As an American, hearing that the Brits, the Irish, the Welsh, and everyone else across the pond are in a snit about American Halloween celebrations feels a bit like having your parents sitting around complaining about where the !$@*! you learned those f$@*! swear words.

I remember bonfires on Halloween, the adults at around 8 o clock would make us all run home and hide in bed before the hwch ddu caught us, but let's be real, it was just an excuse to send all the kids home, so the adults could start getting absolutely hammered.

I named one of my cats Calan Gaef! She was a feral who showed up at my back door on Nov 1, 2015. I planned on trap, spay, return, but they botched tipping her ear and it wouldn't stop bleeding. I kept her isolated from my other cats in the bathroom until she healed enough to go back outside. And she refused. She still refuses to go anywhere near an outside door! So, yeah. She played quite the trick on me and now I have the treat of a shy, former feral who occasionally allows me to pet her.

I think Halloween is evolving in a beautiful way in the United States, since I was a kid. People have started having firepits in driveways, and there's a friendly, communal atmosphere of everyone getting out and meeting or communing with neighbors. Considering how much of life is online, and how many Americans don't know their neighbors, it's a wonderful development. And I love that it's just part of the 250 years of development since many of us left our homeland in the British Isles.

I’m in Canada, watching this video while handing out chocolate bars to the ~100 children I expect at my door this evening, dressed as a (non-historically-accurate) pirate. I love Hallowe’en, especially for the fun and joy and generosity of the night. I was taken aback when I was visiting a friend in the UK on Hallowe’en 2019 and she was very snobbish about the season as an “American celebration of greed and gluttony” - we had to stay at the pub until the “risk of kiddies demanding sweets” was over. I’m very tempted to send her this video…

When people say they have a problem with "American" Halloween, they really mean the consumerist aspects of it. Suddenly all this plastic tat appears in the shops and ... it seems so forced from above. That's how it's viewed in Australia anyway. We had no history of it twenty years go and now it's everywhere! Before I get grumped at, yes we do celebrate it in my household, my kids love it.

When I spent a trimester at a college in very small town in the U.S., I participated in what they called "Trick or Charity". Instead of collecting sweets for themselves, the students collected canned food and donated it to charity in the nearby city to feed the homeless and other people in need. I really love this take on Halloween!

I got it, Jimmy. This year I'll continue the tradition of taking the wheels off my neighbor's cart unless he gives me treats.

60 years ago, on the Isle of Man we used to go round the houses on Hop-tu-Naa. we dressed up and went with turnip (actually swede) lanterns singing "Jinny the Witch is in your house, give us a penny, we'll chase her out"

I might, respectfully, add a FOURTH tradition to the "syncretic mix' that you rightly point out: the New World's own Day of the Dead. While I doubt it gets wide observance in Edinburgh, it's a big enough deal here in Texas that we've actually GOT an altar erected at my workplace, today and tomorrow!

Edit: also, Mhara Starling is a Welsh pagan author who's written a lot on the topic I'd highly recommend checking out (she's written a book too). I celebrate it as Samhain, but yeah, the history behind it is always fun to point to whenever fundies or just boomers get red-faced over it. Blessed harvest festival to all, however you celebrate it.

I fully support Jimmy in a jumper. Suits outside is a nice combo but cozy inside with a tea is a different type of nice. Also you in a jumper also supports other creators, who can't do fancy suits or outside. Making it normal and okay is a great way to support people with disabilities or have different financial priorities. 🤍🎶Love the outro music choice. Happy spooky and cozy season to you all! 🕊️

I grew up with Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. Neither of which are from my genetic heritage, but we’re both firmly ensconced in the community I grew up in. Now I love the opportunity to dress up and then cook my painted pumpkins over the next few weeks. Thanks for this vid! I love the history of the weird things we do now.

