It was a beautiful fall morning last Wednesday for our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group when we assembled at the Exedra for our weekly. Halloween was just a week and a day away, and we thought we would get into the spirits of the day with a walk to see some Halloween house decorations. Forty-eight walkers with four K-9 best friends were on hand for the fun.
Before we got started, some history was shared. Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) when people lite bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. It was a time of year often associated with death. Celts believed on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when they believed ghosts returned to earth. The people built huge, sacred bonfires to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to their Celtic gods. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins.
By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic territory and during the 400 years they ruled it, they combined their Roman festivals with the Samhain celebration. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day also incorporated some Samhain traditions. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, wearing costumes, and eating treats. However, it was not until after the mass Irish and Scottish immigrations in the 19th century that Halloween became a major American holiday.
With this new understanding of Halloween, we went down Magnolia Avenue in search of ghosts and goblins. Sherry Jacobs had seen a front yard she thought we would enjoy. It had headstones for family cats with funny names that complemented a permanent “Cat Crossing” street sign attached to the back of a city street sign.
We went down El Cerrito Avenue and appreciated the creativity of a set of rounded boxwood hedges with orange covers that changed them into pumpkins. Across Oakland Avenue and up Blair Avenue, we came to Dracena Avenue. It had been turned into a Piedmont Sleepy Hallow with small, white ghosts hanging from trees all along the street. Up Park Way and over on Blair we found a two-story, inflatable, black cat that we liked, but Mike H's K-9 best friend Roger ignored.
We continued up Blair to Highland Avenue for a hike across Sheridan and Lincoln Avenues to Crocker Avenue. The front yard of the second house on Crocker had been transformed into a fully occupied graveyard with headstones, ghouls emerging from their graves, huge spiders, a ghost clown swinging from a tree, and lots more scary stuff. By chance, the not-scary owner of the house, Peter W, was unloading his car. He stopped to tell us how his family had bought the house three years ago and each year they create this spooktacular show for trick or treaters. About 350 brave ones got full size candy bars last year. Peter said his dentist brother-in-law has voiced no objections. It was a great spot for a picture, and we took a group photo with Peter and his other world friends.
There were more yards to see on Sea View Avenue, but time had run out on us. These creations would have to be seen on individual, brave walks. We returned to the Exedra after a good long walk with lots of Halloween fun.