Interpreters Brought Halloween Traditions To The USA - Here's How!

Interpreters are the ones who keep traditions and customs alive. By sharing them with a wider audience, who then encourage others to participate, interpreters ensure traditions and stories are passed on for others to share and enjoy. Interpreters are the links between the old and young, ensuring that the ways of old don't get lost. Think about the elders in your life- the ones who might have immigrated through Elis Island (in New York), Angel Island (in San Francisco) or maybe they crossed the Texas-Mexico boarder in the '80s. Whatever their stories involve that got them to United States, it's a strong probability that it doesn't involve English. So then how did we retain all these Halloween traditions from other countries? Through the children who were born on US soil, who were taught celebratory traditions from their homelands. In the United States, we celebrate Halloween by dressing in creative costumes and accompany our children as they collect candy by trick-or-treating throughout the neighborhood. Other countries assign much meaning to their late-October celebrations that, without bilingual interpreters and English translators, would not be customary for United States citizens to adopt over time...

Interpreters brought 3 famous Halloween customs to the U.S.A :

1- Jack-o'-Lanterns and their Irish 🇮🇪 roots

With common Irish surnames like O'Brien and O'Riely, it should be an obvious sign that Jack-o-lanterns have Celtic beginnings. While this tradition has since evolved to carving pumpkins, it began with carving turnips. Legend has it that there once was a man named Stingy Jack, who trapped the Devil in a turnip, to force the Devil into an agreement that Jack would never go to Hell after death. When Jack eventually died years later, the Devil kept his agreement... only Heaven didn't want Stingy Jack either. Forced to wander Earth for all eternity as a ghost, it is said that the Devil gave Jack a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. And so, the Irish have been carving scary faces into their own turnips ever since, as a way to banish evil spirits.

2- Did trick-or-treating originate in Germany 🇩🇪 or in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿?

There is much disagreement among countries over where trick-or-treating began. Some believe it to be an evolution of the German custom of "belsnickeling" (which refers to Santa's evil, German friend Belsnickel) where children dress in costumes, and harass neighbors to see if adults could guess the identity of the disguised, and children were rewarded with food or candy if they could not be identified.

Others believe trick-or-treating stems from the secular Scottish practice of "souling." Where children and poor adults in the Middle Ages would collect food and money from local homes dressed in costumes, and in return they would pray for homeowners' deceased loved ones on All Souls' Day. The disguised would often include songs, jokes and other tricks or pranks on their more well-off neighbors.

3- Candy Apples and their connection to Romans 🇮🇹

For centuries, people have been coating furit as a means of food preservation. During the Roman festival celebrating Pomona - often shown with apples, whose name derives from the Latin word "pomum" meaning apple. The connection to Halloween didn't begin until 1908, when William Kolb- a candymaker in New Jersey- made them by accident. Preparing for Christmas, he placed apples on sticks and dipped them into red cinnamon candy. The experiment, which was intended to prepare for Christmas, ended up returning every year on Halloween as it was such a hit with customers who turned it into a popular 1900's fashionable parlor snack.

It is all thanks to language interpreters and bilingual adults that we are all able to share in these fun holiday celebrations. Our online translator classes are taught by expert instructors ✅ who have real-world experience in their interpreting specialty. They have worked hard to make fully remote online courses that are unique and engaging ✅ and use a hands-on approach that is unparalleled by the competition. If you or someone you know is interested in our online Medical Interpreter Training Programs with live instruction✅, our fully remote yet real time classes ✅ are offered in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, Farsi, French, Hindi, Korean, Somali, Urdu, Ukrainian languages online and onsite.