Traditional Irish Jack O'Lantern from a turnip
Modern Jack O'Lantern from a Ghost Pumpkin
The tradition of Halloween has a complicated history, but most of its roots come from the traditions of Ireland and Scotland, but was refined in North America. In the United States of America, it was the Irish who were the first to promulgate the traditions, especially adopting the practice of carving the Jack O'Lantern from a turnip, instead using the larger and easier to carve ghost pumpkin. In the Dominion of Southern America, it was the Scots who promoted the holiday, especially the practice of children
Guising and going to houses for
Souling - begging for treats. An interesting social wrinkle in the DSA of the 19th and 20th century was that the costumes children wore obscured their color and it was considered a time in the South when it was even easier to overcome the barriers between peoples, if at least for a night.
In New Orleans there was a large Hispaniolan community who mixed the traditional Halloween customs with those of the Voodoo tradition of Baron
Samdee, and he would become like a Father Christmas for Halloween, with the Halloween traditions spreading back to the Province of Hispaniola and Baron Samdee spreading first throughout the Dominion, and from there to other parts of the British Empire, the United States, and France (both through her close affiliation with Britain and the strong ties to the northern parts of the United States). Many schools would have Halloween Guise Parades on the day, and let children off All Hallows Day (November 1) to recover from their night of revelry (and sugar stupor). By the 1930s, children all over the world were celebrating the coming of Baron Samdee and Halloween, a holiday rivaling Christmas.
