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A rare, vintage sheet of Halloween-themed gift wrap, circa '80s

HALLOWEEN SCARECROW CELLOPHANE GIFT WRAP (30" X 45")

DETAILS:

The perfect blend of cute, classic, festive and spooky!

Behold this enchanting and exceptionally rare piece of vintage Halloween-themed cellophane gift wrap! Unfold this fascinating time capsule, and you'll discover a charming world of Halloween wonder. The clear 30" x 45" sheet showcases a playful and adorable polka dot-style print featuring a mini cornfield scene with unhusked corn. In the repeating mini scene, you'll find an endearing scarecrow standing guard between a classic-style jack-o'-lantern and a full-grown maize (corn) plant. This timeless, artful design encapsulates the quintessential spirit of Halloween, celebrating the harvest season and the magic of All Hallows' Eve.

Many Uses!
This lovely, Halloween/Fall/Harvest-themed printed cellophane gift wrap is excellent for wrapping homemade or store-bought baked goods and treats, DIY craft projects, or even home decoration. Use this vintage cellophane sheet for wrapping gifts, in place of tissue paper, making treat bags, in scrapbooking projects, as Halloween decoration on window/table/wall etc. or create unique table settings, use as a photo mat in a clear picture frame, or even frame it for an instant conversation piece.

A rare, retired blast from the past!

This delightful cellophane gift wrap transports you back to the glory days of Halloween in the 1970s or 1980s, a time when Halloween decorations had a unique and whimsical charm all their own. The manufacturer and exact year remain shrouded in mystery, but our detailed visual examination of age, wear, print pattern, art style, and product material strongly suggests a production date from that era (1980s, possibly 1970s), making this piece of art at least 35 years old. The cellophane sheet was stored for many, many years among other Halloween items from the 1970s and 1980s, which is another reason we believe it to be from that time as well.

A must-have for the collector of all things Halloween!
Makes a wonderfully unique gift for Halloween fanatics and enthusiasts, especially those who collect everything vintage Halloween and love spooky home decor all-year-round. Whether you're an ardent collector of vintage Halloween memorabilia and revel in the nostalgia of yesteryears or simply looking to elevate your Halloween decorations with a dash of retro charm, this cellophane gift wrap is a wonderful addition.

Dimensions:

Approximately 30" x 45" (inches) or 9.37 sq. ft. (square feet)

CONDITION:

In good, pre-owned condition. There's a fair amount of creases and wrinkles from being folded and stored, and just one small tear (see last photo). Please see photos.

To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.

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*ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.*

"Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween,[5] All Hallows' Eve,[6] or All Saints' Eve)[7] is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide,[8] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[9][10][11][12]

One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.[13][14][15][16] Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church.[17] Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day.[18][19][20][21] Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,[22][23] and then through American influence various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.[24][25]

Popular Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.[26] Some people practice the Christian observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead,[27][28][29] although it is a secular celebration for others.[30][31][32] Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.[33][34][35][36]
Etymology
"Halloween" (1785) by Scottish poet Robert Burns, recounts various legends of the holiday.

The word Halloween or Hallowe'en ("Saints' evening"[37]) is of Christian origin;[38][39] a term equivalent to "All Hallows Eve" is attested in Old English.[40] The word hallowe[']en comes from the Scottish form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day):[41] even is the Scots term for "eve" or "evening",[42] and is contracted to e'en or een;[43] (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe'en.
History
Christian origins and historic customs

Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices.[44][45] The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows' Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November.[46] Since the time of the early Church,[47] major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows'.[48][44] These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.[49] In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St Mary and all martyrs".[50] This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead.[51]

In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors".[44][52] Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November,[53] while others say it was on Palm Sunday in April 732.[54][55] By 800, there is evidence that churches in Ireland[56] and Northumbria were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November.[57] Alcuin of Northumbria, a member of Charlemagne's court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Frankish Empire.[58] In 835, it became the official date in the Frankish Empire.[57] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,[57] although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.[59] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature.[57][59] It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.[60][44]
On All Hallows' Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones.[61] Top: Christians in Bangladesh lighting candles on the headstone of a relative. Bottom: Lutheran Christians praying and lighting candles in front of the central crucifix of a graveyard.

By the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become known as the holy days of obligation in Western Christianity and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory. It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls".[62] The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls,[63] has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.[64] The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century[65] and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.[66] Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling".[65][67][68] Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat,[66] or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives.[69] As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating they were baked as alms.[70] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).[71] While souling, Christians would carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have originally represented souls of the dead;[72][73] jack-o'-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits.[74][75] On All Saints' and All Souls' Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,[76] Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called "soul lights",[77] that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes".[78] In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All Souls' Day.[77] In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the graves of kinfolk,[66] or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls;[77] a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy.[79][77]

Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes".[80] In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.[81][82] Some Christians observe this custom at Halloween today.[83] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.[84] Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival" known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church decoration.[85] Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things".[86] The danse macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume parties.[87][88][89][72]

In Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated purgatory as a "popish" doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the intercession of saints and prayer for souls in purgatory were abolished during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallow's Day remained in the English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human beings".[90] For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined; "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits".[91] Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).[92] In some localities, Catholics and Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church bells for the dead;[46][93] the Anglican church eventually suppressed this bell-ringing.[94] Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval archaeology, and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth".[95] After 1605, Hallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.[96] In England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Hallowtide customs. In 18th–19th century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve. One held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen'lay.[97] There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the lighting of 'tindle' fires in Derbyshire.[98] Some suggested these 'tindles' were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to earth".[99] In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed as they "were important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities" and curbing them would have been difficult.[22]

In parts of Italy until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of relatives, before leaving for church services.[79] In 19th-century Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the saints" on All Hallow's Day, with "participants represented by realistic wax figures".[79] In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward towards heaven.[79] In the same country, "parish priests went house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among themselves throughout that night".[79] In Spain, they continue to bake special pastries called "bones of the holy" (Spanish: Huesos de Santo) and set them on graves.[100] At cemeteries in Spain and France, as well as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all night vigil.[101] In 19th-century San Sebastián, there was a procession to the city cemetery at Allhallowtide, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to the tender recollectons of one's deceased relations and friends" for sympathy.[102]
Gaelic folk influence
An early 20th-century Irish Halloween mask displayed at the Museum of Country Life

Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are believed to have pagan roots.[103] Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".[104] The origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival Samhain.[105]

Samhain is one of the quarter days in the medieval Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November[106] in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.[107][108] A kindred festival has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany; a name meaning "first day of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.[109] Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century,[110] and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween.
Snap-Apple Night, painted by Daniel Maclise in 1833, shows people feasting and playing divination games on Halloween in Ireland.[111]

Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.[112][113] It was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into this world and were particularly active.[114][115] Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs".[116] They were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings.[117][118] At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.[119][120][121] The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.[122] Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to welcome them.[123] The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures.[66] In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin".[124]

Throughout Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.[125] Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water, dream interpretation, and others.[126] Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.[112] In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them.[110] It is suggested the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun and held back the decay and darkness of winter.[123][127][128] They were also used for divination and to ward off evil spirits.[74] In Scotland, these bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes.[129] In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of the dead from falling to earth".[130] Later, these bonfires "kept away the devil".[131]
photograph
A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Halloween turnip (rutabaga) lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland[132]

From at least the 16th century,[133] the festival included mumming and guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.[134] This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar to 'souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was also believed to protect oneself from them.[135] In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a Láir Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune.[136] In Scotland, youths went house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.[134] F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with ashes from the sacred bonfire.[133] In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.[134] In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney cross-dressed.[134]

Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers".[134] From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to England until the 20th century.[134] Pranksters used hollowed-out turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque faces.[134] By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to represent the spirits,[134] or used to ward off evil spirits.[137][138] They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century,[134] as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns.[134]
Spread to North America
The annual New York Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, is the world's largest Halloween parade, with millions of spectators annually, and has its roots in New York's queer community.[139]

Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All Hallow's Eve in their church calendars",[140][141] although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.[142] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.[22]

It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.[22] Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,[23][143] though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside".[144] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.[145] Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.[24][25][146]
Symbols
At Halloween, yards, public spaces, and some houses may be decorated with traditionally macabre symbols including skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs, headstones, and scary looking witches.

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to frighten evil spirits.[73][147] There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern,[148] which in folklore is said to represent a "soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell":[149]

    On route home after a night's drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.[150]

In Ireland and Scotland, the turnip has traditionally been carved during Halloween,[151][152] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to carve than a turnip.[151] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837[153] and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.[154]
Decorated house in Weatherly, Pennsylvania

The modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932).[155][156] Imagery of the skull, a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in memento mori and vanitas compositions;[157] skulls have therefore been commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.[158] Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.[159] One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "bogles" (ghosts),[160] influencing Robert Burns' "Halloween" (1785).[161] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.[162] Black cats, which have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's traditional colors.[163]
Trick-or-treating and guising
Main article: Trick-or-treating
Trick-or-treaters in Sweden

Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.[64] The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling.[164] John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian Church."[165] These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas, Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.[166][167] Mumming practiced in Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,[168] involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence".[169]
Girl in a Halloween costume in 1928, Ontario, Canada, the same province where the Scottish Halloween custom of guising was first recorded in North America

In England, from the medieval period,[170] up until the 1930s,[171] people practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,[93] going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends.[67] In the Philippines, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All Hallow's Eve among children in rural areas.[26] People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.[26]

In Scotland and Ireland, guising – children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins – is a traditional Halloween custom.[172] It is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[152][173] In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the Halloween Party".[172] The practice of guising at Halloween in North America was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.[174]

American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America".[175] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".[176]

While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.[177] The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Alberta, Canada.[178]
An automobile trunk at a trunk-or-treat event at St. John Lutheran Church and Early Learning Center in Darien, Illinois

The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating.[179] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US appearances of the term in 1934,[180] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.[181]

A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot.[100][182] In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme,[183] such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.[184] Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart".[185][186]
Costumes
Main article: Halloween costume

Halloween costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.[64] Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.
Halloween shop in Derry, Northern Ireland, selling masks

Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.[152] A Scottish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[173] In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as 'false faces',[38][187] a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween . . . the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi’ their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o’ turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand)".[38] Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s and 1930s.[178][188]

Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Saviour". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori.[189][190]

"Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a fundraising program to support UNICEF,[64] a United Nations Programme that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.[191][192]

The yearly New York's Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.[193]

Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the United States.[194] Such and other potentially offensive costumes have been met with increasing public disapproval.[195][196]
Pet costumes

According to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010. The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot dog, and the bumblebee in third place.[197]
Games and other activities
In this 1904 Halloween greeting card, divination is depicted: the young woman looking into a mirror in a darkened room hopes to catch a glimpse of her future husband.

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices.[198] In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain.[125] They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom.[199] Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in celebration of Pomona.[64]
Children bobbing for apples at Hallowe'en

The following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland)[200] in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth.[201]
Image from the Book of Hallowe'en (1919) showing several Halloween activities, such as nut roasting

Several of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.[202][203] Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match.[204][205] A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst.[206] Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror.[207] The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards[208] from the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Another popular Irish game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.[209][210][211][212] The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story "Clay" (1914).[213][214][215]

In Ireland and Scotland, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.[216]

Up until the 19th century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.[110]

Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday.
Haunted attractions
Main article: Haunted attraction (simulated)
Humorous tombstones in front of a house in California
Humorous display window in Historic 25th Street, Ogden, Utah

Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,[217] and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown.

The first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered by steam.[218][219] The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam Collection.

It was during the 1930s, about the same time as trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California. Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in Indianapolis.[220]

The haunted house as an American cultural icon can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland on 12 August 1969.[221] Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm, which opened in 1973.[222] Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972.[223]

The first Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in 1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.[224] Other Jaycees followed suit with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March of Dimes copyrighted a "Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes" in 1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes haunted houses have persisted until today.[225]

On the evening of 11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight teenagers perished.[226] The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.[227][228] Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the stricter codes required of permanent attractions.[229][230][231]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks entered the business seriously. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott's Scary Farm experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America's obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.[232] The theme park haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.[233]
Food
Pumpkins for sale during Halloween

On All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods associated with this day.[234]
A candy apple

Because in the Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.

At one time, candy apples were commonly given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.[235] While there is evidence of such incidents,[236] relative to the degree of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.[237]

One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are placed before baking.[238] It is considered fortunate to be the lucky one who finds it.[238] It has also been said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. Halloween-themed foods are also produced by companies in the lead up to the night, for example Cadbury releasing Goo Heads (similar to Creme Eggs) in spooky wrapping.[239]
A jack-o'-lantern Halloween cake with a witches hat

List of foods associated with Halloween:

    Barmbrack (Ireland)
    Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)
    Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)
    Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)
    Chocolate
    Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)
    Caramel apples
    Caramel corn
    Colcannon (Ireland; see below)
    Halloween cake
    Sweets/candy
    Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc.
    Roasted pumpkin seeds
    Roasted sweet corn
    Soul cakes
    Pumpkin Pie

Christian observances
The Vigil of All Hallows' is being celebrated at an Episcopal Christian church on Hallowe'en

On Hallowe'en (All Hallows' Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve.[240] In Ireland, and among immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of abstinence, keeping All Hallows' Eve as a meat-free day and serving pancakes or colcannon instead.[241] In Mexico children make an altar to invite the return of the spirits of dead children (angelitos).[242]

The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through a vigil. Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All Saints' Day with prayers and fasting.[243] This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;[244][245] an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom.[246][247] After the service, "suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as a visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Hallows' Day.[248][249] In Finland, because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows' Eve to light votive candles there, they "are known as valomeri, or seas of light".[250]
Halloween Scripture Candy with gospel tract

Today, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions associated with All Hallow's Eve.[251][252] Some of these practices include praying, fasting and attending worship services.[1][2][3]

    O LORD our God, increase, we pray thee, and multiply upon us the gifts of thy grace: that we, who do prevent the glorious festival of all thy Saints, may of thee be enabled joyfully to follow them in all virtuous and godly living. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. —Collect of the Vigil of All Saints, The Anglican Breviary[253]

Votive candles in the Halloween section of Walmart

Other Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows' Eve as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All Hallow's Eve or independently from it.[254] This is because Martin Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows' Eve.[255] Often, "Harvest Festivals" or "Reformation Festivals" are held on All Hallows' Eve, in which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.[256] In addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe'en celebrations.[257] Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass out to children on this day.[258][259]
Belizean children dressed up as Biblical figures and Christian saints

Some Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult, or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs.[260] Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that."[261] In more recent years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on Halloween.[262] Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage.[263] Christian minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death".[264]

In the Roman Catholic Church, Halloween's Christian connection is acknowledged, and Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools, such as in the United States,[265][266] while schools throughout Ireland also close for the Halloween break.[267][268] Many fundamentalist and evangelical churches use "Hell houses" and comic-style tracts in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.[269] Others consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead celebration.[270] Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians observe All Hallows' Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, The Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows' Eve, out of the pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.[271]
Analogous celebrations and perspectives
Judaism

According to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism, Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in gentile customs. Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense that prayers are said for both "martyrs and for one's own family".[272] Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from its Christian origins.[273] Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said that "There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween" while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued against Jews' observing the holiday.[274] Purim has sometimes been compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes, especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.[275]
Islam

Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween, stating that "participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter, ... it is more sinful than congratulating the Christians for their prostration to the crucifix".[276] It has also been ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of its alleged pagan roots stating "Halloween is celebrated using a humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of death that influence humans".[277][278] Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an 'eid' and that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.[279]
Hinduism

Hindus remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony "to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest". It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.[280] The celebration of the Hindu festival Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.[281] Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have "begun to adversely affect our indigenous festivals".[282]
Neopaganism

There is no consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,[283] some neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween". Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating that it "trivializes Samhain",[284] and "avoid Halloween, because of the interruptions from trick or treaters".[285] The Manitoban writes that "Wiccans don't officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31 Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan's day planner. Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain. Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don't try to historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a time to celebrate darkness and the dead – a possible reason why Samhain can be confused with Halloween celebrations."[283]
Geography
Main article: Geography of Halloween
Halloween display in Kobe, Japan

The traditions and importance of Halloween vary greatly among countries that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in costume going "guising", holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays.[172][286][287] In Brittany children would play practical jokes by setting candles inside skulls in graveyards to frighten visitors.[288] Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations.[172] This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as Brazil, Ecuador, Chile,[289] Australia,[290] New Zealand,[291] (most) continental Europe, Finland,[292] Japan, and other parts of East Asia." (wikipedia.org)

"A jack-o'-lantern (or jack o'lantern) is a carved lantern, most commonly made from a pumpkin or a root vegetable such as a rutabaga or turnip.[1] Jack-o'-lanterns are associated with the Halloween holiday. Its name comes from the reported phenomenon of strange lights flickering over peat bogs, called will-o'-the-wisps or jack-o'-lanterns. The name is also tied to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with Satan and is doomed to roam the Earth with only a hollowed turnip to light his way.

Jack-o'-lanterns carved from pumpkins are a yearly Halloween tradition that developed in the United States when Celtic Americans brought their root vegetable carving tradition with them.[2] It is common to see jack-o'-lanterns used as external and internal decorations prior to and on Halloween.

To make a jack-o'-lantern, the top of a pumpkin or turnip is cut off to form a lid, the inside flesh is scooped out, and an image—usually a "scary" or "funny" face—is carved out of the rind to expose the hollow interior. A light source, traditionally a flames from a candle or tealight, is placed within before the lid is closed. Artificial jack-o'-lanterns with electric lights are also marketed.
Etymology
An assortment of carved pumpkins.

