Halloween Theme Song | Halloween History | Roman Empire | Old Subway Car | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
There are no lyrics. What the hell do I do for an opener?!?!?!?
Halloween History
Okay, so you might want to sit down for this one. Not only did the Irish build New York City and create the perfect pint but they invented Halloween. Wow. The roots of Halloween go back 2,000 years ago to the Celtic “Samhain” festival which was a celebration of the end of summer. Celtic tribes would light bonfires and dress up in costumes in an effort to ward off evil spirits for the incoming winter. The costumes consisted of animal heads and skins. In Celtic mythology, apples were associated with supernatural forces especially pertaining to love and fetitility. Apples were used at these festivals in games such as Apple Peel Test and Bobbing. It was said that you peel an apple fully and then toss it around your back, a woman who finds the initials of her potential guy somewhere on the apple peel. Similarly, with bobbing for apples, the first woman to bite an apple was said to be married that year like catching a bouquet. (Irish American Mom)
The Roman Empire, which never conquered Hibernia (today what we call Ireland), influenced the other Celtic territories around A.D. 43 when they took over England, Wales, and parts of Scotland. The Romans at this time had their own holiday called Feralia known as the passing of the dead. Later on around A.D. 1000, November 1st would be celebrated as All Saints’ Day once Christianity started spreading in the region. The alternate name to All Saints’ Day was All-Hallows. When Christianity started to blend with the Celtic tradition of Samhein, they began to call the festival the night before All-Hallows Eve. Eventually, All-Hallows Eve became Halloween. (History)
Sadly, colonial America wasn’t all about Halloween, I guess the English just didn’t see the fun in Halloween 🫤. The United States didn’t really celebrate the holiday until after the Irish and Scottish started emigrating over here when they brought over their spooky Celtic traditions. Once Americans wanted in on Halloween, of course, it became Americanized. The festivals became neighborly house parties that tried veering a bit away from ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft, but were ultimately unsuccessful when….
…The concept of “Trick or Treating” became associated with Halloween. Dressing up in costumes and going house to house asking for food or money was already a European-borrowed tradition. The “Trick” is associated with the Irish & Scottish nighttime pranking and mischief that came along with the ghostly holiday, while the “Treat” clearly meant candy. During the Great Depression, Halloween took a turn for the worse when it became associated with vandalism. Then WWII happened, sugar rations were dropped, Baby Boomers were born, and suburbs brought back kids & candy.
Today, one-quarter of all the candy sold annually in the US is purchased for Halloween. Skittles according to Reader’s Digest are America’s most popular candy as Americans purchase an average of 3.3 million pounds of chewy rainbow every Halloween. A close 2nd behind Skittles is Reese’s peanut butter cups, which I’m about to go out and buy a whole bag full of for my fat arse because all this candy talking has got me craving chocolate. While we’re on the topic of candy, candy corn used to be Chicken Feed, and Tootsie Rolls were used during WWII to give American troops “quick energy.” Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, which makes it the 2nd largest commercial holiday after Christmas.
One last piece about the Irish and Halloween has to do with the Jack O’Lantern pumpkin. That comes from the Irish legend of Stingy Jack. Legend has it that this fella named Jack invited the devil to have a drink with him (probably a Guinness if we’re being honest), but Jack himself didn’t want to pay for the pint so he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin. Instead of buying the drink, Stingy Jack pocketed the coin and kept it close to a silver cross in his house, which prevented the devil from taking shape again. Stingy Jack made a deal with the devil, to let him go if he would leave him alone and not claim his soul. When Stingy Jack died God didn’t want him in heaven and the devil, true to his word, wouldn’t let him in hell either, so he was sent off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Stingy Jack put the coal in a carved-out turnip and has been roaming Earth as a ghost ever since. The Irish and Scottish started carving out their own scary versions of Jack’s lantern in turnips, beets, and potatoes. Once the tradition traveled to the U.S., Americans started to use pumpkins, native to North America, for the lanterns instead. (Liffey College)
This Week’s Bit on The Roman Empire
This week your quick bit on The Roman Empire brought to you by Week to Week Notes featuring Ancient Rome: The Exhibition in New York is on Roman Pulleys.
I know, I already did a bit of Roman Empire history with Halloween so we’ll go with one of the more rather mundane pieces from the exhibit. Pictured above is a Roman pulley. Much larger versions of this tool were used to lift and drag heavy weights. Pulleys were used in civil engineering, shipbuilding, and the construction of major infrastructure like roads, ports, & aqueducts. The Roman Empire made a bunch of cool, heavy stuff so this would make sense as a tool used.
The pulley consisted of a wheel with a grooved edge. The wheel was held in place by an axle which would allow it to spin freely. Then rope comes into play as it runs through the groove of the pulley which allows a heavier object attached to the pulley to be lifted. In essence, one or two people operating the pulley could lift enormous weights by themselves. This lifting machine helped them accomplish tasks that would otherwise be impossible.
Old Subway Car (Vol VI)
BMT/IND R-30 Car (8506)
Last week’s subway car, which I’m sure you remember, was a 1972 BMT IND R-44 made by St. Louis Car Company. This right here is a 1961 BMT/IND R-30 Car made by the same company. This version of the St. Louis Car Company subway car ran from 1961 to 1993. These would run on routes on the BMT Southern Division Lines (B, N, Q, R) from FiDi to 59th. They were unique in that each set of these train cars was built as one part of a “married pair.” These pairs would share parts with one another, thus saving money on equipment and maintenance costs. The odd-numbered cars were equipped with air compressor brakes, while even-numbered cars had motor generators with batteries to pully power to the operator’s controller.
They shocked New Yorkers with plastic seating. Previously they had grown accustomed to cushions. Must’ve been an adjustment period, no wonder we started becoming hardasses.
Smokey the Bear made his first appearance in 1944 as an American campaign and advertising icon. His job was and is to prevent Wildfires. He is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in US history. Although wildfires were certainly a thing before WWII, the American public was weary of the possibility of Japan bombing forests on the Pacific Coast which could lead to rampant wildfires. With that growing fear and most American able-bodied men deployed overseas, communities focused on prevention.
In 1942, in the middle of WWII, Walt Disney’s “Bambi” hit the big screens and Disney allowed the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) program to use the film’s wildly popular characters on a 1944 poster. Bambi and Friends proved to have done a nice job garnering the attention of the American public, but the problem was that Disney had only loaned the characters as fire prevention symbols for 1 year. Thus, the CFFP had to come up with its own animal symbol and nothing seemed more fitting than the bear.
Smokey’s first slogan was, “Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires”, in 1947 it became, "Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires", and now he just goes with “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.”