimes called. But an overemphasis on the continuities with the pre-Columbianpast can easily elide the fact that there are also striking similarities betweenthe rituals of the Day of the Dead and the early modern observance of All Souls' Day in Europe. Yellow flowers of mourning were common to both sixteenth-century Spain and Mexico...In the old Castilian province of Zamora...ofrendas and banq

uets were a customary aspect of funeral rites. IN Barcelona, food stands routinely sold seasonal sweets called panellets del morts or All Saints Day. A varietyof other cakes and sweets also formed part of the festive fare in Catalonia, Sardinia, Portugal, the Azores, and Haute-Saone in France, just as soul cakes werewidely distributed in pre-Reformation Britain. What seems unique to the MexicanTodos Santos...was the widespread consumption of anthorpomorphic foods, or foodsin the shape of humans. These included sugared skulls and figurines in the shape of humans. These included the sugared skulls and figurines that now attract international attention, and the pan de muertos, ' bread figures in the style of angels and human beings,' which took on 'a ritual character'...These kinds of foods---breads in human or animal form, in particular---were also made throughout the Iberian peninsula, though rarely for this holiday. There are grounds...for su

ggesting that the Mexican Day of the Dead was a complex mix of Mesoamerican andEuropean influences, rather than a holiday onto which Christian observances weresuperficially imposed. In this respect, the Day of the Dead was not so very different from Halloween. Both shared a common European legacy as well as a dynamicfusion of pre-Christian and Christian belief. If this is the case, then their differences may be grounded not only in the peculiarities of that syntretism, butalso in the ways in which the two holidays subsequently developed in the New Worlds."---Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Nicholas Rogers [Oxford University Press:New York] 2002(p. 143-146)

Modern observance"In Mexico, the festival of Dia de los Muertos embodies the greatest expression

of both popular Catholicism and national cuisine. People construct alters in homes and graveyards throughout the country in order to feed the souls of the dead.Church officials recognize two holy days, November 1 (All Saints' Day)...and November 2 (All Souls' Day), in memory of the faithful departed. According to popular belief, the angelitos (deceased children) return on the evening of October 31 and the adults on the following night, although the dates in local celebrations vary all the way from October 28 to November 4. The feast for the dead originated as a form of ancestor worship, and the clergy were long reluctant to incorporate such pagan practices into the liturgical calendar. The festival held particularly strong associations with pre-Hispanic agrarian cults because it coincidedwith the maize harvest. Celebrations begin with the cleaning of the graves andthe construction of the altar. At home this consist of a table or platform hungfrom the ceiling, covered with a white cloth and supporting an arch of palm fronds. The ofrenda are decorated with flowers, particularly the cempasuhil (marigold), the 'flower of the dead,'...The foods offered to the dead vary according toage and taste, but bread, water, and salt are always included. The bread is madefrom a special egg dough forming bones, and a skull in the center. Sugar candies with similar skull and calavera (skeleton) designs are also popular. In some areas of Oaxa and Michoacan, bakers shape the bread to resemble humans or animals. Offerings for children are miniature in size and relatively simple: breads, candies, fruits, and milk or soft drinks. The adult dead receive the finest foods,grown-up breads and sugar figures, as well as candied pumpkin and other sweets.More elaborate preparations include mole (turkey in a rich chili sauce) and tamales (corn dumplings stuffed with meat and chili and steamed in husks or bananaleaves). The spirits also drink their favorite beverages, whether soft drinks, c

offee, chocolate, beer or tequila...The Day of the Dead has recently become an important tourist attraction for the towns such as Mixquic, near Mexico City, andin the state of Oacaca."


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---"Day of the Dead," Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Solomon H. Katz, editorin chief [Charles Scribner:New YOrk] 2003, Volume 1 (p. 505-506)

Food notes & recipesPan de Muerto (literally, bread of the dead) is universal. Sugar skulls are alsooffered. Other foods depend upon what the person liked when he/she was alive. Notes here:

"Every year the people of Mexico celebrate El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The holiday begins the evening of October 31 and continues throughout the day of November 2. It is a time when Mexican families remember the dead by mixingancient beliefs and ritual of the early peoples of Mexico with the customs introduced by the Spanish Christians.Much preparation leads up to the holiday, whichis actually a pleasant commemoration, rather than a solemn occasion, as one might think. It is a very social event, which begins by cleaning the gravesite and decorating with flowers and well as preparing special foods such as pan de muertos (bread of the dead), for their departed. Family members gather at the cemeteryto picnic and remember the dead by telling stories about them."Food for the Ancestors (lesson plan)

[NOTE: this site includes selected modernized recipes]"In our day throughout the country, but principally in the states of Puebla, Mexico, Oaxaca and Michoacan...the Day of the Dead is celebrated with catholic-pagan ceremonies...people, in happy contradiction with the sad day, place offeringsof sweets, fruits and tasty dishes of all kinds to their dead relations...The Christian part is represented with figures and pictures placed on a kind of altar.The pagan part is prepared on a table or sideboard below the altar covered witha beautifully embroidered tablecloth...The dishes, jubs and pans are made of black glazed clay, as if for a special rite, because this ceramic ware is only used at this time. The glazed dishes are filled with turkey mole, pork or chicken,a dessert made of pumpkin, choke-cherries and guavas; tasted sesame seed is sprinkled over the dishes; a dessert called punche, which is a kind of pudding of gr

ound maize of different colors, blue, purple and red; fruits of the season organves, limes, choke-cherries, jicamas and others; skulls made with sugar with theeye sockets stuffed with brightly coloured paper and decorated with sugar filigree with the name of the dead person on its forehead, bread in the shape of skulls and bones, colored with red and white sugar; bread made with eggs which is called hojaldras or bread of the dead, a kind of scone decorated with figures madeof the same dough in the shape of tears of bones. Tamales and the dead person'sfavourite delicacies...are alos placed with the other offerings...It seems thatboth the ritual and the offerings are similar to those of the Aztec ceremonies which took place in the twelfth month of the Aztec calendar, called Teotelco. Teotelco was at about the same line of the year as our last days in Octover. On theeighteenth day the priests washed the feed of the god called Tlamatizicatl Titlacauan or Tezcatlipoca, and it was a day of great rejoicing."---Pre-Hispanic Cooking, Ana M. de Benitez [Ediciones Euroamericanas:Mexico] 1974 (p. 24-29)[NOTE: Book includes recipe for Bread of the Dead.]About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are notmeant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary evidence. If you need more information we suggestyou start by asking your librarian to help you find the books and articles citedin these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer trends, and new products.

Tradicciones

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