The term jack-o'-lantern was originally used to describe the visual phenomenon ignis fatuus (lit., "foolish fire") known as a will-o'-the-wisp in English folklore.[3] Used especially in East England, its earliest known use dates to the 1660s.[4] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records use of the term in Britain from 1658 in reference to ignis fatuus, and from 1663 to 1704 in reference to a man with a lantern or to a night watchman. The OED gives 1837 as the earliest date for when the term was used to refer to a lantern carved from a turnip or pumpkin.[5]
History
A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Jack-o'-Lantern in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland. Rutabaga or turnip were often used.
Modern carving of a Cornish Jack-o'-Lantern made from a turnip.
Origin

The carving of vegetables has been a common practice in many parts of the world. It is believed that the custom of making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween time began in the British Isles. [6][7][8] In the 19th century, "turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces," were used on Halloween in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands.[9] In these Gaelic-speaking regions, Halloween was also the festival of Samhain and was seen as a time when supernatural beings (the Aos Sí) walked the earth. Jack-o'-lanterns were also made at Halloween time in Somerset, England (see Punkie Night) during the 19th century.[9]

By those who made them, the lanterns were said to represent either spirits or supernatural beings,[9] or were used to ward off evil spirits.[10] For example, sometimes they were used by Halloween participants to frighten people,[10][11][12] and sometimes they were set on windowsills to keep harmful spirits out of one's home.[11] It has also been suggested that the jack-o'-lanterns originally represented Christian souls in purgatory, as Halloween is the eve of All Saints' Day (1 November)/All Souls' Day (2 November).[13]

On January 16 in 1836, the Dublin Penny Journal published a long story on the legend of "Jack-o'-the-Lantern", although this does not mention the lantern being carved from a vegetable.[14] In 1837, the Limerick Chronicle refers to a local pub holding a carved gourd competition and presenting a prize to "the best crown of Jack McLantern". The term "McLantern" also appears in an 1841 publication of the same paper.[citation needed]

There is also evidence that turnips were used to carve what was called a "Hoberdy's Lantern" in Worcestershire, England, at the end of the 18th century. The folklorist Jabez Allies outlines other derivations of the name, "Hobany's", which is most likely derived from "Hob and his", with other variations including "Hob-o'-Lantern", "Hobbedy's Lantern" and "Hobbady-lantern".[15]
In North America

The application of the term to carved pumpkins in American English is first seen in 1837.[16]
American Thanksgiving Day postcard sent in 1909 with images of a jack-o'-lantern and a turkey

In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general before it became a symbol of Halloween.[17] In 1895, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended giving a lit jack-o'-lantern as a child's prize in Thanksgiving games.[17][18] The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in Massachusetts in 1807, wrote the poem "The Pumpkin" (1850), which mentions Thanksgiving but not Halloween:[19]

    Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,

    When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,

    Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

The carved pumpkin lantern's association with Halloween is recorded in the 1 November 1866 edition of the Daily News (Kingston, Ontario):

    The old time custom of keeping up Hallowe'en was not forgotten last night by the youngsters of the city. They had their maskings and their merry-makings, and perambulated the streets after dark in a way which was no doubt amusing to themselves. There was a great sacrifice of pumpkins from which to make transparent heads and face, lighted up by the unfailing two inches of tallow candle.[20]

In 1879's Funny Nursery Rhymes, a poem admonishes children to avoid being similar to untrustworthy "Master Jack o' Lantern," described as a "wicked, deceiving boy" similar to a will-o'-the-wisp who "dances, and jumps, and gambols." He is humorously illustrated as a personification of a lantern.[21]

An 1885 article "Halloween Sports and Customs" contrasts the American jack-o'-lantern custom with the British bonfire custom:[22]

    It is an ancient British custom to light great bonfires (Bone-fire to clear before Winter froze the ground) on Hallowe'en, and carry blazing fagots about on long poles; but in place of this, American boys delight in the funny grinning jack-o'-lanterns made of huge yellow pumpkins with a candle inside.

Adaptations of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) often show the Headless Horseman with a jack-o'-lantern in place of his severed head. In the original story, a shattered pumpkin is discovered next to Ichabod Crane's abandoned hat on the morning after Crane's supposed encounter with the Horseman, but the story does not reference jack-o'-lanterns or Halloween.[23][24]
Folklore
A commercial "R.I.P." pattern.
Halloween jack-o'-lantern.
Pumpkin carving projected onto the wall.

The story of the jack-o'-lantern comes in many forms and is similar to the story of Will-o'-the-wisp[25] retold in different forms across Western Europe,[26] including, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden.[27] In Switzerland, children will leave bowls of milk or cream out for mythical house spirits called Jack o' the bowl.[28] An old Irish folk tale from the mid-18th century tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd blacksmith who uses a cross to trap Satan. One story says that Jack tricked Satan into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there, Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that Satan could not get down.[29]

Another version[citation needed] of the story says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen. He then met Satan, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting Satan with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told Satan to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (Satan could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin (Satan) disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.

In both folktales, Jack lets Satan go only after he agrees to never take his soul. Many years later, the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, Jack's life had been too sinful for him to go to Heaven; however, Satan had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well.[30] Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and Satan mockingly tossed him a burning coal, to light his way. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the coal inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place.[30] He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or jack o'lantern.

Cornish folklorist Dr. Thomas Quiller Couch (d. 1884) recorded the use of the term in a rhyme used in Polperro, Cornwall, in conjunction with Joan the Wad, the Cornish version of Will-o'-the-wisp. The people of Polperro regarded them both as pixies. The rhyme goes:[31]

    Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad,
    Who tickled the maid and made her mad
    Light me home, the weather's bad.

Jack-o-lanterns were also a way of protecting one's home against the undead. Superstitious people[32] used them specifically to ward off vampires. They thought this because it was said that the jack-o-lantern's light was a way of identifying vampires who, once their identity was known, would give up their hunt for you.
Pumpkin craft
A jack-o'-lantern

Sections of the pumpkin or turnip are cut out to make holes, often depicting a face, which may be either cheerful, scary, or comical.[33]
World records

For a long time, Keene, New Hampshire, held the world record for most jack-o'-lanterns carved and lit in one place. The Life is Good Company teamed up with Camp Sunshine,[34] a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, to break the record. A record was set on October 21, 2006, when 30,128 jack-o'-lanterns were simultaneously lit on Boston Common in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.[35] Highwood, Illinois, tried to set the record on October 31, 2011, with an unofficial count of 30,919 but did not follow the Guinness regulations, so the achievement did not count.[36]

On October 19, 2013, Keene broke the Boston record and reclaimed the world record for most lit jack-o'-lanterns on display (30,581). The town has now broken the record eight times since the original attempt." (wikipedia.org)

"A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus Cucurbita that has culinary and cultural significance[1][2] but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning.[3] The term pumpkin is sometimes used interchangeably with "squash" or "winter squash", and is commonly used for cultivars of Cucurbita argyrosperma, Cucurbita ficifolia, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita moschata, and Cucurbita pepo.[1]

Native to North America (northeastern Mexico and the southern United States), C. pepo pumpkins are one of the oldest domesticated plants, having been used as early as 7,000 to 5,500 BC. Today, pumpkins of varied species are widely grown for food, as well as for aesthetic and recreational purposes.[4] The pumpkin's thick shell contains edible seeds and pulp. Pumpkin pie, for instance, is a traditional part of Thanksgiving meals in Canada and the United States, and pumpkins are frequently carved as jack-o'-lanterns for decoration around Halloween, although commercially canned pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie fillings are usually made of different pumpkin varieties from those used for jack-o'-lanterns.[5]
Etymology and terminology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word pumpkin derives from the Ancient Greek word πέπων (romanized pepōn), meaning 'melon'.[6][7] Under this theory, the term transitioned through the Latin word peponem and the Middle French word pompon to the Early Modern English pompion, which was changed to pumpkin by 17th-century English colonists, shortly after encountering pumpkins upon their arrival in what is now the northeastern United States.[6]

There is a proposed alternate derivation for pumpkin from the Massachusett word pôhpukun, meaning 'grows forth round'.[8] This term could have been used by the Wampanoag people (who speak the Wôpanâak dialect of Massachusett) when introducing pumpkins to English Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, located in present-day Massachusetts.[9] (The English word squash is derived from a Massachusett word, variously transcribed as askꝏtasquash,[10] ashk8tasqash, or, in the closely related Narragansett language, askútasquash.)[11]

Researchers have noted that the term pumpkin and related terms like ayote and calabaza are applied to a range of winter squash with varying size and shape.[1] The term tropical pumpkin is sometimes used for pumpkin cultivars of the species Cucurbita moschata.[12]
Description
Cross section of a Cucurbita maxima pumpkin

Pumpkin fruits are a type of berry known as a pepo.[13] Characteristics commonly used to define pumpkin include smooth and slightly ribbed skin[14] and deep yellow to orange color,[14] although white, green, and other pumpkin colors also exist.[15]

While Cucurbita pepo pumpkins generally weigh between 3 and 8 kilograms (6 and 18 lb), giant pumpkins can exceed a tonne in mass.[16][17] Most are varieties of C. maxima that were developed through the efforts of botanical societies and enthusiast farmers.[16] The largest cultivars frequently reach weights of over 34 kg (75 lb). In October 2023, the record for heaviest pumpkin was set at 1,246.9 kg (2,749 lbs.).[18]
History
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2022)

The oldest evidence of Cucurbita pepo are pumpkin fragments found in Mexico that are dated between 7,000 and 5,500 BC.[19] Pumpkins and other squash species, alongside maize and beans, feature in the Three Sisters method of companion planting practiced by many North American indigenous societies.[20] However, larger modern pumpkin cultivars are typically excluded, as their weight may damage the other crops.[21] Within decades after Europeans began colonizing North America, illustrations of pumpkins similar to the modern cultivars Small Sugar pumpkin and Connecticut Field pumpkin were published in Europe.[13]
Cultivation

Pumpkins are a warm-weather crop that is usually planted by early July in the Northern Hemisphere. Pumpkins require that soil temperatures 8 centimetres (3 in) deep are at least 15.5 °C (60 °F) and that the soil holds water well. Pumpkin crops may suffer if there is a lack of water, because of temperatures below 18 °C or 65 °F, or if grown in soils that become waterlogged. Within these conditions, pumpkins are considered hardy, and even if many leaves and portions of the vine are removed or damaged, the plant can quickly grow secondary vines to replace what was removed.[22]

Pumpkins produce both a male and female flower, with fertilization usually performed by bees.[22] In America, pumpkins have historically been pollinated by the native squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, but that bee has declined, probably partly due to pesticide (imidacloprid) sensitivity.[23] Ground-based bees, such as squash bees and the eastern bumblebee, are better suited to manage the larger pollen particles that pumpkins create.[24][25] One hive per acre (0.4 hectares, or five hives per 2 hectares) is recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If there are inadequate bees for pollination, gardeners may have to hand pollinate. Inadequately pollinated pumpkins usually start growing but fail to develop.
Production
Pumpkin production – 2020
(includes squash and gourds) Country     millions of tonnes
 China     7.4
 India     5.1
 Ukraine     1.3
 Russia     1.1
 United States     1.1
 Spain     0.8
World     28.0
Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations[26]

In 2020, world production of pumpkins (including squash and gourds) was 28 million tonnes, with China accounting for 27% of the total. Ukraine and Russia each produced about one million tonnes.[26]
In the United States
A pumpkin patch in Winchester, Oregon

As one of the most popular crops in the United States, in 2017 over 680 million kilograms (1.5 billion pounds) of pumpkins were produced.[22] The top pumpkin-producing states include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California.[4] Pumpkin is the state squash of Texas.[27]

According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, 95 percent of the U.S. crop intended for processing is grown in Illinois.[28] Indeed, 41 percent of the overall pumpkin crop for all uses originates in the state, more than five times that of the nearest competitor, California, whose pumpkin industry is centered in the San Joaquin Valley; and the majority of that comes from five counties in the central part of the state.[29] Nestlé, operating under the brand name Libby's, produces 85 percent of the processed pumpkin in the United States at their plant in Morton, Illinois.

In the fall of 2009, rain in Illinois devastated the Libby's pumpkin crop, which, combined with a relatively weak 2008 crop depleting that year's reserves, resulted in a shortage affecting the entire country during the Thanksgiving holiday season.[30] Another shortage, somewhat less severe, affected the 2015 crop.[31][32]

The pumpkin crop in the western United States, which constitutes approximately three to four percent of the national crop, is grown primarily for the organic market.[33] Terry County, Texas, has a substantial pumpkin industry, centered largely on miniature pumpkins.[29] Illinois farmer Sarah Frey is called "the Pumpkin Queen of America" and sells around five million pumpkins annually, predominantly for use as Jack-o-lanterns.[34][35]
Nutrition
   
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Nutrition information should be more broadly representative of pumpkin species and varieties, and should not rely on a deprecated database. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2022)
Pumpkin, rawNutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy    109 kJ (26 kcal)
Carbohydrates
   
6.5 g
Sugars    2.76 g
Dietary fiber    0.5 g
Fat
   
0.1 g
Protein
   
1 g
Vitamins    Quantity
%DV†
Vitamin A equiv.
beta-Carotene
lutein zeaxanthin
   
53%
426 μg
29%
3100 μg
1500 μg
Thiamine (B1)   
4%
0.05 mg
Riboflavin (B2)   
9%
0.11 mg
Niacin (B3)   
4%
0.6 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)   
6%
0.298 mg
Vitamin B6   
5%
0.061 mg
Folate (B9)   
4%
16 μg
Vitamin C   
11%
9 mg
Vitamin E   
3%
0.44 mg
Vitamin K   
1%
1.1 μg
Minerals    Quantity
%DV†
Calcium   
2%
21 mg
Iron   
6%
0.8 mg
Magnesium   
3%
12 mg
Manganese   
6%
0.125 mg
Phosphorus   
6%
44 mg
Potassium   
7%
340 mg
Sodium   
0%
1 mg
Zinc   
3%
0.32 mg
Other constituents    Quantity
Water    91.6 g
Link to USDA Database entry

    Units
    μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
    IU = International units

†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.

In a 100-gram (3.5 oz) amount, raw pumpkin provides 110 kilojoules (26 kilocalories) of food energy and is an excellent source (20% or more the Daily Value, DV) of provitamin A beta-carotene and vitamin A (53% DV) (table). Vitamin C is present in moderate content (11% DV), but no other nutrients are in significant amounts (less than 10% DV, table). Pumpkin is 92% water, 6.5% carbohydrate, 0.1% fat and 1% protein (table).
Uses
Culinary
See also: List of squash and pumpkin dishes
Pumpkin pie is a popular way of preparing pumpkin
Roasted pumpkin
Butternut Pumpkin jam in Tabriz, Iranian Azerbaijan

Most parts of the pumpkin plant are edible, including the fleshy shell, the seeds, the leaves, and the flowers. When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, steamed, or roasted. Pumpkins that are immature may be eaten as summer squash.
Shell and flesh

In North America, pumpkins are part of the traditional autumn harvest, eaten mashed[36] and making its way into soups and purées. Often, pumpkin flesh is made into pie, various kinds of which are a traditional staple of the Canadian and American Thanksgiving holidays.[37] Pumpkin purée is sometimes prepared and frozen for later use.[38]
Flowers
A pumpkin flower, one of the edible parts of the plant

In the southwestern United States and Mexico, pumpkin and squash flowers are a popular and widely available food item. They may be used to garnish dishes, or dredged in a batter then fried in oil.
Leaves
Pumpkin leaf kimchi

Pumpkin leaves are also eaten in Zambia, where they are called chibwabwa and are boiled and cooked with groundnut paste as a side dish.[39]
Seeds
Main article: Pumpkin seed
Pumpkin seeds (matured)

Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, are edible and nutrient-rich. They are about 1.5 cm (0.5 in) long, flat, asymmetrically oval, light green in color and usually covered by a white husk, although some pumpkin varieties produce seeds without them. Pumpkin seeds are a popular snack that can be found hulled or semi-hulled at grocery stores. Per ounce serving, pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein, magnesium, copper and zinc.[40]
Pumpkin seed oil
Main article: Pumpkin seed oil

Pumpkin seed oil is a thick oil pressed from roasted seeds that appears red or green in color.[41][42] When used for cooking or as a salad dressing, pumpkin seed oil is generally mixed with other oils because of its robust flavor.[43] Pumpkin seed oil contains fatty acids such as oleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid.[44]
Animal feed

Pumpkin seed meal from Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita moschata have been demonstrated to improve the nutrition of eggs for human consumption, and Cucurbita pepo seed has successfully been used in place of soybean in chicken feed.[45]
Culture
Halloween
Main article: Jack o' lantern
A pumpkin carved into a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween

In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween.[46] The practice of carving produce for Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack".[4] The practice of carving pumpkin jack-o'-lanterns for the Halloween season developed from a traditional practice in Ireland as well as Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom of carving lanterns from the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede (rutabaga).[47][48] These vegetables continue to be popular choices today as carved lanterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland, although the British purchased a million pumpkins for Halloween in 2004 reflecting the spread of pumpkin carving in the United Kingdom.[49]

Immigrants to North America began using the native pumpkins for carving, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.[48] Not until 1837 does jack-o'-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern,[50] and the carved pumpkin lantern association with Halloween is recorded in 1866.[51]

In 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities that encourage kids and families to join together to make their own jack-o'-lanterns.[46]

The traditional American pumpkin used for jack-o-lanterns is the Connecticut field variety.[4][52][53][54] Kentucky field pumpkin is also among the pumpkin cultivars grown specifically for jack-o-lantern carving.[13]
Chunking

Pumpkin chunking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible. Catapults, trebuchets, ballistas and air cannons are the most common mechanisms.[citation needed]
Pumpkin festivals and competitions
Giant Cucurbita maxima pumpkins

Growers of giant pumpkins often compete to grow the most massive pumpkins. Festivals may be dedicated to the pumpkin and these competitions. In the United States, the town of Half Moon Bay, California, holds an annual Art and Pumpkin Festival, including the World Champion Pumpkin Weigh-Off.[55]

The record for the world's heaviest pumpkin, 1,226 kg (2,703 lb), was established in Italy in 2021.[17]
Folk medicine

Pumpkins have been used as folk medicine by Native Americans to treat intestinal worms and urinary ailments, and this Native American remedy was adopted by American doctors in the early nineteenth century as an anthelmintic for the expulsion of worms.[56][qualify evidence] In Germany and southeastern Europe, seeds of C. pepo were also used as folk remedies to treat irritable bladder and benign prostatic hyperplasia.[57][58][qualify evidence]

In China, C. moschata seeds were also used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis[59] and for the expulsion of tape worms.[60][qualify evidence]
Folklore and fiction

There is a connection in folklore and popular culture between pumpkins and the supernatural, such as:

    The custom of carving jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins derives from folklore about a lost soul wandering the earth.
    In the fairy tale Cinderella, the fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage for the title character, but at midnight it reverts to a pumpkin.
    In some adaptations of Washington Irving's ghost story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman is said to use a pumpkin as a substitute head.