I have lived in enough countries to know "send the kids out of the house with a homemade lantern and/or costume" was an international thing, but the most interesting Halloween fact I learned this year was that the Romans celebrated Vestalia around this time of year and (among other, more Vestal things) dressed up donkeys with flowers and bread buns. And that feels like a too-far-apart-historically-and-geographically kind of thing to be related to Mari Lwyd and bara brith, but apparently that's just part of the vibe humanity gets this time of year.

You're just awesome! We played a joke on the neighborhood by throwing a huge Christmas party for Halloween this year. Trick-or-treaters got photos with Santa Claus.

Being in the southern hemisphere, Halloween always feels a bit odd with its autumnal themes when it's spring.🌷🐨

I have to think pumpkins taking over from turnips isn't just they're easier to carve, but if you grow any sort of squash, you're desperate to find somewhere to put them or something to do with all of them at this time of year. Pumpkins are prolific, but not very cold-hardy. Where I live in the US, no-one would have turnips to carve in October because we just planted them (they're a fall crop in a lot of places here, and often left in the fields over winter), but there are pumpkins EVERYWHERE. There is something about this time of year for a lot of cultures--my people's pre-colonial calendar starts around the autumnal equinox, but we celebrate the Feast of the Dead at this time of year, which would have been right before the main long-distance hunt got underway. Effectively, this was the last major community event before everyone split off for a month or two to their hunting camps. Our Feast of the Dead is a little like Dia de los Muertos, but no so much the modern commercialized version. We tend graves before harsh winter weather sets in, it would be the main time to add a new layer to mortuary mounds/inter bones from the ossuary, and the time of the final ceremonial mourning event for family who had lost anyone during the past year. It would have been like a state fair, All Saints', the last day of school, and Memorial Day all rolled into one.

Halloween for some reason is one of those Holidays with a strange history but we primarily know about it because of the free candy we got

In Portugal we have the 'santorinho', which is a tradition in which kids go door to door on the 31st Oct and all saints day (not just at night) and ask for gifts, which in my part of the country were traditionally nuts (which are in season now), cakes, and coins. My grandma also gave us chocolate. And we also visit and clean family graves on all saints day, which is a national bank holiday. Now I live in the UK I miss doing this, so sometimes I light a candle and reflect on those that have passed.

Jimmy is such a treasure; explaining Halloween through the medium of interpretive dance.

I live in Australia and when it comes to Halloween I often hear people say things like 'It's American' and refusing to have any fun. As a bunch of mostly English descended peoples getting sunburned and looking for any excuse to drink beer I'm surprised more people wont get into a bit of dressing up goofing around.

I will never get over the fact that there is a Finnish harvest festival which has traditions that are incredibly similar to Samhain! The Finnish festival is called kekri and its roots are in peasant culture. During kekri it was believed that evil spirits as well as spirits of loved ones were moving around. It was also a transition time between the old year and the new year. There's also a tradition of young people dressing up and going door to door asking to have something from people's feasts, and threatening to do a prank if they didn't get it. Lanterns and bonfires were also important here because of course, we are in the north and nights are getting very dark this time of year. I don't think think there would have been much contact between Finnish and Celtic peasants in pre-modern society so I think it's fascinating how similar they really are! It's incredible how peasants all over the world have observed nature and come up with similar traditions. Of course, the impact of the church also shaped traditions in Finland, and common people held onto Catholic traditions for centuries after the reformation. That can also explain similarities.

Americans tend to commercialize, expand & exploit everything, but I’ve never really thought of Halloween as American. We have thanksgiving false narratives about the founding of the country & we have the 4th of July, just like many nations celebrate anniversaries of independence. But there’s not much for truly American holidays. That said, we put so much of ourselves into it that our celebrations could be unrecognizable to the native countries. St. Patrick’s day is particularly warped from the Irish celebration. The seasons changing is a beautiful thing to celebrate. It doesn’t have to have religious meaning, but it can. I always take a moment to step outside, feel the cool air in the early afternoon darkness of October. I imagine what it would be like if I didn’t have a heated home (without smoke or fire) with hot & cold running water and refrigeration… the dark months going into winter seem to beg for gathering together and expressing fears. I love fall & winter, but might not have appreciated them if I were born in another era.

