Chester County Day Decors

By Michael Pillagalli

As we cruise from stop to stop on The Chester County Day Tour, we can not help but

feel the turn of Fall coming from the leaves turning colors to the nip in the air and that

famous line by a founding lady, Bernie Ball, “the misty morning meadow”. The homes

and sites which have so graciously opened for The Day Tour have been feeling that

same sense of autumnal grace and have gathered a fall crop of pumpkins, gourds, corn

stalks and mums for your enjoyment. Actually, the tour gets them set ahead of time for

the Holiday season that follows shortly thereafter. And the holiday that comes after our

longest running house tour, and is now considered the biggest retail holiday after

Christmas, is Halloween.

Halloween is thought to have started with some Christian beliefs and practices.  The

English word “Halloween” comes from “All Hallows,” being the evening before the

Christian holy days of All Saints Day, which falls on November 1st and All Souls Day on

the 2nd of November. Since early times in Christianity, the holidays which included,

Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost had night before vigils.  These three days were

collectively called Allhallowtide, a time when all saints were honored, and prayers for

recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven were recited.

The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing “soul cakes” for the souls of

all christened souls has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. The custom

started in Ireland, England, Wales, and Bavaria and dates back at least to the 15th

century. Legend has it that groups of poor people, often children, would go door to door

during Allhallowtide, collecting said “soul cakes” in exchange for prayers for the dead,

especially the souls of the collectors’ friends and relatives. This became known as “souling”.

Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the “soulers”

would act as their representatives. Like the Easter tradition of Hot Cross Buns, soul

cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as offerings for

the deceased.

Sometime later in 1593, Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two

Gentlemen of Verona. It has been documented that while souling, Christians would

carry “lanterns” made of hollowed-out turnips, which were supposed to have originally

represented souls of the dead and later jack-o-lanterns were used in America to ward

off the evil spirits.  As time traversed, on All Saints Day and All Souls Day during the

19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland, Flanders, and Bavaria, where they

were called “soul lights”, which were said to guide the souls back to visit their earthly

homes. In many of our Chester County homes, one would find a candle in the window

or the walk in fireplaces which was said to guide the way from an outbuilding back to the

house at nightfall. Also, lore tells us that a candle in the window in Colonial America was

an indication to a wayward traveler that the house was open for a visit to get warm or

ask for a bite to eat. In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on All

Souls Day. Some of the other traditions observed were that of milk being poured on the

graves of deceased family or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the

returning souls.

As far as the colonies go, the almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century tell us

that Halloween as we know it was not celebrated. It was not until after mass

immigrations of  Irish and Scots in the 19th century that Halloween became a major

holiday in America. Most American Halloween traditions, as we know them, were

inherited from the Irish and Scots.

The souls were disguised in costumes as they carried out the soul cake ritual to

memorialize their deceased family and friends. The turnip, which was carved and

carried in the procession, has traditionally been carved during Halloween, 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. In 1837, it was recorded that our

American tradition of carving pumpkins was started and the tradition was originally

associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with

Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century. Cakes, bread, and alms for the poor were

distributed to those who knocked upon the doors with a light in the window. Somewhere

along the line of time, those alms have been strictly replaced with candy.

I remember a time trick-or-treating as a child, walking up a hill near my home to visit a

grand house on the dark hill. Ringing the front bell, we were greeted and treated to a

silver tray of Jefferson cups of warm cider and fresh baked ginger cookies on a linen

cocktail napkin. At the next house, we got freshly picked and caramelized apples on a

stick. I still remember those things more than fifty years later. Unfortunately, those

masquerading today are delighted with a grand-sized wrapped and sealed Snickers bar

and have no idea of how the Halloween traditions have changed over the years! So

think about the end of the growing season, the longer nights and shorter days, and the

origins of the décor we share at this time of year as pumpkins, gourds, and mums greet

our entries to the splendid homes and sites which we visit.