In most folklore the carved pumpkin is meant to scare away evil spirits on All Hallows' Eve (that is, Halloween), when the dead were purported to walk the earth.
Cultivars
See also: List of gourds and squashes

The species and varieties include many economically important cultivars with a variety of different shapes, colors, and flavors that are grown for different purposes. Variety is used here interchangeably with cultivar, but not with species or taxonomic variety.
Image     Name     Species     Origin     Description
    Al Hachi     Cucurbita moschata[citation needed]     Kashmir     The people of Kashmir dry Al Hachi pumpkins to eat in the winter, when snowfall can isolate the valley.[61]
    Big Max     Cucurbita maxima     [citation needed]     Big Max can exceed 100 pounds (45 kg) and 20 in (510 mm) in diameter under ideal growing conditions.[62] The variety was hybridized for its size during the early 1960s.[63] Individual fruits are round to slightly flattened.[64][65]
    Butternut pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     Massachusetts     Often called butternut squash. Has orange flesh darker than skin.
    Calabaza[66]     Cucurbita moschata     Cuba and West Indies     The calabaza is a variety originating in Cuba and the West Indies. It is also cultivated in the Philippines and United States.[66]
    Cheese pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     North America, possibly from an origin in Central America[67]     So-called for its resemblance to a wheel of cheese, this cultivar has been noted for its long storage ability as well as relatively poor culinary characteristics.[68][13] One of Duchesne's 1786 botanical illustrations depicts a fruit that has been identified with the Cheese Pumpkin.[66]
    Connecticut field pumpkin     Cucurbita pepo     North America[13]     Considered to be "one of the oldest pumpkins in existence".[69] Widely used for autumn decorations, either whole or as jack-o'-lanterns.[70]
    Dickinson pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     North America     The oblong, ribbed fruits weigh up to 40 pounds and are widely used for canning. Brought by Elijah Dickinson from Kentucky to Illinois in 1835.[71] Cultivars similar to the Dickinson Pumpkin were grown by the Seminole people as well as farmers in Cuba and coastal and southern Mexico.[72] Libby's Select is classified either as a selection from the Dickinson Pumpkin or a selection from the same parent lineage.[73][74][75][76]
    Dill's Atlantic Giant     Cucurbita maxima     North America     Dill's Atlantic Giant was bred by Howard Dill from sources including the Mammoth Pumpkin variety.[77][78] The variety were patented in 1979, who then went on to set the giant pumpkin in 1980 with a 459 lb (208 kg) record.[79]
    Galeux d'Eysines     Cucurbita maxima     France     The Galeux d'Eysines is mentioned in the Vilmorin-Andrieux vegetable catalogue Les Plantes Potagères in 1883. It is noted for peanut-sized growths on its skin, caused by a buildup of sugar. Its name may have originally been Brodé galeux d'Eysines, translating to embroidered with scabs, from Eysines. Immature pumpkins can be etched with words or designs that become warts as it matures. Galeux d'Eysines was reportedly brought to the United States in 1996 from the Foire aux Potirons pumpkin festival in Tranzault, France by author Amy Goldman.[80][81]
    Japanese pie pumpkin     Cucurbita argyrosperma     Pennsylvania     The Japanese pie pumpkin is so-called because its seeds become crazed, resembling to Americans the appearance of Chinese characters or Japanese kanji. This variety was introduced by Samuel Wilson of Pennsylvania in 1884.[13]
    Jarrahdale pumpkin     Cucurbita maxima     Australia     A variety with a blue-gray skin, named after the Western Australian town of Jarrahdale. The Jarrahdale closely resembles the Queensland Blue. It cuts easily, and has orange, sweet-tasting flesh.[82][83]
    Jonathan pumpkin[13][84]     Cucurbita argyrosperma         Available commercially as early as 1891 from Livingston Seed.[13] The name Jonathan may originate as a form of melioration against the character of Brother Jonathan which was sometimes used as mocking personification of the United States by satirists in Europe.[85] Brother Jonathan was also used within the United States either as characterizing the epitome of thrift and industriousness, or an unsophisticated bumpkin.[86]
    Kabocha     Cucurbita maxima     Japan     In North America, Kabocha or Japanese pumpkin are generally kuri kabocha, a cultivar created from seiyo kabocha (buttercup squash). Varieties of kabocha include Ajihei, Ajihei No. 107, Ajihei No. 331, Ajihei No. 335, Cutie, Ebisu, Emiguri, Marron d'Or and Miyako.[87][88] In Japan, "kabocha" may refer to either this squash, to the Western pumpkin, or indeed to other squashes.[89]
    Kentucky field pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     Cuba, Mexico, or the United States     Kentucky field pumpkin is among the pumpkin cultivars grown specifically for jack-o-lantern carving.[68] It has been classified as part of a group of Cucurbita moschata cultivars historically grown by the Seminole people of the United States southeast, as well as by farmers in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Similar cultivars were identified in Cuba as well as coastal and southern Mexico.[72]
    Musquée de Provence, Moscata di Provenza or fairytale pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     France     A large pumpkin from France with sweet, fragrant, deep-orange flesh often sold by the slice due to its size.[90]
    Seminole pumpkin     Cucurbita moschata     Florida     A landrace originally cultivated by the Seminole people of what is now Florida. Naturalists recorded Seminole pumpkins hanging from trees in the 18th century.[91][92]
    Styrian pumpkin     Cucurbita pepo     Styria     Styrian pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo var. styriaca or var. oleifera) have hull-less seeds, which are used in Austria and Slovenia as part of a pumpkin seed oil industry that presses their roasted seeds.[93][94]
    Sugar pumpkin     Cucurbita pepo     North America     The sugar pumpkin is one of the earliest varieties of pumpkin documented by European colonists upon arrival in North America. It has sweeter flesh than the similar but larger Connecticut Field pumpkin from which sugar pumpkins may have been selected." (wikipedia.org)

"History of Cellophane
by
Axel Barrett
July 23, 2019
What happened to the King of Plastics?

Jacques E. Brandenberger

In 1900, a Swiss gentlemen under the name of Jacques E. Brandenberger was sitting at a table in a restaurant. He didn’t know it but his life was going to change. He was going to write history and change the world.

Brandenberger was born on the 18th of October 1872 in Zurich under the sign of Libra and graduated from the University of Bern in 1895. He worked at a company called Blanchisserie et Teinturerie de Thaon when he invented Cellophane.
Echo Instruments, Technology to Measure & Analyse Plastic Biodegradation (FREE)

 

Brandenberger noticed a customer spilt wine onto the tablecloth. As the waiter replaced the cloth, Brandenberger got the idea to develop a material that would repeal liquid instead of absorbing it. His first step was to spray a waterproof coating onto fabric and he opted for viscose. The resulting coated fabric was far too stiff and the clear film easily separated from the backing cloth. He abandoned his original idea as the possibilities of the new material became apparent.

Brandenberger was awarded the Franklin Institute’s Elliott Cresson Medal in 1937 and passed away in July 1954. His estimated net worth at the time of his death was around $10 Million.

How is Cellophane produced?

The original Cellophane material was made from wood cellulose. Cellophane is thus initially a bioplastics. Nowadays much of what we refer to as “Cellophane” is actually plastic wrap derived from petroleum. PVC has been used since the 1960s and polypropylene since the 1980s.

In the manufacturing process, an alkaline solution of cellulose fibres (usually wood or cotton) known as viscose is extruded through a narrow slit into an acid bath. The acid regenerates the cellulose, forming a film. Further treatment, such as washing and bleaching, yields cellophane.

History of Cellophane

    1900 – Brandenberger’s initial idea is born to invent a coating material for textiles and clothes to make them stain resistant.
    1908 – Cellophane is invented. The original formula was made from wood cellulose.
    1912 – Brandenberger invents the machine that would enable industrial production.
    1917 – Brandenberger creates a company to manage his patents. The company is called La Cellophane S.A. (Société Anonyme).
    1920 – Industrial production of Cellophane started  and never stopped since then.
    1923 – Brandenberger sells the rights of Cellophane in the US to DuPont (US company)
    1924 – Industrial production of Cellophane starts in the US.
    1927 – Cellophane had a major problem: it was water-proof but not moisture-proof. Candies stuck to it; knives rusted in it; cigars dried out. A Dupont employee called William Hale Charch improves the patent by making it moisture-proof and enabling food packaging applications.
    1939 – 44: Cellophane is classified as an essential material. It’s used for the packaging of soldier’s rations and for making vapor-resistant gas capes. It will eventually be used as rain capes by US soldiers during WWII.
    1947: US vs Dupont; the Cellophane Case. Dupont is accused of monopolizing, attempting to monopolize and conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce in cellophane and cellulosic caps and bands in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

The Cellophane Brand

The word Cellophane was invented by Brandenberger himself. It came from cellulose  and diaphane. Diaphane is a French word that means transparent (diaphanous).

The Cellophane brand was so famous that it became a generic term and is one of the only eponym of the plastics industry. An eponym is when a brand gives its name to the object. Other eponyms are Styrofoam and Baekelite for instance. Cellophane gave its name to plastic films. It would cost at least $150 million in communications and marketing to create such an eponym; the amount of money needed to reach that level of brand recognition.

Retail Revolution

Cellophane revolutionised shopping and packaging: it became the first see-through packaging. Resulting in the notion of … To buy food with your eyes. Cellophane enabled people to choose food on the basis of how it looked, without sacrificing hygiene or freshness.

Cellophane helped to disrupt shopping behaviour. Customers no longer queued to tell shop assistants what food they required; they picked products off the shelves directly.

The first uses included wrapping chocolates, perfume and flowers. The applications in the food industry became unlimited when William Hale Charch made the upgrade (the cellophane was coated with extremely thin layers of nitrocellulose, wax, a plasticiser and a blending agent).

The J.E. Brandenberger Foundation

Brandenberger’s daughter, Irma Marthe, inheritated her father’s estate in 1954. She established a foundation under her father’s name in her last will. She passed away in July 1986.

The guiding idea of the institution was to honour individuals who have done great service for the welfare of mankind. Irrespective of gender and religious or political persuasion, outstanding achievements in natural sciences and liberal arts, social work, the promotion and preservation of humanitarian culture, and in raising living standards are to be honoured.

The first award was given by the foundation on the 6th of October 1990.

CLOSING REMARKS

More than just an idea or product, Cellophane became a legend, a landmark in the chemical industry.  More than just a name or company, Cellophane became a world famous brand; the most famous plastic brand. More than just a game changer, Cellophane became a disruptor; it became the King of Plastics!

What happened to the Cellophane brand today? It was bought by a Japanese company. What did they do with it? Well, it looks as if they parked it in the garage.

Out of memory and respect for Mr. Brandenberger and all the marketeers who worked on the Cellophane brand in the past …. and with our traditional pinch of red hot chilly peppers …. we ask following questions:

    Why buy the most famous plastic brands and let it die?

We’ve asked to Futamura what the current situation is regarding Cellophane but we haven’t received a response yet!" (bioplasticsnews.com)

"Halloween is a celebration observed on October 31, the day before the feast of All Hallows, also known as Hallowmas or All Saint's Day. The celebrations and observances of this day occur primarily in regions of the Western world, albeit with some traditions varying significantly between geographical areas.
Origins

Halloween is the eve of vigil before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints) which is observed on November 1. This day begins the triduum of Hallowtide, which culminates with All Souls' Day. In the Middle Ages, many Christians held a folk belief that All Hallows' Eve was the "night where the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its most transparent".[2]
Americas
Canada

Scottish emigration, primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter, brought the Scottish version of the holiday to each country. The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops, and neighbours to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs.[3] Canadians spend more on candy at Halloween than at any time apart from Christmas. Halloween is also a time for charitable contributions. Until 2006 when UNICEF moved to an online donation system, collecting small change was very much a part of Canadian trick-or-treating.[4] Quebec offers themed tours of parts of the old city and historic cemeteries in the area.[5] In 2014 the hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut moved their Halloween festivities to the community hall, cancelling the practice of door-to-door "trick or treating", due to the risk of roaming polar bears.[6][7] In British Columbia it is a tradition to set off fireworks at Halloween.[8]
United States
Children in Halloween costumes at High Point, Seattle, 1943

In the United States, Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th century. The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) brought the holiday to the United States.

American librarian and author Ruth Edna Kelley wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the U.S., The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America": "All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries. The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Robert Burns's poem Halloween as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now."[9] The main event for children of modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating, in which children, teenagers, (sometimes) young adults, and parents (accompanying their children) disguise themselves in costumes and go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling "Trick or treat!" to solicit a gift of candy or similar items.[10] Teenagers and adults will more frequently attend Halloween-themed costume parties typically hosted by friends or themed events at nightclubs either on Halloween itself or a weekend close to the holiday.

At the turn of the 20th century, Halloween had turned into a night of vandalism, with destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people.[11] Around 1912, the Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs, and other neighborhood organizations came together to encourage a safe celebration that would end the destruction that had become so common on this night.

The commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until the 20th century, beginning perhaps with Halloween postcards (featuring hundreds of designs), which were most popular between 1905 and 1915.[12] Dennison Manufacturing Company (which published its first Halloween catalog in 1909) and the Beistle Company were pioneers in commercially made Halloween decorations, particularly die-cut paper items.[13][14] German manufacturers specialised in Halloween figurines that were exported to the United States in the period between the two World Wars.

Halloween is now the United States' second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes is also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) reported in 2005 that 80% of American adults planned to give out candy to trick-or-treaters.[15] The NCA reported in 2005 that 93% of children planned to go trick-or-treating.[16] According to the National Retail Federation, the most popular Halloween costume themes for adults are, in order: witch, pirate, vampire, cat, and clown.[17][when?] Each year, popular costumes are dictated by various current events and pop culture icons. On many college campuses, Halloween is a major celebration, with the Friday and Saturday nearest 31 October hosting many costume parties. Other popular activities are watching horror movies and visiting haunted houses. Total spending on Halloween is estimated to be $8.4 billion.[18]
Events
Four contestants in the Halloween Slick Chick beauty contest in Anaheim, California, 1947

Many theme parks stage Halloween events annually, such as Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando, Mickey's Halloween Party and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disneyland Resort and Magic Kingdom respectively, and Knott's Scary Farm at Knott's Berry Farm. One of the more notable parades is New York's Village Halloween Parade. Each year approximately 50,000 costumed marchers parade up Sixth Avenue.[19] Salem, Massachusetts, site of the Salem witch trials, celebrates Halloween throughout the month of October with tours, plays, concerts, and other activities.[20] A number of venues in New York's lower Hudson Valley host various events to showcase a connection with Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Van Cortlandt Manor stages the "Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze" featuring thousands of lighted carved pumpkins.[21]

Some locales have had to modify their celebrations due to disruptive behavior on the part of young adults. Madison, Wisconsin hosts an annual Halloween celebration. In 2002, due to the large crowds in the State Street area, a riot broke out, necessitating the use of mounted police and tear gas to disperse the crowds.[22] Likewise, Chapel Hill, site of the University of North Carolina, has a downtown street party which in 2007 drew a crowd estimated at 80,000 on downtown Franklin Street, in a town with a population of just 54,000. In 2008, in an effort to curb the influx of out-of-towners, mayor Kevin Foy put measures in place to make commuting downtown more difficult on Halloween.[23] In 2014, large crowds of college students rioted at the Keene, New Hampshire Pumpkin Fest, whereupon the City Council voted not to grant a permit for the following year's festival,[24] and organizers moved the event to Laconia for 2015.[25]
Brazil
Main article: Saci Day

The Brazilian non-governmental organization named Amigos do Saci created Saci Day as a Brazilian parallel in opposition to the "American-influenced" holiday of Halloween that saw minor celebration in Brazil. The Saci is a mischievous evil character in Brazilian folklore. Saci Day is commemorated on October 31, the same day as Halloween, and is an official holiday in the state of São Paulo. Despite official recognition in São Paulo and several other municipalities throughout the country, few Brazilians celebrate it.[26][27]
Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic it has been gaining popularity, largely due to many Dominicans living in the United States and then bringing the custom to the island. In the larger cities of Santiago or Santo Domingo it has become more common to see children trick-or-treating, but in smaller towns and villages it is almost entirely absent, partly due to religious opposition. Tourist areas such as Sosua and Punta Cana feature many venues with Halloween celebrations, predominantly geared towards adults.[28]
Mexico (Día de Muertos)
Mexican tomb on the Day of the Dead, adorned with the cempasúchil, the holiday's traditional flower, and a Halloween ghost balloon, at the historic cemetery of San Luis Potosí City

Observed in Mexico and Mexican communities abroad, Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) celebrations arose from the syncretism of indigenous Aztec traditions with the Christian Hallowtide of the Spanish colonizers. Flower decorations, altars and candies are part of this holiday season. The holiday is distinct from Halloween in its origins and observances, but the two have become associated because of cross-border connections between Mexico and the United States through popular culture and migration, as the two celebrations occur at the same time of year and may involve similar imagery, such as skeletons. Halloween and Día de Muertos have influenced each other in some areas of the United States and Mexico, with Halloween traditions such as costumes and face-painting becoming increasingly common features of the Mexican festival.[29][30]
Asia
China

The Chinese celebrate the "Hungry Ghost Festival" in mid-July, when it is customary to float river lanterns to remember those who have died. By contrast, Halloween is often called "All Saints' Festival" (Wànshèngjié, 萬聖節), or (less commonly) "All Saints' Eve" (Wànshèngyè, 萬聖夜) or "Eve of All Saints' Day" (Wànshèngjié Qiányè, 萬聖節前夕), stemming from the term "All Hallows Eve" (hallow referring to the souls of holy saints). Chinese Christian churches hold religious celebrations. Non-religious celebrations are dominated by expatriate Americans or Canadians, but costume parties are also popular for Chinese young adults, especially in large cities. Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park (Halloween Bash) host annual Halloween shows.

