The spooky decorations are out, young and old are finalizing details, and the hope for good weather is high as Oct. 31 draws near. Halloween has been around for a while, but it has drastically changed over the years.
Hatters have been celebrating Halloween in the city since the early 1900s, but it is by no means a modern tradition. Halloween has its roots in Celtic food and festivals, including the belief that the spirit world was closer to our own on the last day of October. While today we celebrate by dressing up and going trick or treating – a rather harmless bit of fun – historically the night was spent a little differently.
Many newspaper reports from the night after Halloween point to a more devious set of events. It was popular for young adults to go out and play tricks on their friends. Some were harmless, such as “blowing beans” at the windows of houses, which is exactly as it sounds: loading dried beans into a straw and hitting the windows to startle the occupants. Another common trick in the 1920s was the soaping of windows, followed closely by leaving dummies (mannequins) hanging in trees to startle those passing by. There is also the case of the “disappearing bench” in the 1960s that would disappear every Halloween night for many years in a row near Fourth Street SE and McLeod Trail, and reappear somewhere else on Nov. 1. While a tad annoying, these mostly harmless pranks can escalate into something worse. For example, on Halloween night in 1975, the old Isolation Hospital building, built in 1907, burned to the ground. It was being used as the Scout’s Hall, and located near Kin Coulee Park, but was completely lost to fire.
This Halloween, keep to the treats instead of tricks. Bobbing for apples, hot tuna pizzas (a recipe not for the faint of heart from 1982), or candy corn (invented in the 1880s) are all ‘historic’ treats that are sure to deviously delight you.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween from the Esplanade!
Jenni Utrera Barrientos is Assistant Archivist at the Esplanade