It certainly felt like the first day of winter with snow falling as I'm handing out Twix and candy corn.

Ok, I’m American and I absolutely love Halloween. Seriously, come to New England and try it, we do it well! I bet you’d have fun.

In the Americas, the indigenous people have a late fall tradition of honoring the ancestors that fits right in with All Saints in parts of the US, we go to the cemeteries to clean and tidy and celebrate those that passed. Huge festive social occasion. Native people go to their cemeteries at night and light up the place with hundreds of candles and torches, we go in the daytime. There may have been some regional merging there… But late October is perfect for such, you’re in the mood. But everybody has a fall festival about death and a spring one about rebirth, a Mardi Gras of some sort. Even in Africa. This goes back millennia.

My problem with Halloween as a Czech, from your (very interesting!) point of view is that we have loads of such mummery-like traditions at this rough time of year but not at this exact point and not quite like that. So it definitely does feel like an import - wherever exactly it comes from. Especially because we also, meanwhile, had a lot of similar (though not the same) "guarding against evil spirits" traditions at the other division between seasons, in spring.

Oh the evil laugh at the end!! more please. Love how it aal boils down to the inate wish of people to be right ( and thus others being wrong) just for the sake of living in the selfcreated state of rightsiousness.

My problem with Slovaks celebrating Halloween is that there is a time when our people (especially children) used to go door-to-door and ask for treats. And it's not Halloween. In fact, it's a very somber holiday here; the main tradition is to visit graves and lit candles there. Going door-to-door was for Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, when you had people dressed as angels or the Three Wise Men and instead of playing pranks, they sung carols or recited these little poems in which they wished people a merry Christmas and a happy new year or what have you. Well, nominally. It was mostly kids, so pranks absolutely were part of the proceedings. Then there's dressing up in costumes, which is typically a Mardi Gras tradition. It marks the END of winter, not the beginning. I think the reason why Halloween (not trick-or-treating, but Halloween-themed parties, certainly) is so popular here is just because All Hallow's Eve (or Dušičky) is frankly mostly dull and sad. You load your family into a car, drive them to the nearest cemetery, light candles, put some fake flowers there, and... That's it. That's the entire celebration. No wonder Halloween seems to attractive in comparison. That said, while I am sad that local traditions are being forgotten, I also have to roll my eyes hard at the whole "satanic holiday" rhetoric. Like, c'mon, guys. Is people watching scary movies and partying in stupid masks really the worst threat Christianity faces?!

I miss the Scottish tradition of 'doing a turn' for Halloween. You have to do something to earn your treat -- usually a song, poem, or joke.

There really is a double meaning to getting drunk and going round scaring people until they give you stuff being a European tradition. XD

In Parts of Germany there is Matten Herren, wich is similar; kids singing for candy, but no Pranks and no spooky stuff and the reason why people in my village are very spiteful of halloween is because during the last 10 years halloween has been superseding our own, familiar tradition and replaced it in some places with unsatisfied kids throwing Eggs at your house instead of peacefully singing and i suspect our own tradition will be fully gone quite soon. Its kinda sad because it marks a dwindling of tradition and identity for our village. If you don't have the connection to the old village, maybe you even just moved there, you are probably gonna send your kids out for halloween. You are more connected to people continents away and what they concerned withe than the traditions next door. Its sort of sad and stupid

In Denmark, Hallowe'en really is a new tradition imported from the States. Denmark went very Protestant as early as possible, and got a state church and no messing around with saints after that. Also no Gaels to make things interesting. However, it is really hard to keep a good Catholic tradition down, and we do celebrate the start of Lent - i.e., Mardi Gras. I Denmark, children dress up on the morning of Greasy Tuesday and go door to door singing a little ditty and collecting candy. Nothing very scary as a cold Tuesday morning in February is not conducive to ghostly malarkey. Thank you for the great video, Jimmy.