Mainland China has been less influenced by Anglo traditions than Hong Kong and Halloween is generally considered "foreign". As Halloween has become more popular globally it has also become more popular in China, however, particularly amongst children attending private or international schools with many foreign teachers from North America.[31]
Hong Kong

Traditional "door-to-door" trick or treating is not commonly practiced in Hong Kong due to the vast majority of Hong Kong residents living in high-rise apartment blocks. However, in many buildings catering to expatriates, Halloween parties and limited trick or treating is arranged by the management. Instances of street-level trick or treating in Hong Kong occur in ultra-exclusive gated housing communities such as The Beverly Hills populated by Hong Kong's super-rich and in expatriate areas like Discovery Bay and the Red Hill Peninsula. For the general public, there are events at Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of the Stars that try to mimic the celebration.[32] In the Lan Kwai Fong area of Hong Kong, known as a major entertainment district for the international community, a Halloween celebration and parade has taken place for over 20 years, with many people dressing in costume and making their way around the streets to various drinking establishments.[33] Many international schools also celebrate Halloween with costumes, and some put an academic twist on the celebrations such as the "Book-o-ween" celebrations at Hong Kong International School where students dress as favorite literary characters.
Japan
A Halloween display in a local bank window, in Saitama, Japan

Halloween arrived in Japan mainly as a result of American pop culture. In 2009 it was celebrated only by expats.[34] The wearing of elaborate costumes by young adults at night has since become popular in areas such as Amerikamura in Osaka and Shibuya in Tokyo, where, in October 2012, about 1700 people dressed in costumes to take part in the Halloween Festival.[35] Celebrations have become popular with young adults as a costume party and club event.[36] Trick-or-treating for Japanese children has taken hold in some areas. By the mid-2010s, Yakuza were giving snacks and sweets to children.[37]
Philippines

The period from 31 October through 2 November is a time for remembering dead family members and friends. Many Filipinos travel back to their hometowns for family gatherings of festive remembrance.[38]

Trick-or-treating is gradually replacing the dying tradition of Pangangaluluwâ, a local analogue of the old English custom of souling. People in the provinces still observe Pangangaluluwâ by going in groups to every house and offering a song in exchange for money or food. The participants, usually children, would sing carols about the souls in Purgatory, with the abúloy (alms for the dead) used to pay for Masses for these souls. Along with the requested alms, householders sometimes gave the children suman (rice cakes). During the night, various small items, such as clothing, plants, etc., would "mysteriously" disappear, only to be discovered the next morning in the yard or in the middle of the street. In older times, it was believed that the spirits of ancestors and loved ones visited the living on this night, manifesting their presence by taking an item.[39]

As the observation of Christmas traditions in the Philippines begins as early as September, it is a common sight to see Halloween decorations next to Christmas decorations in urban settings.[citation needed]
Saudi Arabia

Starting 2022, Saudi Arabia began to celebrate Halloween in the public in Riyadh under its Saudi Vision 2030.[40]
Singapore

Around mid-July Singapore Chinese celebrate "Zhong Yuan Jie / Yu Lan Jie" (Hungry Ghosts Festival), a time when it is believed that the spirits of the dead come back to visit their families.[41] In recent years, Halloween celebrations are becoming more popular, with influence from the west.[42] In 2012, there were over 19 major Halloween celebration events around Singapore.[43] SCAPE's Museum of Horrors held its fourth scare fest in 2014.[44] Universal Studios Singapore hosts "Halloween Horror Nights".[45]
South Korea

The popularity of the holiday among young people in South Korea comes from English academies and corporate marketing strategies, and was influenced by Halloween celebrations in Japan and America.[46] Despite not being a public holiday, it is celebrated in different areas around Seoul, especially Itaewon and Hondae.[47]
Taiwan
Children dressed up in Halloween costume in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Traditionally, Taiwanese people celebrate "Zhong Yuan Pudu Festival", where spirits that do not have any surviving family members to pay respects to them, are able to roam the Earth during the seventh lunar month. It is known as Ghost Month.[48] While some have compared it to Halloween, it has no relations and the overall meaning is different. In recent years, mainly as a result of American pop culture, Halloween is becoming more widespread amongst young Taiwanese people. Halloween events are held in many areas across Taipei, such as Xinyi Special District and Shilin District where there are many international schools and expats.[49] Halloween parties are celebrated differently based on different age groups. One of the most popular Halloween event is the Tianmu Halloween Festival, which started in 2009 and is organised by the Taipei City Office of Commerce.[50] The 2-day annual festivity has attracted more than 240,000 visitors in 2019. During this festival, stores and businesses in Tianmu place pumpkin lanterns outside their stores to identify themselves as trick-or-treat destinations for children.[51]
Australia and New Zealand
Halloween display in Sydney, Australia

Non-religious celebrations of Halloween modelled on North American festivities are growing increasingly popular in Australia despite not being traditionally part of the culture.[52] Some Australians criticise this intrusion into their culture.[53][54] Many dislike the commercialisation and American pop-culture influence.[54][55] Some supporters of the event place it alongside other cultural traditions such as Saint Patrick's Day.[56]

Halloween historian and author of Halloween: Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat, Mark Oxbrow says while Halloween may have been popularised by depictions of it in US movies and TV shows, it is not a new entry into Australian culture.[57] His research shows Halloween was first celebrated in Australia in Castlemaine, Victoria, in 1858, which was 43 years before Federation. His research shows Halloween traditions were brought to the country by Scottish and Irish miners who settled in Victoria during the Gold Rush.

Because of the polarised opinions about Halloween, growing numbers of people are decorating their letter boxes to indicate that children are welcome to come knocking. In the past decade, the popularity of Halloween in Australia has grown.[58] In 2020, the first magazine dedicated solely to celebrating Halloween in Australia was launched, called Hallozween,[59] and in 2021, sales of costumes, decorations and carving pumpkins soared to an all-time high[60] despite the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic limiting celebrations.

In New Zealand, Halloween is not celebrated to the same extent as in North America, although in recent years non-religious celebrations have become more common.[61][62] Trick-or-treat has become increasingly popular with minors in New Zealand, despite being not a "British or Kiwi event" and the influence of American globalisation.[63] One criticism of Halloween in New Zealand is that it is overly commercialised - by The Warehouse, for example.[63]
Europe
A jack-o'-lantern in Finland

Over the years, Halloween has become more popular in Europe and has been partially ousting some older customs like the Rübengeistern [de] (English: turnip ghosts, beet spirit), Martinisingen, and others.[64]
France

Halloween was introduced to most of France in the 1990s.[65] In Brittany, Halloween had been celebrated for centuries and is known as Kalan Goañv (Night of Spirits). During this time, it is believed that the spirits of the dead return to the world of the living lead by the Ankou, the collector of souls.[66] Also during this time, Bretons bake Kornigou, a pastry shaped like the antlers of a stag.[citation needed]
Germany
"Don't drink and fly" Halloween decoration in Germany

Halloween was not generally observed in Germany prior to the 1990s, but has been increasing in popularity. It has been associated with the influence of United States culture, and "Trick or Treating" (German: Süßes sonst gibt's Saures) has been occurring in various German cities, especially in areas such as the Dahlem neighborhood in Berlin, which was part of the American zone during the Cold War. Today, Halloween in Germany brings in 200 million euros a year, through multiple industries.[67] Halloween is celebrated by both children and adults. Adults celebrate at themed costume parties and clubs, while children go trick or treating. Complaints of vandalism associated with Halloween "Tricks" are increasing, particularly from many elderly Germans unfamiliar with "Trick or Treating".[68]
Greece

In Greece, Halloween is not celebrated widely and it is a working day, with little public interest, since the early 2000s. Recently, it has somewhat increased in popularity as both a secular celebration; although Carnival is vastly more popular among Greeks. For very few, Halloween is[when?] considered the fourth most popular festival in the country after Christmas, Easter, and Carnival. Retail businesses, bars, nightclubs, and certain theme parks might organize Halloween parties. This boost in popularity has been attributed to the influence of western consumerism.

Since it is a working day, Halloween is not celebrated on 31 October unless the date falls on a weekend, in which case it is celebrated by some during the last weekend before All Hallow's Eve, usually in the form of themed house parties and retail business decorations. Trick-or-treating is not widely popular because similar activities are already undertaken during Carnival. The slight rise in popularity of Halloween in Greece has led to some increase in its popularity throughout nearby countries in the Balkans and Cyprus. In the latter, there has been an increase in Greek-Cypriot retailers selling Halloween merchandise every year.[69]
Ireland
A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Halloween turnip (rutabaga) lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland[70]

On Halloween night, adults and children dress up as various monsters and creatures, light bonfires, and enjoy fireworks displays; Derry in Northern Ireland is home to the largest organized Halloween celebration on the island, in the form of a street carnival and fireworks display.[71]
Snap-Apple Night, painted by Daniel Maclise in 1833, depicts apple bobbing and divination games at a Halloween party in Ireland

Games are often played, such as bobbing for apples, in which apples, peanuts, other nuts and fruits, and some small coins are placed in a basin of water.[72] Everyone takes turns catching as many items possible using only their mouths. Another common game involves the hands-free eating of an apple hung on a string attached to the ceiling. Games of divination are also played at Halloween.[73] Colcannon is traditionally served on Halloween.[72]

31 October is the busiest day of the year for the Emergency Services.[74] Bangers and fireworks are illegal in the Republic of Ireland; however, they are commonly smuggled in from Northern Ireland where they are legal.[75] Bonfires are frequently built around Halloween.[76] Trick-or-treating is popular amongst children on 31 October and Halloween parties and events are commonplace.

October Holiday occurs on the last Monday of October and may fall on Halloween. Its Irish names are Lá Saoire i Mí Dheireadh Fómhair or Lá Saoire Oíche Shamhna, the latter translating literally as 'Halloween holiday'.
Italy
A carved pumpkin in Sardinia

In Italy, All Saints' Day is a public holiday. On 2 November, Tutti i Morti or All Souls' Day, families remember loved ones who have died. These are still the main holidays.[77] In some Italian tradition, children would awake on the morning of All Saints or All Souls to find small gifts from their deceased ancestors. In Sardinia, Concas de Mortu (Head of the deads), carved pumpkins that look like skulls, with candles inside are displayed.[78][79][80] Halloween is, however, gaining in popularity, and involves costume parties for young adults.[81] The traditions to carve pumpkins in a skull figure, lighting candles inside, or to beg for small gifts for the deads e.g. sweets or nuts, also belong to North Italy.[82] In Veneto these carved pumpkins were called lumère (lanterns) or suche dei morti (deads' pumpkins).[83]
Poland

Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Halloween has become increasingly popular in Poland. Particularly, it is celebrated among younger people. The influx of Western tourists and expats throughout the 1990s introduced the costume party aspect of Hallowe'en celebrations, particularly in clubs and at private house parties. Door-to-door trick or treating is not common. Pumpkin carving is becoming more evident, following a strong North American version of the tradition.
Romania

Romanians observe the Feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of Romania, on 30 November. On St. Andrew's Eve ghosts are said to be about. A number of customs related to divination, in other places connected to Halloween, are associated with this night.[84] However, with the popularity of Dracula in western Europe, around Halloween the Romanian tourist industry promotes trips to locations connected to the historical Vlad Tepeș and the more fanciful Dracula of Bram Stoker. One of the most successful Halloween Parties in Transylvania takes place in Sighișoara, the citadel where Vlad the Impaler was born. This party include magician shows, ballet show and The Ritual Killing of a Living Dead[85] The biggest Halloween party in Transylvania take place at Bran Castle, aka Dracula's Castle from Transylvania.[86]

Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Romania discourage Halloween celebrations, advising their parishioners to focus rather on the "Day of the Dead" on 1 November, when special religious observances are held for the souls of the deceased.[87] Opposition by religious and nationalist groups, including calls to ban costumes and decorations in schools in 2015, have been met with criticism.[88][89][90] Halloween parties are popular in bars and nightclubs.[91]
Russia

In Russia, most Christians are Orthodox, and in the Orthodox Church, Halloween is on the Saturday after Pentecost, and therefore 4 to 5 months before western Halloween. Celebration of western Halloween began in the 1990s around the downfall of the Soviet regime, when costume and ghoulish parties spread in night clubs throughout Russia. Halloween is generally celebrated by younger generations and is not widely celebrated in civic society (e.g. theaters or libraries). In fact, Halloween is among the Western celebrations that the Russian government and politicians—which have grown increasingly anti-Western in the early 2010s—are trying to eliminate from public celebration.[92][93][94]
Spain

In Spain, celebrations involve eating castanyes (roasted chestnuts), panellets (special almond balls covered in pine nuts), moniatos (roast or baked sweet potato), Ossos de Sant cake and preserved fruit (candied or glazed fruit). Moscatell (Muscat) is drunk from porrons.[95] Around the time of this celebration, it is common for street vendors to sell hot toasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper. In many places, confectioners often organise raffles of chestnuts and preserved fruit.

The tradition of eating these foods comes from the fact that during All Saints' night, on the eve of All Souls' Day in the Christian tradition, bell ringers would ring bells in commemoration of the dead into the early morning. Friends and relatives would help with this task, and everyone would eat these foods for sustenance.[96]

Other versions of the story state that the Castanyada originates at the end of the 18th century and comes from the old funeral meals, where other foods, such as vegetables and dried fruit were not served. The meal had the symbolic significance of a communion with the souls of the departed: while the chestnuts were roasting, prayers would be said for the person who had just died.[97]

The festival is usually depicted with the figure of a castanyera: an old lady, dressed in peasant's clothing and wearing a headscarf, sitting behind a table, roasting chestnuts for street sale.

In recent years, the Castanyada has become a revetlla of All Saints and is celebrated in the home and community. It is the first of the four main school festivals, alongside Christmas, Carnestoltes and St George's Day, without reference to ritual or commemoration of the dead.[98]

Galicia is known two have the second largest Halloween or Samain festivals in Europe and during this time, a drink called Queimada is often served.
Sweden

On All Hallow's Eve, a Requiem Mass is widely attended every year at Uppsala Cathedral, part of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.[99]

Throughout the period of Allhallowtide, starting with All Hallow's Eve, Swedish families visit churchyards and adorn the graves of their family members with lit candles and wreaths fashioned from pine branches.[99]

Among children, the practice of dressing in costume and collecting candy gained popularity beginning around 2005.[100] The American traditions of Halloween have however been met with skepticism among the older generations, in part due to conflicting with the Swedish traditions on All Hallow's Eve and in part due to their commercialism.[101] In Sweden, All Saint's Day/ All Hallow's Eve is observed on the Saturday occurring between October 31 and November 6, whereas Halloween is observed on October 31, every year.
Switzerland

In Switzerland, Halloween, after first becoming popular in 1999, is on the wane, and is most popular with young adults who attend parties. Switzerland already has a "festival overload" and even though Swiss people like to dress up for any occasion, they do prefer a traditional element, such as in the Fasnacht tradition of chasing away winter using noise and masks.[102][103]
United Kingdom and Crown dependencies
England
See also: Mischief Night and Allantide

In the past, on All Souls' Eve families would stay up late, and little "soul cakes" were eaten. At the stroke of midnight, there was solemn silence among households, which had candles burning in every room to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes and a glass of wine on the table to refresh them. The tradition of giving soul cakes that originated in Great Britain and Ireland was known as souling, often seen as the origin of modern trick or treating in North America, and souling continued in parts of England as late as the 1930s, with children going from door to door singing songs and saying prayers for the dead in return for cakes or money.[104]

Trick or treating and other Halloween celebrations are extremely popular, with shops decorated with witches and pumpkins, and young people attending costume parties.[105]
Scotland

The name Halloween is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fuller All-Hallow-Even, that is, the night before All Hallows' Day.[106] Dumfries poet John Mayne's 1780 poem made note of pranks at Halloween "What fearfu' pranks ensue!". Scottish poet Robert Burns was influenced by Mayne's composition, and portrayed some of the customs in his poem Halloween (1785).[107] According to Burns, Halloween is "thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands".[108]

Among the earliest record of Guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.[109] If children approached the door of a house, they were given offerings of food. The children's practice of "guising", going from door to door in costumes for food or coins, is a traditional Halloween custom in Scotland.[3] These days children who knock on their neighbours doors have to sing a song or tell stories for a gift of sweets or money.[110]

A traditional Halloween game includes apple "dooking",[111] or "dunking" or (i.e., retrieving one from a bucket of water using only one's mouth), and attempting to eat, while blindfolded, a treacle/jam-coated scone hanging on a piece of string.

Traditional customs and lore include divination practices, ways of trying to predict the future. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.[112]

In Kilmarnock, Halloween is also celebrated on the last Friday of the month, and is known colloquially as "Killieween".[113]
Isle of Man
See also: Hop-tu-Naa

Halloween is a popular traditional occasion on the Isle of Man, where it is known as Hop-tu-Naa.
Elsewhere
The children of the largest town in Bonaire gather together on Halloween day.
Saint Helena
In Saint Helena, Halloween is actively celebrated, largely along the American model, with ghosts, skeletons, devils, vampires, witches and the like. Imitation pumpkins are used instead of real pumpkins because the pumpkin harvesting season in Saint Helena's hemisphere is not near Halloween. Trick-or-treating is widespread. Party venues provide entertainment for adults." (wikipedia.org)

"A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. Harvest festivals typically feature feasting, both family and public, with foods that are drawn from crops.

In Britain, thanks have been given for successful harvests since pagan times. Harvest festivals are held in September or October depending on local tradition. The modern Harvest Festival celebrations include singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival, Harvest Home, Harvest Thanksgiving or Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving.

In British and English-Caribbean churches, chapels and schools, and some Canadian churches, people bring in produce from the garden, the allotment or farm. The food is often distributed among the poor and senior citizens of the local community or used to raise funds for the church, or charity.

Harvest festivals in Asia include the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), one of the most widely spread harvest festivals in the world. In Iran Mehrgan was celebrated in an extravagant style at Persepolis. Not only was it the time for harvest, but it was also the time when the taxes were collected. Visitors from different parts of the Persian Empire brought gifts for the king, all contributing to a lively festival. In India, Makar Sankranti, Thai Pongal, Uttarayana, Lohri, and Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu in January, Holi in February–March, Vaisakhi in April and Onam in August–September are a few important harvest festivals.

Jews celebrate the week-long harvest festival of Sukkot in the autumn. Observant Jews build a temporary hut or shack called a sukkah, and spend the week living, eating, sleeping, and praying inside it. A sukkah has three walls and a semi-open roof, designed to allow the elements to enter. It is reminiscent of the tabernacles Israelite farmers would live in during the harvest, at the end of which they would bring a portion of the harvest to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Customs and traditions in English-speaking world

An early harvest festival used to be celebrated at the beginning of the harvest season on 1 August and was called Lammas, meaning 'loaf Mass'. The Latin prayer to hallow the bread is given in the Durham Ritual. Farmers made loaves of bread from the fresh wheat crop. These were given to the local church as the Communion bread during a special service thanking God for the harvest.

By the sixteenth century, several customs seem to have been firmly established around the gathering of the final harvest. They include the reapers accompanying a fully laden cart; a tradition of shouting "Hooky, hooky"; and one of the foremost reapers dressing extravagantly, acting as 'lord' of the harvest and asking for money from the onlookers. A play by Thomas Nashe, Summer's Last Will and Testament, (first published in London in 1600 but believed from internal evidence to have been first performed in October 1592 at Croydon) contains a scene which demonstrates several of these features. There is a character personifying harvest who comes on stage attended by men dressed as reapers; he refers to himself as their "master" and ends the scene by begging the audience for a "largesse". The scene is inspired by contemporary harvest celebrations, and singing and drinking feature largely. The stage instruction reads:

    "Enter Harvest with a scythe on his neck, and all his reapers with sickles, and a great black bowl with a posset in it borne before him: they come in singing."

