All Hallow's Eve and Jack O'Lanterns

by Donna Hatch

www.donnahatch.com

Halloween is even more popular than ever. In the United States, more Americans celebrate Halloween than Christmas. I have my own opinion on that, but really, what's not to love about love costumes, decorations, parties, and special treats?

 Origin of Halloween -- All Hallow's Eve

An ancient Celticic festival Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced "SOW-en" or “SAH-win”) celebrated the end of summer's end, the harvest, and the new year, which, at the time, landed on November 1st. the Celts believed that during Samhain, the barrier between the living and the dead became thin enough that ghosts, monsters, and fairies walked the earth to steal souls. They also believed that ghosts of their ancestors could visit that night. The multi-day celebration included sacrifices, fires, dancing, drinking, and much revelry, as well as wearing disguises to hide from the souls wandering around. 

Eventually, with the rise of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church replaced Samhain with All Saints’ Day or All Soul's Day, which celebrates the church’s saints on November 1. The day before All Saints' Day became All Hallows’ Eve. Many Samhain traditions have endured until today.

Carved Jack O'Lanterns

Ancient Celts invented Jack O'Lanterns. But since pumpkins are native to North America, so the Celts hollowed out and carved rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, beets, and even turnips. To make their faces glow, they put a candle or lit ember inside. These lit root vegetables guided their doorways to ward off evil spirits. 

The Celts also left doors and windows open to welcome in the spirits of their ancestors and set out food for them because, of course, ghosts get hungry. And apparently, only wicked, non-family ghosts were frightened away by glowing veggie faces. To the right are a few examples of the faces that artistic carvers can make from turnips.

Origin of the Name Jack O'Lantern

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

Although historians aren't positive about how a lit, carved vegetable became known as Jack O'Lantern, there are two prevailing theories. 

From about the 17th century, the term referred to a night watchman who carried a lantern and patrolled the streets to curtail crime. The British often called men whose names they didn't know by a common name like Jack. So, a nightwatchman whose name was unknown carrying a lantern was referred to as Jack with the Lantern or Jack of the Lantern or Jack O'Lantern.

The name's origin may have arisen from a legend about Stingy Jack who played tricks on the devil. As punishment, he was doomed to wander the earth as a spirit carrying a lit coal which he later put into a carved-out turnip. The story about Stingy Jack became a part of All Hallow's Eve and is often referenced when spooky, unexplained lights are sighted, sometimes called Spook Lights. 

Modern Jack O' Lanterns

Jack O'Lanterns today range from scary, to funny, to elegant to reflect the taste of the creator. So this Halloween spare a thought to your ancestors who have passed on. Who knows? They just might visit you.

All Hallows Eve during Regency England, filled with ancient English customs, sets the scene for my newest short novel, A Ghost of a Chance.

A lost soul searching for hope...

After a devastating loss, a young lady throws herself into searching for her missing brother and taking solace in her musical composition. When a handsome and captivating stranger comes to town one All Hallows Eve, she dares to hope for more than her endlessly lonely existence.

A tormented war hero seeking redemption...

Unable to flee the memories of war, a retired cavalry captain spends his days helping the men who served under his command adjust to civilian life. Perhaps if he helps them all, he can atone for some of his past failures. When he stops for the night at a small English village celebrating All Hallows Eve, he meets an enchanting young lady unlike any other and suspects that what he needed all along was not only redemption but love.

They must find the courage to take a leap of faith and choose love over fear

It will take faith and valor to overcome the barriers between their worlds and let go of their past heartaches. As they discover love and happiness neither had imagined, they will have to delve into the shadow world between life and death to beg for another chance from the Angel of Death.

A Ghost of a Chance is available in ebook, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.  

Sources:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-history-of-jack-o-lantern

https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins

https://time.com/5419385/why-jack-o-lanterns-halloween/

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-carve-pumpkins-at-halloween

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-celebrate-halloween    

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain#samhain-merges-with-halloween

Affaires of Honor and Regency Dueling

by Donna Hatch
www.donnahatch.com

In England, dueling was part of a long-standing code of honor, far beyond mere tradition. Gentlemen took their dueling very seriously; they would rather die than be dishonored. Does your heart go pitter patter just at the sound of that? I admit, at time, mine does. How many man that honorable do you know? Okay, maybe we'd call it misplaced pride, or an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, but hey, that was a different world with a different set of rules. And yeah, I'm glad they don't do it these days.

