The Word Eve in American English

Do you know what the word eve means?  Have you speculated about it?  Did you check into it?

We all know about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  Some of us know that Halloween is the eve of All Saints’ Day.  But what does the word stand for exactly?  Does it carry the meaning “the day before” as it may imply?   Or maybe it denotes something else?

Trick or Treat?

Halloween in the US is about having fun and American trick or treating.  On this day of October 31^st kids and grown-ups alike dress up in Halloween costumes.  Schools look like huge party halls full of princesses and knights, witches and ghosts, walking pumpkins and winged fairies.

After school children, usually accompanied by parents, go trick or tricking.  Of course in costumes, quite often different from those they wore in the morning.

Halloween Goes to America

Halloween in America was popularized by Irish immigrants in the mid 1800’s  (eighteen hundreds).

 

The traditional turnip used for carving scary ghost faces was replaced by American pumpkin, which was plentiful and easier to work with.

American Halloween or All Hallows E'en

You probably know the story of Jack O’ Lantern.

Did you know, though, that the Halloween tradition is much, much longer and started as a Celtic celebration of Hallow E’en or All Hallows Eve’s?  Hallow is another word for holy or saint.

Some historians believe that the origins of Halloween can be traced even further in distance and farther back in time – as far as to the Roman Empire.

Did You Go Pumpkin Picking?

With only one week left to Halloween it is time to start carving pumpkins for Halloween.

Pumpkin is a truly American vegetable.  Well, technically it is a fruit.  Just like tomato.  It belongs to the same family with cucumbers, melons and squash.  Americans Indians used it as one of their staple foods.  Pumpkins were planted together with corn and beans in self sustaining, self supporting and self enhancing micro ecological cultivation systems called the “Three Sisters”.