The song which follows may be an actual harvest song or a creation of the author's intended to represent a typical harvest song of the time:

    Merry, merry, merry, cheery, cheery, cheery,
    Trowel the black bowl to me;
    Hey derry, derry, with a pop and a lorry,
    I'll throw it again to thee;

    Hooky, hooky, we have shorn,
    And we have bound,
    And we have brought Harvest
    Townhome.

The shout of "hooky, hooky" appears to be one traditionally associated with the harvest celebration. The last verse is repeated in full after the character Harvest remarks to the audience "Is your throat clear to help us sing hooky, hooky?" and a stage direction adds, "Heere they all sing after him". Also, in 1555 in Archbishop Parker's translation of Psalm 126 occur the lines:

    "He home returnes: wyth hocky cry,
    With sheaues full lade abundantly."

In some parts of England "Hockey" or "Horkey" (the word is spelled variously) became the accepted name of the actual festival itself:

    "Hockey is brought Home with hallowing
    Boys with plum-cake The Cart following".

Another widespread tradition was the distribution of a special cake to the celebrating farmworkers. A prose work of 1613 refers to the practice as predating the Reformation. Describing the character of a typical farmer, it says:

    "Rocke Munday..Christmas Eve, the hoky, or seed cake, these he yearly keeps, yet holds them no relics of popery."[1]

Early English settlers took the idea of harvest thanksgiving to North America. The most famous one is the harvest Thanksgiving held by the Pilgrims in 1621.
National Harvest Thanksgiving ceremony in Poland's Jasna Góra Roman Catholic sanctuary in Częstochowa, Poland.
Presidential Harvest Festival in Spała, Poland

Nowadays the festival is held at the end of harvest, which varies in different parts of Britain. Sometimes neighboring churches will set the Harvest Festival on different Sundays so that people can attend each other's thanksgiving.

Until the 20th century, most farmers celebrated the end of the harvest with a big meal called the harvest supper, to which all who had helped in the harvest were invited. It was sometimes known as a "Mell-supper", after the last patch of corn or wheat standing in the fields which were known as the "Mell" or "Neck". Cutting it signified the end of the work of harvest and the beginning of the feast. There seems to have been a feeling that it was bad luck to be the person to cut the last stand of corn. The farmer and his workers would race against the harvesters on other farms to be first to complete the harvest, shouting to announce they had finished. In some counties, the last stand of corn would be cut by the workers throwing their sickles at it until it was all down, in others the reapers would take it in turns to be blindfolded and sweep a scythe to and fro until all of the Mell was cut down.

Some churches and villages still have a Harvest Supper. The modern British tradition of celebrating the Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. Victorian hymns such as Come, ye thankful people, come and All things bright and beautiful but also Dutch and German harvest hymns in translation (for example, We plough the fields and scatter) helped popularise his idea of a harvest festival, and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service. On 8 September 1854 the Revd Dr William Beal, Rector of Brooke, Norfolk,[2] held a Harvest Festival aimed at ending what he saw as disgraceful scenes at the end of harvest,[3] and went on to promote 'harvest homes' in other Norfolk villages. Another early adopter of the custom as an organized part of the Church of England calendar was Rev Piers Claughton at Elton, Huntingdonshire in or about 1854.[4]

As British people have come to rely less heavily on home-grown produce, there has been a shift in emphasis in many Harvest Festival celebrations. Increasingly, churches have linked Harvest with an awareness of and concern for people in the developing world for whom growing crops of sufficient quality and quantity remains a struggle. Development and Relief organizations often produce resources for use in churches at harvest time which promote their own concerns for those in need across the globe.

In the early days, there were ceremonies and rituals at the beginning as well as at the end of the harvest.

Encyclopædia Britannica traces the origins to "the animistic belief in the corn [grain] spirit or corn mother." In some regions the farmers believed that a spirit resided in the last sheaf of grain to be harvested. To chase out the spirit, they beat the grain to the ground. Elsewhere they wove some blades of the cereal into a "corn dolly" that they kept safe for "luck" until seed-sowing the following year.[citation needed] Then they plowed the ears of grain back into the soil in hopes that this would bless the new crop.

    Church bells could be heard on each day of the harvest.
    A corn dolly was made from the last sheaf of corn harvested. The corn dolly often had a place of honour at the banquet table, and was kept until the following spring.
    In Cornwall, the ceremony of Crying The Neck was practiced. Today it is still re-enacted annually by The Old Cornwall Society.
    The horse bringing the last cartload was decorated with garlands of flowers and colourful ribbons.
    A magnificent Harvest feast was held at the farmer's house and games were played to celebrate the end of the harvest." (wikipedia.org)

"Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and the Philippines. It is also observed in the Dutch town of Leiden and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year (Similarly named harvest festival holidays occur throughout the world during autumn, including in Germany and Japan.). Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and around the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.
History

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among most religions after harvests and at other times of the year.[1] The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.[1][2]

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII.[3] Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work. Though the 1536 reforms in the Church of England reduced the number of holidays in the liturgical calendar to 27, the Puritan party in the Anglican Church wished to eliminate all Church holidays apart from the weekly Lord's Day, including the evangelical feasts of Christmas and Easter (cf. Puritan Sabbatarianism).[3] The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting.[4][3]

Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving, which were observed through Christian church services and other gatherings.[3] For example, Days of thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1605.[4] An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.[4] Days of Fasting were called on account of plagues in 1604 and 1622, drought in 1611, and floods in 1613. Annual Thanksgiving prayers were dictated by the charter of English settlers upon their safe landing in America in 1619 at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia.[5]
In Canada
Main article: Thanksgiving (Canada)

According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage.[6] Other researchers, however, state that "there is no compelling narrative of the origins of the Canadian Thanksgiving day."[7]

Antecedents for Canadian Thanksgiving are also sometimes traced to the French settlers who came to New France in the 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season. They continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the area.[8]

As settlers arrived in Nova Scotia from New England after 1700, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became commonplace. New immigrants into the country—such as the Irish, Scottish, and Germans—also added their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey) were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during and after the American Revolution and settled in Canada.[8]

In 1859, the government of the Provinces of Canada declared a Thanksgiving Day in which "all Canadians [were asked] to spend the holiday in 'public and solemn' recognition of God's mercies."[9] On 9 October 1879, Canada's Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne, declared November 6 as "a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."[9] The Canadian Parliament on 31 January 1957 applied the same language in its proclamation for the modern holiday: "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed—to be observed on the second Monday in October."[10]
In the United States
Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)
Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1925, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

The annual Thanksgiving holiday tradition in the United States is documented for the first time in 1619, in what is now called the Commonwealth of Virginia. Thirty-eight English settlers aboard the ship Margaret arrived by way of the James River at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia on December 4, 1619. The landing was immediately followed by a religious celebration, specifically dictated by the group's charter from the London Company. The charter declared, "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."[11][5] Since the mid 20th century, the original celebration has been commemorated there annually at present-day Berkeley Plantation, ancestral home of the Harrison family of Virginia.[12]

The more familiar Thanksgiving precedent is traced to the Pilgrims and Puritans who emigrated from England in the 1620s and 1630s. They brought their previous tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. The 1621 Plymouth, Massachusetts thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. The Pilgrims celebrated this with the Wampanoags, a tribe of Native Americans who, along with the last surviving Patuxet, had helped them get through the previous winter by giving them food in that time of scarcity, in exchange for an alliance and protection against the rival Narragansett tribe.[13]

Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.[14][15] According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.[16] Now called 3 Oktoberfeest, Leiden's autumn thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for sectarian disturbance that appears to have accelerated the pilgrims' plans to emigrate to America.[17]

Later in New England, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned the Plymouth colony's thanksgiving celebration and feast in 1623.[18][19][20] Bradford issued a proclamation of Thanksgiving following victory in the Pequot War in the late 1630s to celebrate "the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won."[21][22] The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[23]

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, and conversely by patriot leaders, such as John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress,[24] each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.[25] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God",[26] and calling on Americans to "unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."[27]
Debate over first celebrations
Shrine of the first U.S. Thanksgiving in 1619 at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia

Devotees in New England and Virginia and other places have maintained contradictory claims to having held the first Thanksgiving celebration in what became the United States. The question is complicated by the concept of Thanksgiving as either a holiday celebration or a religious service. James Baker maintains, "The American holiday's true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God's providence."[14] Baker calls the debate a "tempest in a beanpot" and "marvelous nonsense" based on regional claims.[14]

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy acknowledged both the Virginia and Massachusetts claims. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3560 on November 5, 1963, stating, "Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together, and for the faith which united them with their God."[28]

Other claims include an earlier religious service by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598.[29] Historians Robyn Gioia and Michael Gannon of the University of Florida argue that the earliest Thanksgiving service in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish community on September 8, 1565, in current Saint Augustine, Florida.[30][31]
Fixing a date
Canada

The earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada has been attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the North, thus ending the harvest season earlier.[32] Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872, when the nation was celebrating the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness.[32]

By the end of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6 (see also Guy Fawkes Night discussed above). In the late 19th century, the Militia staged "sham battles" for public entertainment on Thanksgiving Day. The Militia agitated for an earlier date for the holiday, so they could use the warmer weather to draw bigger crowds.[33] However, when the First World War ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October.[8]
United States

Thanksgiving in the United States has been observed on differing dates. From the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln, the date of observance varied from state to state. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century, coinciding with, and eventually superseding the holiday of Evacuation Day (commemorating the day the British exited the United States after the Revolutionary War).[34] Modern Thanksgiving was proclaimed for all states in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. Influenced by Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for approximately 40 years advocating an official holiday, Lincoln set national Thanksgiving by proclamation for the final Thursday in November in celebration of the bounties that had continued to fall on the Union and for the military successes in the war, also calling on the American people, "with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience .. fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation..."[35] Because of the ongoing Civil War, a nationwide Thanksgiving celebration was not realized until Reconstruction was completed in the 1870s.

On October 31, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a presidential proclamation changing the holiday to the next to last Thursday in November in an effort to boost the economy.[36] The earlier date created an extra seven days for Christmas shopping since at that time retailers never began promoting the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving. But making the proclamation so close to the change wreaked havoc on the holiday schedules of many people, schools, and businesses, and most Americans were not in favor of the change. Some of those who opposed dubbed the holiday "Franksgiving" that year. Some state governors went along with the change while others stuck with the original November 30 date for the holiday, and three states — Colorado, Mississippi, and Texas — observed both dates.[37] The double Thanksgiving continued for two more years, and then on December 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the official national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November starting in 1942.[38]

Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving.[39][40]
Observance
Australia

In the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre–World War II American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means the Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the United States' observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.[41]
Brazil

In Brazil, National Thanksgiving Day was instituted by President Gaspar Dutra, through Law 781 of August 17, 1949, at the suggestion of Ambassador Joaquim Nabuco, who was enthusiastic about the commemorations he saw in 1909 in St. Patrick's Cathedral as an ambassador in Washington. In 1966, Law 5110 established that the Thanksgiving celebration would take place on the fourth Thursday of November.[42] This date is celebrated by many families of American origin, by some Protestant Christian denominations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (which is of American origin), the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, and the Church of the Nazarene, and Methodist denominational universities. The day is also celebrated by evangelical churches such as the Foursquare Gospel Church in Brazil.
Canada
Main article: Thanksgiving (Canada)
Pumpkin pie is commonly served on and around Thanksgiving in North America.

Thanksgiving (French: l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is mostly celebrated in a secular manner. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces in Canada, except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. While businesses may remain open in these provinces, the holiday is nonetheless recognized and celebrated regardless of its status.[43][44][45][46][47]
Grenada

In the West Indian island of Grenada, in the Caribbean, there is a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day which is celebrated on October 25. Even though it bears the same name, and is celebrated at roughly the same time as the American and Canadian versions of Thanksgiving, this holiday is unrelated to either of those celebrations. Instead, the holiday marks the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of the island in 1983, in response to the deposition and execution of the socialist Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop[48] by a military government from within his own party.
Liberia

In the West African country of Liberia, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November.[49] In 1883, the Legislature of Liberia enacted a statute declaring this day as a national holiday.[50] Thanksgiving is celebrated in the country in large part due to the nation's founding as a colony of the American Colonization Society in 1821 by former slaves and free people of color from the United States. However, the Liberian celebration of the holiday is notably different from the American celebration. While some Liberian families chose to celebrate with a feast or cook out, it is not considered a staple of the holiday and there is no specific food heavily associated with Thanksgiving. Some chose to celebrate the holiday by attending religious ceremonies, while others take it as a day for relaxation. Others view the holiday as an imposition from the American settlers of the country. In the years following the second civil war, some Liberians have taken the holiday as a time to be thankful for this new period peace and relative stability.[51][52]
Netherlands
Pieterskerk

Many of the Pilgrims who migrated to the Plymouth Plantation resided in the city of Leiden from 1609 to 1620 and had recorded their births, marriages, and deaths at the Pieterskerk (St. Peter's church). In commemoration, a non-denominational Thanksgiving Day service is held each year on the morning of the American Thanksgiving Day in the Pieterskerk, a Gothic church in Leiden, noting the hospitality the Pilgrims received in Leiden on their way to the New World.[53]

Thanksgiving is observed by orthodox Protestant churches in the Netherlands on the first Wednesday in November (Dankdag [nl]). It is not a public holiday. Those who observe the day either go to church in the evening or take the day off and go to church in the morning (and occasionally afternoon) too.
Philippines

The Philippines, while it was an American colony in the first half of the 20th century, celebrated Thanksgiving as a special public holiday on the same day as the Americans.[54] During the Japanese occupation during World War II, both the Americans and Filipinos celebrated Thanksgiving in secret. After Japanese withdrawal in 1945, the tradition continued until 1969. It was revived by President Ferdinand Marcos, but the date was changed to be on every September 21, when martial law was imposed in the country. After Marcos' ouster in 1986, the tradition was no longer continued, due to the controversial events that occurred during his long administration.[55]

As of 2022, Thanksgiving has been revived as a commercial and cultural holiday, albeit stripped of its official status. SM Supermalls led the way in the slow revival of Thanksgiving Day on the same day as in the U.S., as in the old days. Many malls and hotels offer special sales on this day, which is part of the long celebration of Christmas in the Philippines, which begins in September (unlike on Black Friday in the United States).
Rwanda
Main article: Public holidays in Rwanda

Called Umuganura Day, this is a Thanksgiving festival to mark the start of the harvest in Rwanda. It is celebrated on the first Friday of August.[56]
Saint Lucia

The nation of Saint Lucia celebrates Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October.[57]
United States
Family saying grace before Thanksgiving dinner in Neffsville, Pennsylvania, 1942
Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)

Thanksgiving, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941 due to federal legislation, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest.[58] On Thanksgiving Day, it is common for Americans to share a family meal, attend church services, and view special sporting events.[59] In addition, Thanksgiving is celebrated in public places with parades such as Macy's Thanksgiving Parade[60] in New York City, ABC Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade[61] in Philadelphia, America's Hometown Thanksgiving Parade in Plymouth, Massachusetts, McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago, and Bayou Classic Thanksgiving Parade[62] in New Orleans. What Americans call the "Holiday Season" generally begins with Thanksgiving.[63] The first day after Thanksgiving Day—Black Friday—marks the start of the Christmas shopping season.[64]

Thanksgiving is usually celebrated with a family meal. Beginning in the 2010s, a new tradition has emerged to also celebrate Thanksgiving with a meal with friends, as a separate event on a different day or an alternate event on Thanksgiving Day. This is referred to as Friendsgiving.[65]
Similarly named holidays
See also: List of harvest festivals
Germany
A food decoration for Erntedankfest, a Christian Thanksgiving harvest festival celebrated in Germany

The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, Erntedankfest, is a popular German Christian festival on the first Sunday of October. The festival has a significant religious component, and many churches are decorated with autumn crops. In some places, there are religious processions or parades. Many Bavarian beer festivals, like the Munich Oktoberfest, take place within the vicinity of Erntedankfest.[original research?]
Japan
Main article: Labor Thanksgiving Day

Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日, Kinrō Kansha no Hi) is a national holiday in Japan. It takes place annually on November 23. The law establishing the holiday, which was adopted during the American occupation after World War II, cites it as an occasion for commemorating labor and production and giving each other thanks. It has roots in the ancient Shinto harvest ceremony (Niiname-sai (新嘗祭)).
United Kingdom
Harvest Festival flowers at a church in Shrewsbury, England

The Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving does not have an official date in the United Kingdom; however, it is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. Harvest Thanksgiving in Britain also has pre-Christian roots when the Saxons would offer the first sheaf of barley, oats, or wheat to fertility gods. When the harvest was finally collected, communities would come together for a harvest supper.[66] When Christianity arrived in Britain many traditions remained, and today the Harvest Festival is marked by churches and schools in late September/early October (same as Canada) with singing, praying and decorating with baskets of food and fruit to celebrate a successful harvest and to give thanks.[67] Collections of food are usually held which are then given to local charities which help the homeless and those in need." (wikipedia.org)

"Maize (/meɪz/ MAYZ; Zea mays subsp. mays, from Spanish: maíz after Taino: mahis[2]), also known as corn in North American and Australian English, is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago.[3][4] The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to inflorescences (or "tassels") which produce pollen and separate ovuliferous inflorescences called ears that when fertilized yield kernels or seeds, which are botanical fruits.[5][6] The term maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as the common name because it refers specifically to this one grain whereas corn refers to any principal cereal crop cultivated in a country. For example, in North America and Australia corn is often used for maize, but in England and Wales it can refer to wheat or barley, and in Scotland and Ireland to oats.

Maize has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat or rice. In addition to being consumed directly by humans (often in the form of masa), maize is also used for corn ethanol, animal feed and other maize products, such as corn starch and corn syrup.[7] The six major types of maize are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn.[8] Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption as kernels, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, various corn-based human food uses (including grinding into cornmeal or masa, pressing into corn oil, fermentation and distillation into alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey), and as feedstocks for the chemical industry. Maize is also used in making ethanol and other biofuels.

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain.[9] In 2021, total world production was 1.2 billion tonnes (1.2×109 long tons; 1.3×109 short tons). Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 384 million tonnes (378,000,000 long tons; 423,000,000 short tons) grown in the United States alone in 2021.[citation needed] Genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009.[10] Subsidies in the United States help to account for its high level of cultivation of maize and its position as the largest producer in the world....Names
Many small male flowers make up the male inflorescence, called the tassel.