By the Regency Era, dueling was outlawed. However, duels still happened more frequently than many people knew. The problem was, because courts were made up of peers, they were reluctant to charge another peer with murder as a result of a duel. There is a case where one nobleman was charged with murder and tried, but used the defense that his behavior was gentlemanly and honorable, meaning that he acted within the proper code of conduct. He was acquitted by his peers.

If they were socially equal, or at least similar, the gentleman who was offended would tell the man who’d wronged him that he should choose his “second,” a close friend or family member who would look out for his best interests. If he was really incensed, he might slap him with his glove, but that was considered extreme and beneath gentlemanly behavior, as it was the ultimate insult and probably resulted in a fight then and there.

The procedure for issuing a challenge was very specific. A gentleman never challenged a social inferior. For instance, a gentleman of significance with ties to the aristocracy or nobility would never challenge a commoner, such as a blacksmith or a farmer. Also, if there was a significant age difference, the duel would not be extended.

After the verbal challenge – or perhaps warning would be a better word – was issued, depending on the severity of the offense, the other might have a choice; he could either apologize, or he could accept. Sometimes, the apology would not be accepted, often if there were a third person who’d been wronged such as a lady's honor. (Okay, call me crazy but that almost makes me want to swoon.)

The next day, supposedly after heads had cooled, the wronged man who wished to duel would send his “second” with a written letter challenging the duel. The other may chose to apologize or accept the challenge. If accepted, he would choose swords or pistols and name the time and the place. In my humble opinion, swords was a more more gentlemanly way to duel. If they used pistols, they only used one shot which seems too much like cold-blooded murder. I'm sure they didn't always shoot to kill, but there was some unwritten rule about the shot purposely going wide and that being bad form. *shrug*

When the allotted day arrived, they met, probably in a remote place where they wouldn’t be caught by the law, and the seconds inspected the weapons to be used. A final opportunity for an apology could be given. If not, the seconds decided if the duel should be fought to (a) first blood, or (b) until one can no longer stand, or (c) to the death. Once that was decided, the opponents dueled and the seconds watched to insure that nothing dishonorable happened.

If during a duel fought by swords, one of the duelers becomes too injured to continue, occasionally the second would step in and duel. Sometimes, the seconds were hot-headed or very angry (loyal?) and ended up dueling each other as well. To my knowledge, this never happened is the duel were fought with pistols.

As horrible as it sounds to our modern selves, these gentlemen took their honor very seriously, and considered death preferable to living with the label of a coward, a label that would follow them and their families for years.

And, maybe it’s me, but there a certain romance about a gentleman brave enough and protective enough to be willing to risk death defending my honor from another man who’d besmirched it.

A duel largely part of what leads to all the trouble for my hero in my Regency Romance novel, "Courting the Countess" and causes events he wishes desperately he could change, especially when the duel goes awry and causes pain to an entire family.

I'm sure glad my husband isn't likely to try dueling...

My neweset Regency Romance, Courting the Countess is available now.

When charming rake Tristan Barrett sweeps Lady Elizabeth off her feet, stealing both her heart and a kiss in a secluded garden, her brother challenges Tristan to a duel. The only way to save her brother and Tristan from harm—not to mention preserve her reputation—is to get married. But her father, the Duke of Pemberton, refuses to allow his daughter to marry anyone but a titled lord. The duke demands that Elizabeth marry Tristan’s older brother, Richard, the Earl of Averston. Now Elizabeth must give up Tristan to marry a man who despises her, a man who loves another, a man she’ll never love.

Richard fears Elizabeth is as untrustworthy as his mother, who ran off with another man. However, to protect his brother from a duel and their family name from further scandal, he agrees to the wedding, certain his new bride will betray him. Yet when Elizabeth turns his house upside down and worms her way into his reluctant heart, Richard suspects he can’t live without his new countess. Will she stay with him or is it too little, too late?

Order now on Amazon for Kindle.