You are probably the only person who has talking head videos that I can watch straight through. Not only is your content great but it's just soothing and joy enducing to listen to you.

Interesting that Calan Gaeaf means first day of winter because there's a theory that the word Samhain is derived from Old Irish Samfuin meaning 'summers end'.

A group of kids said " trick or treat!". I said, " Ok then. Trick. You get three questions. For every one you get right, you get two extra peices of candy.-". I then asked " why do we carve Jack o' lanterns? What did Dracula's Transilvanian twist turn into after the Crypt Keeper 5 got ahold of it? In the first version of Pokemon games, what were the only 3 ghost types names?". All of them failed, so all of them got tricked out of getting extra candy.

The sad thing is that trick or treating seems to be less common where I live in California. My children used to have an annual Halloween party where we would have a parade, dunk for apples, and then go off trick or treating. ( My oldest is now 44 so it's been awhile). We buy some candy just in case but last year we didn't get any kids in costume and just a couple of teenagers who got most of our candy. I used to live in the Yucatan and the Maya celebrate Hanal Pixan and it's amazing. You don't see trick or treating there because the normal celebration is better.

Sir - yes Sir - dealing with jumper :)

My mates and I used to use cotton satchels of colored corn starch instead of eggs. The idea was courtesy of the LARP community after a few eggs broke windows...

ooo...a most excellently spooky chuckle there at the end. Well explained, sir. Thanks!

I was not aware of similar traditions in Germany (turns out, they don´t exist in my region), so I learned something new today - thank you! For us, carneval season officially also starts soon, on the 11th of November, so that´s where the costumes come in. On the same day, younger children will wander through the streets with lanterns, in honour of St. Martin (sometimes let by a rider in costume representing the saint). Although the throw toilet paper at someones house/car/whatever thing traditionally is done on the night before the 1st of May ...

Thank-You for this video. Im on the West Coast in America and we're locally pretty influenced by Day of the Dead, which is of course a mixture of indigenous as well as Spanish traditions.

Halloween being seen a new import is extra funny when you consider Calan Mae & Gŵyl Ifan and their global equivalents, and yr Hen Calan, and the Christmas traditions like the Mari and the Lord Of Misrule, all are recognisably similair to Halloween. Humans just really like bonfires, costumes and an opportunity to make mischief, and I think our ancestors over here would be very disappointed to see that we ONLY do it on Halloween/Calan Gaeaf.

I have found the increasing commercialisation of it and how it's something that pops up in shops and online in AUGUST a bit tough to deal with. For me it takes away some of the specialness and the good qualities of it (for me it is both a cosy spooky silly thing but also a time to honour and connect with dead loved ones). When it's drawn out for so long it looses a lot of that magic of one or two nights a year and I get over saturated with it. Plus I hate how it's just something else to spend money on, and treated as if if you aren't buying all the spooky things for two entire months you aren't really "getting into the spirit" of it. (also I think some of this might be being Autistic and struggling to cope with an event not taking place in it's designated time frame) OTOH I appreciate that for a lot of people it makes them happy, and especially living through such rough times, it's understandable to grasp onto anything you feel comforting as long as possible and I am glad that Halloween is something that people can get enjoyment and comfort from and that they want to make the most of it.

Excellent scary laugh Jimmy!! No TP and no eggs. Jump out and go boo while dressed up as a ghost! 👻

Not sure when or where or how it started, but I love how many areas now have a simple unspoken rule that any decorated property is signed up for the local variant of trick-or-treat/guising/mummers, but the undecorated ones are left in peace. Also, it's a brilliant video as always, a splendid jumper, and no excuses needed to be made...