The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant, mahiz.[33] Linnaeus included the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays.[34] It is known by other names including "corn" in some English-speaking countries.[35]

Maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region.[36] The US and a handful of other English-speaking countries primarily use corn, though most countries use the term maize.[37][8][38] The word maize is considered interchangeable in place of corn in the West; during early British and American trade, all grains were considered corn. Maize retained the name corn in the West as the primary grain in these trade relationships.[34]

The word "corn" outside the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand is synonymous with grain referring to any cereal crop with its meaning understood to vary geographically to refer to the local staple,[39] such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland or Ireland.[36] In the United States,[39] Canada,[40] Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize. This usage started as a shortening of "Indian corn" in 18th century North America.[39][41] During European colonization of North America, confusion would occur between British and North American English speakers using the term corn so that North American speakers would need to clarify that they were talking about Indian corn or maize, such as in a conversation between the Massachusetts Bay governor Thomas Hutchinson and the British king George III.[41] "Indian corn" primarily means maize (the staple grain of indigenous Americans) but can also refer more specifically to multicolored "flint corn" used for decoration.[42] Other common names include barajovar, makka, silk maize, and zea.[43]

Betty Fussell writes in an article on the history of the word "corn" in North America that "[t]o say the word "corn" is to plunge into the tragi-farcical mistranslations of language and history".[27] Similar to the British, the Spanish referred to maize as panizo, a generic term for cereal grains, as did Italians with the term polenta. The British later referred to maize as Turkey wheat, Turkey corn, or Indian corn with Fusell commenting that "they meant not a place but a condition, a savage rather than a civilized grain", especially with Turkish people later naming it kukuruz, or barbaric.[27]

International groups such as the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International also consider maize the preferred common name.[44] The word maize is used by agricultural bodies and research institutes such as the UN's FAO,[45] the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center based out of Mexico, and the Indian Institute of Maize Research.[46] National agricultural and industry associations often include the word maize in their name such as the Maize Association of Australia,[47] and the National Maize Association of Nigeria.[48]

In Southern Africa, maize is commonly called mielie (Afrikaans) or mealie (English), words possibly derived from the Portuguese word for maize, milho, but more probably from Dutch meel or English meal, meaning the edible part of a grain or pulse.[49]
Structure and physiology

The maize plant is often 3 m (10 ft) in height,[50] though some natural strains can grow 13 m (43 ft),[51] and the tallest recorded plant reached almost 14 metres (46 ft).[52] The stem is commonly composed of 20 internodes[53] of 18 cm (7 in) length.[50] The leaves arise from the nodes, alternately on opposite sides on the stalk,[54] and have entire margins.[55]

The apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; these are separate from the female flowers but borne on the same plant (monoecy). When the tassel is mature and conditions are suitably warm and dry, anthers on the tassel dehisce and release pollen. Maize pollen is anemophilous (dispersed by wind), and because of its large settling velocity, most pollen falls within a few meters of the tassel.[56]

Ears develop above a few of the leaves in the midsection of the plant, between the stem and leaf sheath, elongating by around 3 mm (1⁄8 in) per day, to a length of 18 cm (7 in)[50] with 60 cm (24 in) being the maximum alleged in the subspecies.[57] They are female inflorescences, tightly enveloped by several layers of ear leaves commonly called husks.

Elongated stigmas, called silks, emerge from the whorl of husk leaves at the end of the ear. They are often pale yellow and 18 cm (7 in) in length, like tufts of hair in appearance. At the end of each is a carpel, which may develop into a "kernel" if fertilized by a pollen grain. The pericarp of the fruit is fused with the seed coat referred to as "caryopsis", typical of the grasses, and the entire kernel is often referred to as the "seed". The cob is close to a multiple fruit in structure, except that the individual fruits (the kernels) never fuse into a single mass. The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows around a white, pithy substance, which forms the cob. The maximum size of kernels is reputedly 2.5 cm (1 in).[58] An ear commonly holds 600 kernels. They are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, maize yields more flour with much less bran than wheat does. It lacks the protein gluten of wheat and, therefore, makes baked goods with poor rising capability. Cultivars that accumulate more sugar and less starch in the ear are consumed as a vegetable and are called sweet corn. Young ears can be consumed raw, with the cob and silk, but as the plant matures (usually during the summer months), the cob becomes tougher and the silk dries to inedibility. By the end of the growing season, the kernels dry out and become difficult to chew without cooking....Planting density affects multiple aspects of maize. Modern farming techniques in developed countries usually rely on dense planting, which produces one ear per stalk.[60] Stands of silage maize are yet denser,[citation needed] and achieve a lower percentage of ears and more plant matter.[citation needed]

Maize is a facultative short-day plant[61] and flowers in a certain number of growing degree days > 10 °C (50 °F) in the environment to which it is adapted.[62] The magnitude of the influence that long nights have on the number of days that must pass before maize flowers is genetically prescribed[63] and regulated by the phytochrome system.[64] Photoperiodicity can be eccentric in tropical cultivars such that the long days characteristic of higher latitudes allow the plants to grow so tall that they do not have enough time to produce seed before being killed by frost. These attributes, however, may prove useful in using tropical maize for biofuels.[65]

Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (DIMBOA).[66] DIMBOA is a member of a group of hydroxamic acids (also known as benzoxazinoids) that serve as a natural defense against a wide range of pests, including insects,[66] pathogenic fungi and bacteria. DIMBOA is also found in related grasses, particularly wheat. A maize mutant (bx) lacking DIMBOA is highly susceptible to attack by aphids and fungi. DIMBOA is also responsible for the relative resistance of immature maize to the European corn borer (family Crambidae). As maize matures, DIMBOA levels and resistance to the corn borer decline.[citation needed]


Because of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to be uprooted by severe winds....Genomics and genetics
With white and yellow kernels

Maize is an annual grass in the family Gramineae, which includes such plants as wheat, rye, barley, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane. There are two major species of the genus Zea (out of six total): Z. mays (maize) and Z. diploperennis, which is a perennial type of teosinte. The annual teosinte variety called Z. m. mexicana is the closest botanical relative to maize. It still grows in the wild as an annual in Mexico and Guatemala.[79]

Many forms of maize are used for food, sometimes classified as various subspecies related to the amount of starch each has:

    Flour corn: Z. m. var. amylacea
    Popcorn: Z. m. var. everta
    Dent corn : Z. m. var. indentata
    Flint corn: Z. m. var. indurata
    Sweet corn: Z. m. var. saccharata and Z. m. var. rugosa
    Waxy corn: Z. m. var. ceratina
    Amylomaize: Z. mays[verification needed]
    Pod corn: Z. m. var. tunicata Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil.
    Striped maize: Z. m. var. japonica...Maize reproduces sexually each year. This randomly selects half the genes from a given plant to propagate to the next generation, meaning that desirable traits found in the crop (like high yield or good nutrition) can be lost in subsequent generations unless certain techniques are used.[citation needed]

Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of the earliest and most successful developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection. Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection (C. G. Hopkins c. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and the highly successful double cross hybrids using four inbred lines (D. F. Jones c. 1918, 1922). University supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids.[92] By the 1930s, companies such as Pioneer devoted to production of hybrid maize had begun to influence long-term development. Internationally important seed banks such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the US bank at the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintain germplasm for future crop development.[citation needed]

Since the 1940s, the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic engineering have succeeded in increasing output and reducing the need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer.[93] There is conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle, lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant.[94]

Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many ears which are the source of the "baby corn" used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine.[95]

One strain called olotón has evolved a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing microbes, which provides the plant with 29%–82% of its nitrogen.[96]

CIMMYT operates a conventional breeding program to provide optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s. Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project....Maize harvested as a grain crop can be kept in the field a relatively long time, even months, after the crop is ready to harvest; it is also harvested and stored in the husk leaves if kept dry.[124] Before the 20th century, all maize harvesting was by manual labour, by grazing, or by some combination of those. Whether the ears were hand-picked and the stover was grazed, or the whole plant was cut, gathered, and shocked, people and livestock did all the work. Between the 1890s and the 1970s, the technology of maize harvesting expanded greatly. Today, all such technologies, from entirely manual harvesting to entirely mechanized, are still in use to some degree, as appropriate to each farm's needs, although the thoroughly mechanized versions predominate, as they offer the lowest unit costs when scaled to large farm operations.

Before World War II, most maize in North America was harvested by hand. This involved a large number of workers and associated social events (husking or shucking bees). From the 1890s onward, some machinery became available to partially mechanize the processes, such as one- and two-row mechanical pickers (picking the ear, leaving the stover) and corn binders, which are reaper-binders designed specifically for maize. The latter produce sheaves that can be shocked. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested, which then requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs, and these whole ears are a sufficient form for some livestock feeding use. Today corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms harvest the grain from the field with a combine and store it in bins. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground, where it usually is left to become organic matter for the soil. The ear of maize is too large to pass between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels.[125]

The entire maize plant is also harvested as a silage crop.[126]

For storing grain in bins, the moisture of the grain must be sufficiently low to avoid spoiling. If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high, grain dryers are used to reduce the moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain. This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases (propane or natural gas) and electricity to power the blowers.[127]
Production
Production of maize (2019)[128]

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain.[9] In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes, led by the United States with 31.0% of the total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total....United States
Main article: Corn production in the United States

In 2016, maize production was forecast to be over 380 million metric tons (15 billion bushels), an increase of 11% over 2014 American production.[131] Based on conditions as of August 2016, the expected yield would be the highest ever for the United States.[131] The area of harvested maize was forecast to be 35 million hectares (87 million acres), an increase of 7% over 2015.[131] Maize is especially popular in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois; in the latter, it was named the state's official grain in 2017.[132]

The estimated corn usage for crop year September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021, was 38.7 percent was used for feed, 34 percent for ethanol, 17.5 percent for export, and 9.8 percent for food...Uses
Culinary
Further information: List of maize dishes
Semi-peeled corn on the cob
Poster showing a woman serving muffins, pancakes, and grits, with canisters on the table labeled corn meal, grits, and hominy, US Food Administration, 1918

Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. Maize is used to produce cornstarch, a common ingredient in home cooking and many industrialized food products. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of Bourbon whiskey. Cornmeal and maize flour are used to make cornbread and other baked products. Many countries require corn flour to be enriched with certain nutrients.

In prehistoric times Mesoamerican women used a metate to process maize into ground cornmeal, allowing the preparation of foods that were more calorie dense than popcorn. After ceramic vessels were invented the Olmec people began to cook maize together with beans, improving the nutritional value of the staple meal. Although maize naturally contains niacin, an important nutrient, it was not bioavailable without the process of nixtamalization. The Maya used nixtamal meal to make varieties of porridges and tamales.[143] The process was later used in the cuisine of the American South to prepare corn for grits and hominy.[citation needed]

Maize is a staple of Mexican cuisine. Masa (cornmeal treated with limewater) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American food. It is the main ingredient of corn tortilla, tamales, pozole, atole and all the dishes based on them, like tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, enchiladas, tostadas and many more. In Mexico the fungus of maize, known as huitlacoche, is considered a delicacy.[citation needed]
Mexican tamales made with corn meal
Boiled corn on a white plate
Boiled

Coarse maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (or hominy grits in the South) or the food called mieliepap in South Africa and sadza, nshima, ugali and other names in other parts of Africa. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop.[144] These are commonly eaten in the Southeastern United States, foods handed down from Native Americans, who called the dish sagamite.[citation needed]

Maize can also be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft. Unripe maize must usually be cooked to become palatable; this may be done by simply boiling or roasting the whole ears and eating the kernels right off the cob. Sweet corn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is usually consumed in the unripe state. Such corn on the cob is a common dish in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Cyprus, some parts of South America, and the Balkans, but virtually unheard of in some European countries.[citation needed] Corn on the cob was hawked on the streets of early 19th-century New York City by poor, barefoot "Hot Corn Girls", who were thus the precursors of hot dog carts, churro wagons, and fruit stands seen on the streets of big cities today.[145]

Within the United States, the usage of maize for human consumption constitutes only around 1/40th of the amount grown in the country. In the United States and Canada, maize is mostly grown to feed livestock, as forage, silage (made by fermentation of chopped green cornstalks), or grain. Maize meal is also a significant ingredient of some commercial animal food products.[citation needed]
Nutritional value
Sweetcorn, yellow, raw
(seeds only)
Note: assuming freed niacinNutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy    360 kJ (86 kcal)
Carbohydrates
   
18.7 g
Starch    5.7 g
Sugars    6.26 g
Dietary fiber    2 g
Fat
   
1.35 g
Protein
   
3.27 g
Tryptophan    0.023 g
Threonine    0.129 g
Isoleucine    0.129 g
Leucine    0.348 g
Lysine    0.137 g
Methionine    0.067 g
Cystine    0.026 g
Phenylalanine    0.150 g
Tyrosine    0.123 g
Valine    0.185 g
Arginine    0.131 g
Histidine    0.089 g
Alanine    0.295 g
Aspartic acid    0.244 g
Glutamic acid    0.636 g
Glycine    0.127 g
Proline    0.292 g
Serine    0.153 g
Vitamins    Quantity
%DV†
Vitamin A equiv.
lutein zeaxanthin
   
1%
9 μg
644 μg
Thiamine (B1)   
13%
0.155 mg
Riboflavin (B2)   
5%
0.055 mg
Niacin (B3)   
12%
1.77 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)   
14%
0.717 mg
Vitamin B6   
7%
0.093 mg
Folate (B9)   
11%
42 μg
Vitamin C   
8%
6.8 mg
Minerals    Quantity
%DV†
Iron   
4%
0.52 mg
Magnesium   
10%
37 mg
Manganese   
8%
0.163 mg
Phosphorus   
13%
89 mg
Potassium   
6%
270 mg
Zinc   
5%
0.46 mg
Other constituents    Quantity
Water    75.96 g
Link to USDA Database entry
One ear of medium size (6-3/4" to 7-1/2" long)
maize has 90 grams of seeds

    Units
    μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
    IU = International units

†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA FoodData Central

Raw, yellow, sweet maize kernels are composed of 76% water, 19% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and 1% fat (table). In a 100-gram serving, maize kernels provide 86 calories and are a good source (10–19% of the Daily Value) of the B vitamins, thiamin, niacin (but see Pellagra warning below), pantothenic acid (B5) and folate (right table for raw, uncooked kernels, USDA Nutrient Database). In moderate amounts, they also supply dietary fiber and the essential minerals, magnesium and phosphorus whereas other nutrients are in low amounts (table).[citation needed]

Maize has suboptimal amounts of the essential amino acids tryptophan and lysine, which accounts for its lower status as a protein source.[146] However, the proteins of beans and legumes complement those of maize.[146]
Feed and fodder for livestock
See also: Corn stover § Uses
Cattle wait alongside a fence as a truck distributes a grain feed composed of corn by-products into troughs.

Maize is a major source of both grain feed and fodder for livestock. It is fed to the livestock in various ways. When it is used as a grain crop, the dried kernels are used as feed. They are often kept on the cob for storage in a corn crib, or they may be shelled off for storage in a grain bin. The farm that consumes the feed may produce it, purchase it on the market, or some of both. When the grain is used for feed, the rest of the plant (the corn stover) can be used later as fodder, bedding (litter), or soil amendment. When the whole maize plant (grain plus stalks and leaves) is used for fodder, it is usually chopped all at once and ensilaged, as digestibility and palatability are higher in the ensilaged form than in the dried form. Maize silage is one of the most valuable forages for ruminants.[147] Before the advent of widespread ensilaging, it was traditional to gather the corn into shocks after harvesting, where it dried further. With or without a subsequent move to the cover of a barn, it was then stored for weeks to several months until fed to the livestock. Today ensilaging can occur not only in siloes but also in silage wrappers. However, in the tropics, maize can be harvested year-round and fed as green forage to the animals....Ornamental and other uses
Main article: Corn construction

Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and colored leaf forms as well as those with colorful ears are used.[citation needed]

Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869.[citation needed]
Children playing in a maize kernel box

An unusual use for maize is to create a "corn maze" (or "maize maze") as a tourist attraction. The idea of a maize maze was introduced by the American Maze Company who created a maze in Pennsylvania in 1993.[158][better source needed] Traditional mazes are most commonly grown using yew hedges, but these take several years to mature. The rapid growth of a field of maize allows a maze to be laid out using GPS at the start of a growing season and for the maize to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor's line of sight by the start of the summer. In Canada and the US, these are popular in many farming communities.[citation needed]

Maize kernels can be used in place of sand in a sandboxlike enclosure for children's play.[159]

Stigmas from female maize flowers, popularly called corn silk, are sold as

Maize is used as a fish bait, called "dough balls". It is particularly popular in Europe for coarse fishing.[citation needed]

Additionally, feed corn is sometimes used by hunters to bait animals such as deer or wild hogs....Art
Water tower in Rochester, Minnesota being painted as an ear of maize

Maize has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Maize was represented anthropomorphically as well as naturally.[174]

In the United States, maize ears along with tobacco leaves are carved into the capitals of columns in the United States Capitol building. Maize itself is sometimes used for temporary architectural detailing when the intent is to celebrate the fall season, local agricultural productivity and culture. Bundles of dried maize stalks are often displayed along with pumpkins, gourds and straw in autumnal displays outside homes and businesses. A well-known example of architectural use is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, which uses cobs and ears of colored maize to implement a mural design that is recycled annually. Another well-known example is the Field of Corn sculpture in Dublin, Ohio, where hundreds of concrete ears of corn stand in a grassy field.[175]

A maize stalk with two ripe ears is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1 lipa coin, minted since 1993.[176]

Shucked, a 2022 musical that is currently running on Broadway, was described by Vulture as a "show about corn". Much of the show contains puns relating to corn[177][178] and the plot revolves around a blighted corn crop." (wikipedia.org)

"Gift wrapping is the act of enclosing a gift in some sort of material. Wrapping paper is a kind of paper designed for gift wrapping. An alternative to gift wrapping is using a gift box or bag. A wrapped or boxed gift may be held closed with ribbon and topped with a decorative bow (an ornamental knot made of ribbon).
History
Hemp wrapping paper, China, circa 100 BC.

The use of wrapping paper is first documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in 2nd century BC.[1] In the Southern Song dynasty, monetary gifts were wrapped with paper, forming an envelope known as a chih pao. The wrapped gifts were distributed by the Chinese court to government officials. [2] In the Chinese text Thien Kung Khai Wu, Sung Ying-Hsing states that the coarsest wrapping paper is manufactured with rice straws and bamboo fiber.[3]

Although the Hall brothers Rollie and Joyce Hall, founders of Hallmark Cards, did not invent gift wrapping, their innovations led to the development of modern gift wrapping. They helped to popularize the idea of decorative gift wrapping in the 20th century, and according to Joyce Hall, "the decorative gift-wrapping business was born the day Rollie placed those French envelope linings on top of that showcase."[4]
By culture
Gift wrapped presents beneath the Christmas tree
Asian cultures

In Chinese culture, red wrapping denotes luck because it is such a vibrant and strong color. It is seen as a symbol of happiness and good health.

