Britain Embraces Halloween

choi

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Britain Embraces Halloween and Cashes in on Ghoulish Celebration; Some fear Guy Fawkes Day has been overshadowed. New York Times, Oct 29, 2013
www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/busin ... n-big-business.html
("growing popularity here [in UK] of celebrating All Hallows’ Eve each Oct. 31")

Quote:

"Much to the consternation of some, Halloween, with all its silliness, is even eclipsing Guy Fawkes Day, the 400-year-old British festival on Nov 5. * * * strict rules governing fireworks and bonfires pushed revelers away from Guy Fawkes Day, which originally had a strong anti-Catholic taint. For centuries, the British observed the death of Guy Fawkes — a Catholic and a participant in the failed plot in 1605 to assassinate King James I and blow up the House of Lords — by burning his effigy, and in more modern times, by setting bonfires, eating sausages and watching fireworks displays. * * * 'It [Guy Fawkes Day] was something unique in England, and even celebrated in the American colonies in the 18th century,' he [author James Sharpe] said.

"Halloween in Britain has eclipsed even Valentine’s Day to become the third-biggest event after Christmas and Easter in terms of consumer spending, according to Sophie Carroll, an associate analyst at Planet Retail, consulting firm.

“Halloween was originally an ancient Celtic celebration in Ireland and Scotland, exported to the United States by immigrants. The Irish and Scots point to older Halloween traditions. Early jack-o'-lanterns were carved of turnips or winter squashes, but not round orange pumpkins; apple-bobbing began as a matchmaking ritual; and people wore costumes to ward off evil spirits.

“[postscript:] This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 31, 2013
An article on Tuesday about Britain’s embrace of Halloween as a holiday referred imprecisely to early jack-o’-lanterns in the British Isles. The Irish and Scots carved jack-o’-lanterns from squash, which in many regions are referred to as pumpkins. It is not the case that the original jack-o’-lantern was ‘not a pumpkin [in the original report, before correction].’  (Both are the fruit of plants in the genus Cucurbita, part of the gourd family, and the terms are essentially synonymous.)”

Note:
(a) All Saints' Day  萬聖節
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day
(also known as All Hallows; celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity; commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries)

(b) Guy Fawkes mask
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_mask
(designed by illustrator David Lloyd, came to represent broader protest after it was used as a major plot element in V for Vendetta, published in 1982, and its 2006 film adaptation)
(i) Angus Griffin, A History of the Anonymous Mask. DazedDigital, June 14, 2013
www.dazeddigital.com/artsandcult ... -the-anonymous-mask
(“Towards the final years of the 18th Century, reports began to emerge of vagabond children dressing up in grotesque Guy Fawkes masks made of paper and begging for money. By the 1980’s however, the masks that often came free with comic books began to be replaced by Halloween costume. Revived in the V for Vendetta comic books written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd in 1982, the notorious mask that we know now, then became an internet meme”)

contains a painting of real Guy Fawkes.
(ii) Guy (given name)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_(given_name)
(iii) The English surnames Fawkes/Faulks are “from the Anglo-Norman French personal name Fau(l)ques (oblique case Fau(l)que), originally a Germanic byname meaning ‘falcon.’”

Compare
* Peter Falk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Falk
(1927-2011; Both of his parents were Jewish coming from Poland and Russia on his father's side, and from Hungary and Czech lands on his mother's side)
* The surname Falk can be
“German: from Middle High German valke ‘falcon’ * * * [or]
Jewish (Ashkenazic): * * * from German Falke ‘falcon’.”

(c) Apple bobbing
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_bobbing
(section 1 History)

* bob (v)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bob
(d) “Morphsuits is a company based in Edinburgh, Scotland * * * founded in 2009”  Wikipedia for the page Morphsuits

(e) The corrected text states, “Early jack-o'-lanterns were carved of turnips or winter squashes, but not round orange pumpkins.”
(i) pumpkin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin
(Pumpkins, like other squash, are native to North America)
(ii) Whatever Irish and Scots carved on “squash” could not be an ancient tradition, as squash was native to the New World.

pumpkin (n; alteration of earlier pumpion, modification of French popon, pompon melon, pumpkin, from Latin pepon-, pepo, from Greek pepōn, from pepōn ripened; First Known Use 1654)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pumpkin

(f) Cucurbita
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita
(Latin for gourd; brought to Europe after the discovery of America)

Quote: “Real (bottle-)gourds, used as utensils or vessels, belong to the genus Lagenaria in the gourd family and are native to Africa. Lagenaria are in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita, but different tribes.”

Thus I can not quite understand 葫芦
zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/葫芦
(“在中国河南考古遗址出土的葫芦皮最早的是七至八千年前的。河姆渡文化遗址中发现的葫芦子也有七千年的历史了”)