I live in Toronto. Hallowe`en used to be the big Gay holiday since it was the only day that it was legal to be publically in drag. There used to be street parties and costume balls, There are many reasons it's gone away. Quite relevant the temperature is roughly the freezing point and there's cold rain with a bit of snow. Not ideal to be outside in a costume - especially a sexy costume. 🥶

I feel like there could be some parallels with the Norse Álfablót, perhaps, as well. Particularly the idea of making offerings and sacrifices to the elven spirits, possibly including beer, and the associations with ancestor worship...though we admittedly know little of the specifics involved. Probably for the best that we mostly keep up the drinking of beer these days, lol.

Blessed Samhain, Jimmy. I celebrated by visiting the local 19th century cemetery that was founded by Welsh settlers. No one leaves them flowers anymore so that's my new tradition.

I am celebrating my Samhain by doing homework that I should have done yesterday. Anyway, appreciate this video as someone whose spiritual path is very syncretic (in terms of very contemporary American Christianity and Paganism) and gets very tired of hearing Christians and pagans argue about who owns various holiday, and who stole what from who, and blah-dee-doodle yakamole. (I don't know what those words are. Just seemed appropriate to type some nonsense.) It happens around Easter/Spring Equinox too, but it's especially annoying at this time of year all the way through to Christmas/Winter Solstice.

Love the hair, love the jumper, you're looking ravishing. And you're speaking 3 languages again. I never knew Halloween made some Brits grumpy!😆It's my favorite holiday, when I actually get to celebrate it. Hard to do properly in Florida but back home in the way north we would do all these things -- self-harvest at U-Pick orchards, bonfire out in the woods drinking spiked (American) cider, corn dollies and all the rest. I took it for granted that everyone knew the history of Halloween. More importantly, I never knew the Celtic tradition of the day starting the night before. Daylight savings confounds me; I'll be driven to distraction by the Celtic calendar for weeks now. At least I'll be learning something. I'm shocked about the damned pig! There has been a baby black wild boar (no tail) running all over my neighborhood at night for a month..👁🐽👁Good thing I'm not superstitious. However no one wants to approach the thing because we're all afraid of where its mom might be. It seems happy enough; it's always playing in the yards and looks well fed. About your recipe, two questions: 1) Is the fruit fresh or dried? I've never seen a bara brith. And 2) Can you use any black tea? Sorry but it has to be done -- as a retired chef I have a thing for historic foods. I did try to carve a turnip once. Never again. And that zombie horse of yours is absolutely terrifying. Glad to see you around again, Jimmy!💜

Sofa and jumper is perfect for Halloween! 🎃 Thats what I'm doing too, watching your video. 🛋 Dealt with! 😄

It's pretty easy to opt out of Halloween, just don't turn your porch light on or decorate your house. Not sure why some folks get so bent over it.

I want to heae more about the spooky black pig!

first... damn I'm soooo behind on your videos... O____O I didn't notice at all! oh well, it's nice to binge watch while doing homework... or exams... let's not talk about exams xD I'm from Peru, so Halloween is not "native" to us, BUT, since I have family from the US I grew up with that celebration. Way before it gained popularity my Godfather would make a Halloween party, it was amazing! he would always use a gorilla suit that was so realistic, it was scary for a child like me, hehehe. It was lovely. Through the years of course, Halloween has changed for me, cause as an adult you don't really go trick or treating, but I also learned what other amazing traditions I could do, and the traditions of other countries and cultures too. To me Halloween is my favorite event, second to none. : D

Where I live in Germany we celebrate St Martins Day on 11 November, but many of the traditions are very similar to the ones you mention. We make lanterns - traditionally from turnips, but nowadays usually from paper, we build a big bonfire and afterwards children go around with their lanterns and sing a song at peoples doors to get sweets. I think it used to be a harvest festival, at the start of a fasting period before Christmas. There are also some traditional foods around this time, most notably a man-shaped sweet bread with a pipe made of clay.

It's so nice to see someone talking about it being an Irish/European tradition! I'm from ireland and thought it was just from ireland with the Jack'o'lantern! It's so interesting to hear its not just ours 😅 in the irish language halloween is Oiche Shamhna. Which is a conjugation of Samhain

Oh I see, the Celts counting the start of the day at dusk on the previous day is really just the same old "it's not tomorrow until I wake up" argument from the other side

Jimmy! You have an AMAZING spooky laugh!!!