In Japanese culture, wrapping paper and boxes are common. However, the traditional cloth wrapping called furoshiki is increasing in popularity, particularly as an ecologically friendly alternative to wrapping paper.[5]

In Korean culture, bojagi are sometimes used for gift wrapping. A yedanbo is a ceremonial gift bojagi used to wrap wedding gifts from the bride's family to the members of the groom's.[6]

In Vietnamese culture, gift wrapping is an integral part of the gift-giving tradition.[7][8] Vietnamese people often use elegant and colorful gift boxes to create visual appeal. The colors red and gold are particularly favored, as they symbolize luck and joy. Vietnamese people also pay special attention to the messages and wishes on the gifts, expressing care and affection.[9] Additionally, there is a trend towards using environmentally friendly materials such as recycled paper and sustainable ribbons for gift wrapping.[10]
Western cultures

In Western culture, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the receiver's name and the giver's name.

Prior to the introduction of tissue paper, Upper-class Victorians in the west commonly used decorated and coloured thick paper to cover their gifts.[11] Modern patterned wrapping paper was introduced to the American market by the Hall Brothers in 1917. The Kansas City stationery store had run out of traditional white, red, and green monocolor tissue papers, and started selling colorful envelope liners from France. Proving popular, the company promoted the new designs in the subsequent decades, adding ribbons in the 1930s, and Hallmark remains one of the largest American producers of gift wrap.[12] Hallmark records that gift wrap accounts for $3.2 billion annually in retail sales in the U.S.[13]
Waste

In Britain, it is estimated that 226,800 miles of wrapping paper is thrown away annually at Christmas.[14] In Canada, 6 million rolls of tape are used and discarded yearly for gift wrapping at Christmas.[15] Some people attempt to avoid this by unwrapping gifts with care to hopefully allow the paper to be reused, while others use decorated cloth gift sacks that can be easily reused many times; both of these concepts are part of the green gifting trend that encourages recycling. Many people are moving into the trend of wrapping gifts with newspaper, magazine pages, old maps, calendars and into baskets to save single use wrapping paper from ending up in the garbage. [16]
Torn gift wrapping paper after the gift exchange
Proper Disposal

Disposing of gift wrapping paper has become increasingly complex as not all papers are made entirely of paper and can be disposed of as regular waste paper. Visually stunning glossy gift papers are often coated with plastic varnishes or films, making them unsuitable for recycling and requiring disposal as residual waste. Only simple, printed gift wrapping paper can be easily recycled with regular paper waste.[17][18]

If gift papers were fully recyclable and recycled at a 100 percent rate, it could save 70 percent of energy compared to linear production. However, especially glittering, laminated, and textured gift papers contain a significant amount of microplastics. While previous generations used to carefully preserve gift wrapping paper for reuse and only used fabric ribbons to avoid damaging the paper, today's disposable society increasingly relies on laminated paper with adhesive tape, which is often discarded after a single use.[19]
Not every gift packaging is recyclable
Packaging Waste from Gift Wrapping

In Germany, approximately 100 grams of gift wrapping paper per person are used each year, resulting in up to 8,000 tons of gift wrapping paper waste. However, not all types of paper can be fully recycled.[20]

Estimates from the United Kingdom indicate that the equivalent of 108 million rolls of gift wrapping paper were discarded after Christmas 2018, considering an annual consumption that exceeds 350,000 kilometers.[19]

In Canada, gift packaging and paper shopping bags generate 540,000 tons of packaging waste annually. Due to recycling challenges, most gift wrapping paper made from various materials ends up in landfills.[21]

During the Christmas season in the United States, an additional 5 million tons of waste are generated, with up to 4 million tons consisting of various gift packaging and gift papers.[19]
Function and Usage

A study conducted in 1992 at Southern Methodist University in Texas examined whether the act of wrapping a gift has an impact on the recipient's experience. It was found that gift wrapping enhances anticipation and that recipients tend to value wrapped gifts more than unwrapped ones.[22]

Gift wrapping paper serves multiple purposes: it protects the gift during transportation and provides an element of surprise and excitement when it is unwrapped. Therefore, gift wrapping paper is used not only during gift exchanges but also for occasions like children's birthdays.[23][24]

Gift wrapping papers are designed to suit different occasions where gift-giving is customary, leading to a separation of motifs. The industry distinguishes between year-round collections and seasonal collections, with Christmas gift wrapping paper being the most prominent among seasonal products. Nowadays, specialized gift wrapping paper is available for various occasions such as birthdays, weddings, Mother's Day, and anniversaries.

Many stores now offer on-site gift wrapping services, either for free or for a fee, depending on the store. Some drugstores even provide complimentary gift wrapping paper for items purchased in-store.

Additionally, an increasing number of online retailers offer gift wrapping as an additional service. Some even offer the option to send the wrapped gifts directly to the recipient along with a personalized greeting card.

Industrially manufactured gift wrapping paper is widely accessible to consumers in retail stores, usually in the form of small rolls protected by plastic packaging. Certain specialty stationery stores offer gift wrapping paper in sheet format, featuring embossed patterns or special treatments like glitter elements.

It is now possible for individuals to create custom-designed gift wrapping paper at home and have the design printed by a printing shop or photo lab.
Psychology

In the past, gift wrapping has been shown to positively influence the recipient who are more likely to rate their gifts positively if they had traditional gift wrapping.[25] More recently, researchers have found that gift recipients will have higher expectations of the gift inside based on the neatness of the gift-wrapping.[26]

In many countries the colour of wrapping paper has associations with symbolic meanings pertaining to funerals and mourning. These certain colours should be avoided when wrapping gifts in these countries." (wikipedia.org)

"A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relations and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to any item or act of service that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are also first and foremost presented on occasions such as birthdays and holidays.
Presentation

In many cultures gifts are traditionally packaged in some way. For example, in Western cultures, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the recipient's name and the giver's name. In Chinese culture, red wrapping connotes luck. Although inexpensive gifts are common among colleagues, associates and acquaintances, expensive or amorous gifts are considered more appropriate among close friends, romantic interests or relatives.[1]
Gift-giving occasions

Gift-giving occasions may be:

    An expression of love or friendship
    An expression of gratitude for a gift received.
    An expression of piety, in the form of charity.
    An expression of solidarity, in the form of mutual aid.
    To share wealth.
    To offset misfortune.
    Offering travel souvenirs.
    Custom, on occasions (often celebrations) such as
        A birthday (the person who has his or her birthday gives cake, etc. and/or receives gifts).
        A potlatch, in societies where status is associated with gift-giving rather than acquisition.
        Christmas (throughout the history of Christmas gift giving, people have given one another gifts, often pretending they are left by Santa Claus, the Christ Child or Saint Nicholas).
        Feast of Saint Nicholas (people give each other gifts, often supposedly receiving them from Saint Nicholas).
        Easter baskets with chocolate eggs, jelly beans, and chocolate rabbits are gifts given on Easter.
        Greek Orthodox Christians in Greece, will give gifts to family and friends on the Feast of Saint Basil.
        Muslims give gifts to family and friends, known as Eidi, on Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and on Eid al-Adha.
        American Jews give Hanukkah gifts to family and friends.
        Hindus give Diwali and Pongal gifts to family and friends. Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan is another occasion where brothers give gifts to sisters.
        Buddhists give Vesak gifts to family and friends.
        Gifts are given to among African American families and friends on Kwanzaa.
        A wedding (the couple receives gifts and gives food and/or drinks at the wedding reception).
        A wedding anniversary (each spouse receives gifts).
        A funeral (visitors bring flowers, the relatives of the deceased give food and/or drinks after the ceremonial part).
        A birth (the baby receives gifts, or the mother receives a gift from the father known as a push present).
        Passing an examination (the student receives gifts).
        Father's Day (the father receives gifts).
        Mother's Day (the mother receives gifts).
        Siblings Day (the sibling receives gifts)
        Exchange of gifts between a guest and a host, often a traditional practice.
        Lagniappe
        Retirement Gifts
        Congratulations Gifts
        Engagement Gifts
        Housewarming party Gifts
        Women's day Gifts
        Valentine's Day

Promotional gifts
Promotional gifts vary from the normal gifts. The recipients of the gifts may be either employee of a company or the clients. Promotional gifts are mainly used for advertising purposes. They are used to promote the brand name and increase its awareness among the people. In promotional gifting procedures, the quality and presentation of the gifts hold more value than the gifts itself since it will act as a gateway to acquire new clients or associates....Unwanted gifts

Giving the appropriate gift that aligns with the recipient's preferences poses a formidable challenge. Gift givers commonly err in the process of gift selection, either by offering gifts that the recipients' do not wish to receive or by failing to provide gifts that recipients earnestly desired. For example, givers avoid giving the same gifts more than once while recipients are more open to receiving a repeated gift,[3] givers prefer to avoid giving self-improvement products (e.g., self-help books) as gifts while recipients are more open to receiving such gifts,[4] when choosing between giving digital and physical gift cards, givers opt for the latter more often than recipients want,[5] and many receivers prefer a future experience instead of an object, or a practical gift that they have requested over a more expensive, showier gift chosen by the giver.[6] One cause of the mismatch between the giver's and receiver's view is that the giver is focused on the act of giving the gift, while the receiver is more interested in the long-term utilitarian value of the gift.[6]

Due to the mismatch between givers' and recipients' gift preferences, a significant fraction of gifts are unwanted, or the giver pays more for the item than the recipient values it, resulting in a misallocation of economic resources known as a deadweight loss. Unwanted gifts are often "regifted", donated to charity, or thrown away.[7] A gift that actually imposes a burden on the recipient, either due to maintenance or storage or disposal costs, is known as a white elephant.

One means of reducing the mismatch between the buyer and receivers' tastes is advance coordination, often undertaken in the form of a wedding registry or Christmas list. Wedding registries in particular are often kept at a single store, which can designate the exact items to be purchased (resulting in matching housewares), and to coordinate purchases so the same gift is not purchased by different guests. One study found that wedding guests who departed from the registry typically did so because they wished to signal a closer relationship to the couple by personalizing a gift, and also found that as a result of not abiding by the recipients' preferences, their gifts were appreciated less often.[8]

An estimated $3.4 billion was spent on unwanted Christmas gifts in the United States in 2017.[9] The day after Christmas is typically the busiest day for returns in countries with large Christmas gift giving traditions.[9][10] The total unredeemed value of gift cards purchased in the U.S. each year is estimated to be about a billion dollars.[7]

In some cases, people know the preferences of recipients very well, and can give highly valued gifts. Some value in gift-giving comes from assisted preference discovery - people receiving gifts they did not know they would like, or which they did not know were available. Behavioral economists propose that the non-material value of gifts lies in strengthening relationships by signalling the giver was thoughtful, or spent time and effort on the gift." (wikipedia.org)

"Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated with nitrocellulose lacquer to prevent this.

Cellophane is also used in transparent pressure-sensitive tape, tubing and many other similar applications.

Cellophane is compostable and biodegradable, and can be obtained from biomaterials.[1] Production, however, uses carbon disulfide (CS2), which has been found to be highly toxic to workers.[2] The lyocell process, however, can be used to produce cellulose film without involving carbon disulfide.[3]

"Cellophane" is a generic term in some countries,[4] while in other countries it is a registered trademark.
Production

Cellulose from wood, cotton, hemp, or other sources is dissolved in alkali and carbon disulfide to make a solution called viscose, which is then extruded through a slit into a bath of dilute sulfuric acid and sodium sulfate to reconvert the viscose into cellulose. The film is then passed through several more baths, one to remove sulfur, one to bleach the film, and one to add softening materials such as glycerin to prevent the film from becoming brittle.

A similar process, using a hole (a spinneret) instead of a slit, is used to make a fibre called rayon. Chemically, cellophane, rayon and cellulose are polymers of glucose; they differ structurally rather than chemically. ...Cellophane was invented by Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger while employed by Blanchisserie et Teinturerie de Thaon.[6] In 1900, inspired by seeing wine spill on a restaurant's tablecloth, he decided to create a cloth that could repel liquids rather than absorb them. His first step was to spray a waterproof coating onto fabric, and he opted to try viscose. The resultant coated fabric was far too stiff, but the diaphanous film coating could be separated from the backing cloth easily and in one undamaged piece. Seeing the possibilities of this new material on its own, Brandenberger soon abandoned his original idea.

It took ten years for Brandenberger to perfect his film. His chief improvement over earlier work with such films was adding glycerin to soften the material. By 1912 he had constructed a machine to manufacture the film, which he had named Cellophane, from the words cellulose and diaphane ("transparent"). Cellophane was patented that year.[7] The following year, the company Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels (CTA) bought the Thaon firm's interest in Cellophane and established Brandenberger in a new company, La Cellophane SA.[8]
1953 DuPont advert for cellophane

Whitman's candy company initiated use of cellophane for candy wrapping in the United States in 1912 for their Whitman's Sampler. They remained the largest user of imported cellophane from France until nearly 1924, when DuPont built the first cellophane manufacturing plant in the US. Cellophane saw limited sales in the US at first since while it was waterproof, it was not moisture proof—it held or repelled water but was permeable to water vapor. This meant that it was unsuited to packaging products that required moisture proofing. DuPont hired chemist William Hale Charch (1898–1958), who spent three years developing a nitrocellulose lacquer that, when applied to Cellophane, made it moisture proof.[9] Following the introduction of moisture-proof Cellophane in 1927, the material's sales tripled between 1928 and 1930, and in 1938, Cellophane accounted for 10% of DuPont's sales and 25% of its profits.[8]

Cellophane played a crucial role in developing the self-service retailing of fresh meat.[10] Cellophane visibility helped customers know quality of meat before buying. Cellophane also worked to consumers' disadvantage when manufacturers learned to manipulate the appearance of a product by controlling oxygen and moisture levels to prevent discoloration of food.[10] It was considered such a useful invention that cellophane was listed alongside other modern marvels in the 1934 song "You're the Top" (from Anything Goes).[11][12][13]

The British textile company Courtaulds' viscose technology had allowed it to diversify in 1930 into viscose film, which it named "Viscacelle". However, competition with Cellophane was an obstacle to its sales, and in 1935 it founded British Cellophane Limited (BCL) in conjunction with the Cellophane Company and its French parent company CTA.[14] A major production facility was constructed at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, from 1935 to 1937, employing 3,000 workers. BCL subsequently constructed plants in Cornwall, Ontario (BCL Canada), as an adjunct to the existing Courtaulds viscose rayon plant there (from which it bought the viscose solution), and in 1957 at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The latter two plants were closed in the 1990s.
Today
Rolls of cellophane in various colors

Cellulose film has been manufactured continuously since the mid-1930s and is still used today. As well as packaging a variety of food items, there are also industrial applications, such as a base for such self-adhesive tapes as Sellotape and Scotch Tape, a semi-permeable membrane in a certain type of battery, as dialysis tubing (Visking tubing), and as a release agent in the manufacture of fibreglass and rubber products. Cellophane is the most popular material for manufacturing cigar packaging; its permeability to moisture makes cellophane a good product for this application as cigars must be allowed to "breathe" while wrapped and in storage.

Cellophane sales have dwindled since the 1960s, due to alternative packaging options. The polluting effects of carbon disulfide and other by-products of the process used to make viscose may have also contributed[citation needed] to its falling behind lower cost petrochemical-based films such as biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BoPET) and biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) in the 1980s and 1990s. However, as of 2017, it has made something of a resurgence in recent times due to its being biosourced, compostable, and biodegradable. Its sustainability record is clouded by its energy-intensive manufacturing process and the potential negative impact of some of the chemicals used, but significant progress in recent years has been made by leading manufacturers in reducing their environmental footprint....Branding
In the UK and in many other countries, "Cellophane" is a registered trademark and the property of Futamura Chemical UK Ltd, based in Wigton, Cumbria, United Kingdom.[16][17] In the USA and some other countries "cellophane" has become genericized, and is often used informally to refer to a wide variety of plastic film products, even those not made of cellulose, such as PVC-based plastic wrap." (wikipedia.org)

"Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The "treat" is some form of confectionery, usually candy/sweets, although in some cultures money is given instead. The "trick" refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the resident(s) or their property if no treat is given. Some people signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; houses may also leave their porch lights on as a universal indicator that they have candy; some simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely, on the honor system.

The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food or treats, goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. There are many accounts from 19th-century Scotland and Ireland of people going house to house in costume at Halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed.[1][2] In North America, the earliest known occurrence of guising – children going from house to house for food or money while disguised in costume[2] – is from 1911, when children were recorded as having done this in the province of Ontario, Canada.[3] The interjection "trick or treat!" was then first recorded in the same Canadian province of Ontario in 1917. While going house to house in costume has long been popular among the Scots and Irish, it is only in the 2000s that saying "trick or treat" has become common in Scotland and Ireland.[4] Prior to this, children in Ireland would commonly say "help the Halloween party" at the doors of homeowners.[4]

The activity is prevalent in the Anglospheric countries of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, and Australia. It also has extended into Mexico. In northwestern and central Mexico, the practice is called calaverita (Spanish diminutive for calavera, "skull" in English), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask, "¿Me da mi calaverita?" ("[Can you] give me my little skull?"), where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.
History
Ancient precursors

Traditions similar to the modern custom of trick-or-treating extend all the way back to classical antiquity, although it is extremely unlikely that any of them are directly related to the modern custom. The ancient Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis records in his book The Deipnosophists that, in ancient times, the Greek island of Rhodes had a custom in which children would go from door-to-door dressed as swallows, singing a song, which demanded the owners of the house to give them food and threatened to cause mischief if the owners of the house refused.[5][6][7] This tradition was claimed to have been started by the Rhodian lawgiver Cleobulus.[8]
Souling

Since the Middle Ages, a tradition of mumming on a certain holiday has existed in parts of Britain and Ireland. It involved going door-to-door in costume, performing short scenes or parts of plays in exchange for food or drink. The custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, or the souls of the dead, roamed the earth at this time and needed to be appeased.
"A soul-cake, a soul-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake." — a popular English souling rhyme[9]

It may otherwise have originated in a Celtic festival, Samhain, held on 31 October–1 November, to mark the beginning of winter, in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. The festival is believed to have pre-Christian roots. In the 9th century, the Catholic Church made 1 November All Saints' Day. Among Celtic-speaking peoples, it was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies (the Aos Sí), and the souls of the dead, came into our world and were appeased with offerings of food and drink. Similar beliefs and customs were found in other parts of Europe. It is suggested that trick-or-treating evolved from a tradition whereby people impersonated the spirits, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. S. V. Peddle suggests they "personify the old spirits of the winter, who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune".[10] Impersonating these spirits or souls was also believed to protect oneself from them.[11]

Starting as far back as the 15th century, among Christians, there had been a custom of sharing soul-cakes at Allhallowtide (October 31 through November 2).[12][13] People would visit houses and take soul-cakes, either as representatives of the dead, or in return for praying for their souls.[14] Later, people went "from parish to parish at Halloween, begging soul-cakes by singing under the windows some such verse as this: 'Soul, souls, for a soul-cake; Pray you good mistress, a soul-cake!'"[15] They typically asked for "mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake".[16] It was known as 'Souling' and was recorded in parts of Britain, Flanders, southern Germany, and Austria.[17] Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas".[18] In western England, mostly in the counties bordering Wales, souling was common.[13] According to one 19th century English writer "parties of children, dressed up in fantastic costume […] went round to the farm houses and cottages, singing a song, and begging for cakes (spoken of as "soal-cakes"), apples, money, or anything that the goodwives would give them".[19]
Guising
"Guising" redirects here. For other uses, see Guising (disambiguation).
Halloween shop in Derry, Northern Ireland. Halloween masks are called ‘false faces’ in Ireland and Scotland.

