The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-31
I'TTS THE NIGHT OF
 FRANKS AND WILES
Halloween AntedateS Chris tianity and Druids and RO- mans Alike Observed
 Its CeremOniaIS.
RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
 OF ANCIENT FESTIVAL.
How Modern Youth and Grabbed Age Pay Devotion to the Day
 of All Saints.

Halloween on Friday, October 31. On that evening parties of various sorts
 will be held, and all the games and pranks attending Halloween will be consummated. Oranges will justly have occasion to celebrate Hal1owe' en this year, as the harvest has been Ibounteous, in fact, throughout this broad country of ours never before have the tillers of the soil been re- Warded for their 1abors early in the morning until late at night with such bumper crops of wheat and corn and other fine grains, also fruits and veg Netables of various varieties.
 | And so many of the granges will hold social and festive gatherings on Halloween. Their halls will be garb- ed with creations of Dame Nature, corn on the ear and the stalks, with l other grains and foliage, tinted by tho handiwork of nature in such colors that make it difficult for the artist to reproduce on canvas. Fruits and vegetables of all kinds will be dis played for inspection and decoration, either on the platforms where local plays will be given. or on those old fashioned long tables where at least a dozen 'neighbors'' were wont to sit to and partake of the fruits of their Iabor,' well prepared by the queens l of the homes, and put on the table steaming hot to be re1ished and en- joyed by the grangers for miles
 
 on such occasions and tell about the size of their crops of potatoes and 1 corn and this and that kind of fruit, and to hear the other folks tell what success they have had during the past productive season. Their work is for the greater part done; their cribs and storehouses are buIging out with foodstuffs for the winter months, and their time from now on until the frQsts leave the ground early next spring will be given over to the car ing of the cattle and the chickens, and making preparations for next year. Nothing means more to the farmer than good crops, and when they have good crops-and this was heir good fortune this year-the Hal Iowe'en celebration is made the mer- rier.
 Antedate Christianity.
 Halloween or All HaIIows eve, is the name given to October 31 as the vigil of HallowmaS or All Saints day. | Though now known little else but the eve of the Christian festival, Hal Iowe'en and it's formerly attendant ceremonies long antedate Christian | ity. The two chief characteristics of | the ancient Halloween were the | lighting of bonf1res and the belief that l of all nights in the year this is the | one during which ghosts and witches | are most likely to wander abroad. | Druids held their great autumn festi- | val and lighted fires in honor of the | -Sun-god in thanksgiving for the har- | vest Further, it was a Druidic be- | lief that the eve of this festival | Saman, lord of death, called together | the wicked souls that within the past | twelve months had been condemned | to inhabit the bodies of animals. Thus it was clear that the main celebra- | tfons of Halloween were purely Dru- l &T1fc 1o the fact that in parts of Ireland Oc- | tober 31 was, and even still is, known l as Oidhnche Shamhna, Vigil of Sa- man.
 Druids and Romans.
 On the Drufdic cerem onies were grafted some of the characteristics of | the Roman festival in honor of Po- mona held about November l. in i which nuts and apples, as represent ing the winter store fruits, played an | important part. Thus the roasting or nuts and the sport known as apple | ducking to seize with the teeth apple floating in a tub of water-were once the universal oc- cupation of the young folks in medic val England on October 31. The GUS tom of lighting Halloween fires sur vived until recent years in the high lands of Scotland and Wales. In the dying enbers it was usual to place as many stones as there were persons around and next morning a search was made If any of the pebbles tain that the person represented would die within the twelve months
 The Modern Celebration
 In the homes of the young people will gather next Friday night young men and young women who will have the time of their young lives, playing all kinds of pranks on one another, d1ToI for fI7o hah hi 1 ing upon the surface of tubs filled | with water, sometimes having their faces thrust in just a little farther than had been contemplated, but this is only incidental to the sport, and the joyous spirit runs so rampant that the use of towels quickly undoes all of that. Ghosts of all sizes will De prowlfng about, but all will have a single likeness, draped with immacu- lately clean sheets. These pranks re- call an ancient custom that is said to have prevailed in Ireland and, as re- lated in fairy stories, of how the ser want girls would place without of doors, on porches or doorteps, bottles of milk to tempt Nab, the greatest "cut up'' of them all, and thereby to pass by and to play his pranks about the homes that had not been quite so generous.
 Ghosts
 Ghost stories will be told in num- bers. A gathering was overheard re- gently planning for the coming Hal Iowe'en- One of the party told a ghost story that is worth repeating, even though it might spoil the amuse- nent of a Halloween party so far as this particular story is concerned. It is told about a middle-aged coIored man in the south. He had done his days work and was returning to his log cabin rather late on Halloween. Strange noises caused him to quicken his pace into a run, for he had seen = 5aost following close at his heels. As he ran the ghost also ran and the race was becoming the more interest Ing because of the effort exerted by l the colored man to outfoot his unde- l