LOL I love it when "Christians" throw a fit about Halloween because it's "satanic" and "evil" when in fact it's actually about the only truly Christian holiday in origin. Like any cultural anything, it's been influenced by many various indigenous traditions wherever Christianity has spread. But Halloween is still about the only Christian holiday that started out Christian - not that too many Christians are that familiar with their own religious history. (Depending on how you define "holiday" in the context of limited historical evidence, Halloween may actually predate Christmas as a Christian holy day. Nevermind the futzed up mess that is Easter 😂) I'm also entertained when I see all the memes on social media trying to convince people that Dia de los Muertos is not Halloween - srsly, it's the same holiday (All Saints Day / All Hallows Day), Mexico just celebrates it differently because their holiday was influenced by different traditions (Spanish & Aztec ) than Northern Europe (Gaelic) or the USA.

Its really difficult to read about a thing/interact with a questionaire if you don't put the link in somewhere Jimmy

In North West England we have mischief night the night before Halloween. Loved it when was a kid. Also, anyone, like me, who has carved a turnip, knows it is an Irish tradition. My Grandma helped me do my first one. Then pumpkins started to be grown in Britain. I have not carved a turnip since. Halloween has got more family friendly over the years. Which in some ways is a good thing.

I'm a big fan of lights festivals in dark seasons - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas and New Year are the big ones in my culture, but frankly even just candles and fairy lights can bring a little joy and reassure us against our primal anxiety. So many children ToTing last night that I ran out of sweets for the first time ever. Usually we're eating leftovers for weeks. Bara brith, you say? There's an interesting idea. I know I've got a pound of sultanas in the cupboard...

Jimmy in a jumper, (spoiler alert) miming, totally made my day. Mime away, dear soul, mime away.

Mummering is big in Newfoundland as well.

Scotland has the tradition of guising. Going round houses and asking for a penny for the guy (a stuffed person shaped thing) that gets burnt on Bonfire night.

Hope you're able to at least get to the pub for a Guiness tonight ?! Thanks, for posting. Great video. Liked the jumper ! You could wear a sack & look fantastic ! 😊 Liked the term "melange", very fitting. History, being concerned with humans, is MESSY !

Just wanted to say you have a great spooky cackle, Jimmy!

The day starting the night before is also/still something that’s done in Jewish culture.

Calan gaeaf hapus :) the video was great, glad you found time to post on this topic.

Have you heard the one where Halloween "actually means Hell-will-win"? Our priests (Romanian Orthodox) LOVE saying this every October as a reminder that we should not celebrate foreign holidays because they are evil... XD Ignorance is creepy, so I guess it fits Halloween? XD

I usually binge watch old classic b&w “horror” movies on Halloween. I do enjoy greatly Danny Elfman’s Music Score to “Nightmare before Christmas” and I have added that to my Halloween enjoyment.

Jimmy, you do a great creepy voice and expression there! Made me feel a bit scared. My boyfriend and I are handing out candy and watching Halloween themed videos, we are in Ontario. Yours was the first and was a great surprise to see when we opened youtube.

Most of the squashy gourdy things are new world natives. Let us carve our cucurbitas!!!

My mom was grousing today about younger relatives in Norway taking up trick-or-treat. The julebukk (who is our hobby-horse) with his drunken cross-dressing companions seems to have died out with my great-grandparents' generation, though the Saint John bonfire to keep witches at bay persists, oddly in the warmest part of the year. Strange how these traditions with their clear parallels have been pulled apart and assigned to different dates by different cultures. The only thing that is really watered down is that costumed children do not menace in the same way that, say, a crapulous gang of your local village toughs bent on extorting their neighbors must have in former days, demanding hospitality. Hide your kids! Hide your wives! I think we can all be glad that is in the past.

so, it's a a b'st'rdized version of an american b'st'rdized version of an irish b'st'rdized version of ... a roman (?) b'st'rdized version of... a pre-christian b'st'rdized version of ... where was I ? seem to have lost track 🤔

Halloween is a newcomer in Finland but kids dress up and collect candy and Easter eggs every Palm Sunday. They also recite a poem and hand out decorated willow branches.