In Scotland and Ireland, "guising" – children going from door to door in disguise – is traditional, and a gift in the form of food, coins or "apples or nuts for the Halloween party" (and in more recent times, chocolate) is given out to the children.[4][20][21] The tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children.[2][22] In the West Mid Scots dialect, guising is known as "galoshans".[23] In Scotland, youths went house to house in white with masked, painted or blackened faces, reciting rhymes and often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.[24][25]

Guising has been recorded in Scotland since the 16th century, often at New Year. The Kirk Session records of Elgin name men and women who danced at New Year 1623. Six men, described as guisers or "gwysseris" performed a sword dance wearing masks and visors covering their faces in the churchyard and in the courtyard of a house. They were each fined 40 shillings.[26]

A record of guising at Halloween in Scotland in 1895 describes masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[27] In Ireland, children in costumes would commonly say "Help the Halloween Party" at the doors of homeowners.[4][28]

Halloween masks are referred to as "false faces" in Ireland and Scotland.[29][30] A writer using Scots language recorded guisers in Ayr, Scotland in 1890:

    I had mind it was Halloween . . . the wee callans (boys) were at it already, rinning aboot wi’ their fause-faces (false faces) on and their bits o’ turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun (hand).[30]

Guising also involved going to wealthy homes, and in the 1920s, boys went guising at Halloween up to the affluent Thorntonhall, South Lanarkshire.[31] An account of guising in the 1950s in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, records a child receiving 12 shillings and sixpence, having knocked on doors throughout the neighbourhood and performed.[32] Growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1960s, The Guardian journalist Michael Bradley recalls children asking, “Any nuts or apples?”.[33] In Scotland and Ireland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform a party trick for the households they go to. This normally takes the form of singing a song or reciting a joke or a funny poem which the child has memorised before setting out.[32][20] While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish at Halloween, the North American saying "trick-or-treat" has become common in the 2000s.[4][28]
Spread to North America
Girl in a Halloween costume in 1928 in Ontario, Canada, the same province where the Scottish Halloween custom of "guising" is first recorded in North America

The earliest known occurrence of the practice of guising at Halloween in North America is from 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada reported on children going "guising" around the neighborhood.[3]

American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the US; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America"; "The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem Hallowe'en as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now."[34] Kelley lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, a town with 4,500 Irish immigrants, 1,900 English immigrants, and 700 Scottish immigrants in 1920.[35] In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".[36]

While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.[37]
The emergence of "Trick or treat!"

The interjection "Trick or treat!" — a request for sweets or candy, originally and sometimes still with the implication that anyone who is asked and who does not provide sweets or other treats will be subjected to a prank or practical joke — seems to have arisen in central Canada, before spreading into the northern and western United States in the 1930s and across the rest of the United States through the 1940s and early 1950s.[38] Initially it was often found in variant forms, such as "tricks or treats," which was used in the earliest known case, a 1917 report in The Sault Daily Star in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario:[39]

    Almost everywhere you went last night, particularly in the early part of the evening, you would meet gangs of youngsters out to celebrate. Some of them would have adopted various forms of "camouflage" such as masks, or would appear in long trousers and big hats or with long skirts. But others again didn't. . . . "Tricks or treats" you could hear the gangs call out, and if the householder passed out the "coin" for the "treats" his establishment would be immune from attack until another gang came along that knew not of or had no part in the agreement.[40]

As shown by word sleuth Barry Popik,[41] who also found the first use from 1917,[39] variant forms continued, with "trick or a treat" found in Chatsworth, Ontario in 1921,[42] "treat up or tricks" and "treat or tricks" found in Edmonton, Alberta in 1922,[43] and "treat or trick" in Penhold, Alberta in 1924.[44] The now canonical form of "trick or treat" was first seen in 1917 in Chatsworth, only one day after the Sault Ste. Marie use,[45] but "tricks or treats" was still in use in the 1966 television special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.[41]

The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the start of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating.[46] The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, "There are cards which mention the custom [of trick-or-treating] or show children in costumes at the doors, but as far as we can tell they were printed later than the 1920s and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various sorts are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them".[47]

Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearance of the term in 1932,[48] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.[49]

Behavior similar to trick-or-treating was more commonly associated with Thanksgiving from 1870 (shortly after that holiday's formalization) until the 1930s. In New York City, a Thanksgiving ritual known as Ragamuffin Day involved children dressing up as beggars and asking for treats, which later evolved into dressing up in more diverse costumes.[50][51] Increasing hostility toward the practice in the 1930s eventually led to the begging aspects being dropped, and by the 1950s, the tradition as a whole had ceased.
Increased popularity

Almost all pre-1940 uses of the term "trick-or-treat" are from the United States and Canada. Trick-or-treating spread throughout the United States, stalled only by World War II sugar rationing that began in April, 1942 and lasted until June, 1947.[52][53]
Magazine advertisement in 1962

Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October, 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities,[54] and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs The Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948.[55] Trick-or-treating was depicted in the Peanuts comic strip in 1951.[56] The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, and Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show.[57] In 1953 UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.[58]

Although some popular histories of Halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to re-channel Halloween activities away from Mischief Night vandalism, there are very few records supporting this. Des Moines, Iowa is the only area known to have a record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime.[59] Elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger.[60] Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes even the children protested: for Halloween 1948, members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg."[61] The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80 percent of adults in the United States planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters,[62] and that 93 percent of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other Halloween activities.[63]
Phrase introduction to the UK and Ireland

Despite the concept of trick-or-treating originating in Britain and Ireland in the form of souling and guising, the use of the term "trick or treat" at the doors of homeowners was not common until the 1980s, with its popularisation in part through the release of the film E.T.[64] Guising requires those going door-to-door to perform a song or poem without any jocular threat,[32] and according to one BBC journalist, in the 1980s, "trick or treat" was still often viewed as an exotic and not particularly welcome import, with the BBC referring to it as "the Japanese knotweed of festivals" and "making demands with menaces".[65] In Ireland before the phrase "trick or treat" became common in the 2000s, children would say "Help the Halloween Party".[4] Very often, the phrase "trick or treat" is simply said and the revellers are given sweets, with the choice of a trick or a treat having been discarded.
Etiquette
Two children trick-or-treating on Halloween in Arkansas, United States

Trick-or-treating typically begins at dusk on October 31. Some municipalities choose other dates.[66][67][68][69][70][71] Homeowners wishing to participate sometimes decorate their homes with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. Conversely, those who do not wish to participate may turn off outside lights for the evening or lock relevant gates and fences to keep people from coming onto their property.

In most areas where trick-or-treating is practiced, it is considered an activity for children. Some jurisdictions in the United States forbid the activity for anyone over the age of 12.[72] Dressing up is common at all ages; adults will often dress up to accompany their children, and young adults may dress up to go out and ask for gifts for a charity.
Local variants
U.S. and Canada

Children of the St. Louis, Missouri, area are expected to perform a joke, usually a simple Halloween-themed pun or riddle, before receiving any candy; this "trick" earns the "treat".[73] Children in Des Moines, Iowa also tell jokes or otherwise perform before receiving their treat.

In some parts of Canada, children sometimes say "Halloween apples" instead of "trick or treat". This probably originated when the toffee apple was a popular type of candy. Apple-giving in much of Canada, however, has been taboo since the 1960s when stories (of almost certainly questionable authenticity) appeared of razors hidden inside Halloween apples; parents began to check over their children's fruit for safety before allowing them to eat it. In Quebec, children also go door to door on Halloween. However, in French-speaking neighbourhoods, instead of "Trick or treat", they will simply say "Halloween", though it traditionally used to be "La charité, s'il-vous-plaît" ("Charity, please").[74]
Trunk-or-treat
Trunk-or-treating event held at St. John Lutheran Church & Early Learning Center in Darien, Illinois

Some organizations around the United States and Canada sponsor a "trunk-or-treat" on Halloween night (or, on occasion, a day immediately preceding Halloween, or a few days from it, on a weekend, depending on what is convenient). Trunk-or-treating is done from parked car to parked car in a local parking lot, often at a school or church. The activity makes use of the open trunks of the cars, which display candy, and often games and decorations. Some parents regard trunk-or-treating as a safer alternative to trick-or-treating,[75] while other parents see it as an easier alternative to walking the neighborhood with their children.

This annual event began in the mid-1990s as a "fall festival" for an alternative to trick-or-treating, but became "trunk-or-treat" two decades later. Some have called for more city or community group-sponsored trunk-or-treats, so they can be more inclusive.[76] By 2006 these had become increasingly popular.[77]
Portugal and Iberian Peninsula

In Portugal, children go from house to house on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, carrying pumpkin carved lanterns called coca,[78] asking everyone they see for Pão-por-Deus singing rhymes where they remind people why they are begging, saying "...It is for me and for you, and to give to the deceased who are dead and buried"[79] or "It is to share with your deceased"[80] In the Azores the bread given to the children takes the shape of the top of a skull.[81] The tradition of pão-por-Deus was already recorded in the 15th century.[82] In Galicia, particularly in the island of A Illa de Arousa, a similar tradition exists where children ask for alms (usually bread, sweets, fruits, chestnuts, money or small toys) with the phrase "unha esmoliña polos defuntiños que van alá" ("a little charity for the little deceased who are there").[83]
Scandinavia

In Sweden, children dress up as witches and monsters when they go trick-or-treating on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) while Danish children dress up in various attires and go trick-or-treating on Fastelavn (or the next day, Shrove Monday). In Norway, the practice is quite common among children, who come dressed up to people's doors asking for, mainly, candy. The Easter witch tradition is done on Palm Sunday in Finland (virvonta).
Europe

In parts of Flanders, some parts of the Netherlands, and most areas of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, children go to houses with home-made beet lanterns or with paper lanterns (which can hold a candle or electronic light), singing songs about St. Martin on St. Martin's Day (the 11th of November), in return for treats.[84] The equivalent of "trick-or-treat" in German language is "Süßes oder Saures", asking for sweeties or threatening something less pleasant.

In Northern Germany and Southern Denmark, children dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating on New Year's Eve in a tradition called "Rummelpott [de]".[85]
Trick-or-treat for charity

UNICEF started a program in 1950 called Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF in which trick-or-treaters ask people to give money for the organization, usually instead of collecting candy. Participating trick-or-treaters say when they knock at doors "Trick-or-treat for UNICEF!"[86] This program started as an alternative to candy. The organization has long produced disposable collection boxes that state on the back what the money can be used for in developing countries.

In Canada, students from the local high schools, colleges, and universities dress up to collect food donations for the local Food Banks as a form of trick-or-treating. This is sometimes called "Trick-or-Eat"." (wikipedia.org)

"Bird scarers is a blanket term used to describe devices designed for deterring birds by startling, confusing or otherwise repeling them, typically employed in commercial settings by farmers to dissuade birds from consuming and defecating on recently planted arable crops. Numerous bird scarers are also readily available to the public direct to consumer, or by means of purchase from independent retailers.

Bird scarers are also often present on airfields to prevent birds from accumulating in proximity to runways and causing a potential hazard to the bird and/or aircraft as well as potentially increasing the frequency an airstrip requires maintenance, and wind turbines.[1]
Visual scarers
Scarecrow
One of the oldest designs of bird scarer is the scarecrow which is in the shape of a human figure. The scarecrow idea has been built upon numerous times, and not all visual scare devices are shaped like humans. The "Flashman Birdscarer," Iridescent tape, "TerrorEyes" balloons, and other visual deterrents are all built on the idea of visually scaring birds. This method doesn't work so well with all species, considering that some species frequently perch on scarecrows. By analogy, people make monkey scarers to protect their cropland in Ethiopia." (wikipedia.org)

"A straw man (ritual doll) is a dummy in the shape of a human usually made up entirely out of straw material, or created by stuffing straw into clothes.
Uses

Straw men are commonly used as scarecrows, combat training targets, swordsmiths' test targets, effigies to be burned, and as rodeo dummies to distract bulls.
Rodeo straw men
In the sport of rodeo, the straw man is a dummy, originally made of a shirt and pants stuffed with straw. The straw man is placed in the arena during bullriding events as a safety measure. It is intended to distract the bull after the rider has dismounted (or has been thrown), with the idea that the bull will attack the straw man rather than attack its former rider. Two so-called rodeo clowns – people dressed in bright colors whose job it is to distract the bull if the rider is injured – are in the ring as well and are usually far more effective than the straw man." (wikipedia.org)

"A scarecrow is an artificially made material that frightens or causes fear to the surrounding objects, mostly as a decoy or mannequin that is often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.[1] Scarecrows are used around the world by farmers, and are a notable symbol of farms and the countryside in popular culture.
Design
A scarecrow wearing a helmet (Japan)

The common form of a scarecrow is a humanoid figure dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.[1] Machinery such as windmills have been employed as scarecrows, but the effectiveness lessens as animals become familiar with the structures.[2]

Since the invention of the humanoid scarecrow, more effective methods have been developed. On California farmland, highly-reflective aluminized PET film ribbons are tied to the plants to produce shimmers from the sun. Another approach is using automatic noise guns powered by propane gas. One winery in New York has even used inflatable tube men or airdancers to scare away birds.[3]
Cultural impact
   
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Circle of scarecrow children at Joe's Scarecrow Village

    Joe's Scarecrow Village in Cape Breton, Canada, is a roadside attraction displaying dozens of scarecrows.
    The Japanese village of Nagoro, on the island of Shikoku in the Tokushima Prefecture, has 35 inhabitants but more than 350 scarecrows.[4]
    In the United Kingdom, where there are a few different languages and several different dialects, there are a wide range of alternative names such as:

Name     Locale
Hodmedod     Berkshire
Murmet     Devon
Hay-man     England
Gallybagger     Isle of Wight
Tattie Bogal     Isle of Skye
Tattie bogle[5]

Bodach-rocais (lit. "old man of the rooks")
    Scotland
Mommet     Somerset
Mawkin     Sussex
Bwbach     Wales
Festivals
Scarecrow of The BFG at Norland Scarecrow Festival, West Yorkshire, England
Urchfont Scarecrow Festival, Ali Baba

    In England, the Urchfont Scarecrow Festival was established in the 1990s and has become a major local event, attracting up to 10,000 people annually for the May Day Bank Holiday.[6] Originally based on an idea imported from Derbyshire, it was the first Scarecrow Festival to be established in the whole of southern England.[citation needed]

    Belbroughton, north Worcestershire, holds an annual Scarecrow Weekend on the last weekend of each September since 1996, which raises money for local charities.[7][8] The village of Meerbrook in Staffordshire holds an annual Scarecrow Festival during the month of May. Tetford and Salmonby, Lincolnshire, jointly host one.

    The festival at Wray, Lancashire, was established in the early 1990s and continues to the present day. In the village of Orton, Eden, Cumbria scarecrows are displayed each year, often using topical themes such as a Dalek exterminating a Wind turbine to represent local opposition to a wind farm.

    The village of Blackrod, near Bolton in Greater Manchester, holds a popular annual Scarecrow Festival over a weekend usually in early July.

    Norland, West Yorkshire, has a Scarecrow festival. Kettlewell in North Yorkshire has held an annual festival since 1994.[9] The villages of Cotherstone, Staindrop and Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham have annual scarecrow festivals.

    Scotland's first scarecrow festival was held in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, in 2004,[10] and there is also one held in Montrose. On the Isle of Skye, the Tattie bogal event[11] is held each year, featuring a scarecrow trail and other events. Tonbridge in Kent also host an annual Scarecrow Trail,[12] organised by the local Rotary Club to raise money for local charities. Gisburn, Lancashire, held its first Scarecrow Festival in June 2014.

    Mullion, in Cornwall, has an annual scarecrow festival since 2007.

    In the US, St. Charles, Illinois, hosts an annual Scarecrow Festival.[13] Peddler's Village in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, hosts an annual scarecrow festival and presents a scarecrow display in September–October that draws tens of thousands of visitors.

    The "pumpkin people" come in the autumn months in the valley region of Nova Scotia, Canada. They are scarecrows with pumpkin heads applied to them doing various things such as playing the fiddle or riding a wooden horse. Hickling, in the south of Nottinghamshire, is another village that celebrates an annual scarecrow event. It is very popular and has successfully raised a great deal of money for charity.[14] Meaford, Ontario, has celebrated the Scarecrow Invasion since 1996.

    In the Philippines, the Province of Isabela has recently[when?] started a scarecrow festival named after the local language: the Bambanti Festival. The province invites all its cities and towns to participate for the festivities, which last a week; it has drawn tourists from around the island of Luzon.[citation needed]

    The largest gathering of scarecrows in one location is 3,812 and was achieved by National Forest Adventure Farm in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, UK, on 7 August 2014.[15]

Gallery

    A scarecrow known as "Bungkhyachaa" in Nepali in a cauliflower field in Nepal

    Scarecrow near Hui'an, China

    Scarecrow. Drawing by Carus. Postcard from 1910–1915.

    Scarecrow in Belgium
    Scarecrow at Madikai Ambalathukara" (wikipedia.org)