Someone tore the mummy in half. Early on at the auction house, it had stood erect, wrapped in tattered green fabric with a hat on its head. Later, I saw it severed at the waist, its torso on the floor right next to its topless bottom.
My auction buddy Janet assumed that it had been deliberately mangled. I wondered if the pieces were simply meant to come apart. Either way, it didn’t look any scarier that way, just pathetic, torn asunder. That’s the way I’d like to disperse of Halloween itself sometimes.
The mummy was one of several Halloween items up for auction over the past couple months. It was one of the few that seemed to have some age, because most of what I usually saw were more recent items. Someone was likely cleaning out from past Halloweens and figured it was time for this stuff to go.
I understood. I think Halloween is too-much too-expensive candy, costumes and masks for too many children. I always feel awful handing out what amounts to sugar to children who are much too hyper anyway. But we all do it year after year because it’s a tradition, just as we spend to decorate our houses and waste pumpkins to sit on our lawns (it’s food, for goodness sakes).
I have a friend who told me that she stopped giving out candy years ago and eventually stopped her own children from going trick-or-treating. I think she objected to the witches and goblins aspect of it, which was all so non-Christian. For her, it was like us putting her faith in the occult, which is counter to what she believes in.
Another friend suggested that I just turn out my lights on Halloween night and not open my door when the kiddies came around. But that seemed so unneighborly. And I don’t’ want to devolve into the witch on the street who defied Halloween. So, I’ll just find another way to excuse myself (maybe take in a retaurant’s Day of the Dead celebration, a Mexican ritual that occurs around the same time as Halloween).
Auction-goers love vintage Halloween items, while auctioneers have to practically give away the new stuff. Recently, one auctioneer had to beg buyers to take some costumes. Vintage noisemakers are readily snapped up, and those with black cats and witches can start a bidding war. 
At a flea market not long ago, I watched as an old pumpkin light that was missing the fixture and bulb sold even before the market was set to start. It didn’t seem to be in great shape, but it did scream “Halloween.” I’m sure once re-lighted, it will look nice on the buyer’s porch, beckoning children to drop by for candy.
How did all this get started? Halloween is believe to be connected to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was celebrated to mark the end of what was called the “lighter half” of the year. Here’s how Wikipedia described Samhain:
“The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm.”
It also grew out of the Christian All Saints Day on Nov. 1. All Saints is a time of celebration of the saints (and others who have died). Centuries ago, the night before became known as All Hallows Eve and then Halloween.
Here are some early Halloween rituals from history.com that I found interesting. They have nothing to do with children and candy, but with women hoping to conjure up a husband:
“In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.
In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)
Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband.
Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.
At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.”
Cute. If women could use the time to wish upon a husband, how can we deny children their candy, fun and camaraderie? Halloween, it’s part of our culture that we can’t let go.