Most excellent spooky laugh.

Hope you had a spooktacular Halloween! You think the UK and EU is mad about trick or treating and the American Halloween, now, wait til you guys get Trunk or Treats. Now, those are straight from Satan lol Great video, as usual. 👻

My petty bugbear is when welsh events (like with Museums or Cadw) use Samhain instead of Calan Gaeaf or when Samhain is used as THE word for old Halloween. It doesn't matter that much but it feels flattening.

I love Halloween. It's my next favourite time of year after the period from Christmas to New Year. This year I'm celebrating with some bramble gin I had floating around.

Because you like language and words and it is so integral to society......could you please do a history and words for "getting drunk". You used at least five in this video.

Thanks Jimmy 🎃 Love your way of putting it all together- as an American I can say we don’t dig too deeply into Halloween history IMHO but it’s fascinating ❗️ Rest well and thanks again 👻!

Do respect the hustle! Happy Halloween!

7:47 or at least use your Halloween decorations year after year, buy sturdy ones that will last and can withstand being in your attic for most of the year. (and of course most people keep the decorations up for a month or two not just the day of Halloween lol).

Fidio bendigedig, fallai ddylet ti wneud fidio Nadolig fel hyn. Bydd hwna'n bendigedig hefyd! Great video, maybe do Christmas video like this? . Would be great!

Mummering is still very popular in Newfoundland and Labrador. However, there is quite a history there, Newfoundland and Labrador is well known for its tradition of Mummering or Jannying over the 12 Days of Christmas - but the tradition was actually outlawed in the province until relatively recently. People dress up in disguises, usually oversized clothes with their faces covered, and go around house-to-house to partake in merriment. Local folklorist Dale Jarvis says while the tradition we know today is all in good fun, in the 1800s it was outlawed, when those with ill-intent took advantage of dressing in disguise. He says Christmas was a time of year when long-standing grudges and political or religious disputes would boil over. Jarvis says things took a particularly dark turn in Bay Roberts in 1860. When a newly-married Isaac Mercer was out with his in-laws and was set upon by a group of Mummers who bludgeoned him to death with an axe. That led to the outlawing of Mummering, a law that remained on the books until the 1990s. Read more on the history of mummering and violence in this research paper by Joy Fraser.

Also that time of the year where religious people rant about devil costumes

Jewish people observe the Sabbath on Saturday - which Begins at sundown Friday night. So there.

Woah!! It’s the first time I’m here for a video so early. Hope you’re having a wonderful start to the holiday season Jimmy! 🎉

Your fans need the link you mentioned please Jimmy (wife of John speaking)

I like to celebrate Halloween by making a costume and going trick-or-treating, and because today is All Saints Day, I'm going to church this evening. My mom made soul cakes, and they are delicious. That should be a tradition. I want to make some apple cider. I also want to make pumpkin soup, but I haven't done either yet because I am busy.

What a wonderful treat to come home from celebrating Halloween with my family to find that Jimmy posted a video😊 as an irish-american I am proud to honor my ancient ancestry by celebrating this holiday

Happy Halloween, Jimmy. Great video

Happy Halloween from San Jose, California👻

I always look forward to your videos Jimmy. You have a real gift for telling the story of history.

Great video! I’ve watched your previous halloween video from a couple years back every so often, so this was a nice surprise!

Love this so much. Brilliant, informative and also humorous. Thank you!

I love history. It's interesting to hear what has changed, and it's bloody fascinating to learn what stays the same through centuries.

My only objection to Halloween as an adult is the realisation that it's an autumn seasonal festivity, and it. is. not. autumn. in. Australia. :)