Halloween is No. 2 in holiday sales

In Focus – By CR Brown


Did you know that Halloween is the second most commercialized holiday in America, or that its origin dates back to an old Celtic custom over 2000 years ago?

Here are a few more snippets of information you might not know. Halloween was then called “Samhain” – the day marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on the eve of the New Year, the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred, causing spirits to roam freely with the living. The Celts were convinced that spirits would somehow return to destroy crops and to seek refuge in living bodies, so they paraded around in costumes while making lots of noise in an effort to confuse the spirits from distinguishing between the living and the dead.

The Romans got into the act in 43 A.D. when “Samhain” was combined with two other festivals, Feralia and Pomona. Feralia bestowed honor on the dead, while Pomona, goddess of fruit and trees, was honored during harvest time. Since Pomona’s symbol was the apple, speculation is that the tradition of bobbing for apples can be laid at her feet.

As the Roman Empire faded from the cultural scene, so did “Samhain”. By the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV wanted to replace pagan festivals, so he called it All Saint’s Day, or All-Hallows. The celebration the night before then became known as All-Hallows’ Eve. The name evolved to Hallow Evening and then to Halloween.

Meanwhile, trick-or-treating began as a custom in ninth century England at which time it was referred to as “going souling.” On that one day every year, Christians would go begging for soul cakes, with the donors believing that they were helping dead relatives. Both parties seemed to benefit from the practice.

The history of Jack-o-lanterns is a bit more complex. There once was an Irishman named Jack who was known for his trickery and drunkenness. It seems Jack tricked Satan into climbing a tree, whereupon Jack carved a cross in the tree, trapping Satan. Through lengthy negotiations, Jack let Satan go. But, Satan struck the last blow by denying Jack entrance into Heaven or Hell. Jack placed a glowing ember, given to him by Satan, in a carved turnip to help light his way in his darkened world that followed. The carved turnips became known as “jack’s lantern.” Since Irish immigrants found pumpkins to be much more plentiful in America, turnip carving eventually gave way to the pumpkin.

Now, fast forward to the last two centuries. Halloween made the jump to America via Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine in the 1840’s. Later, in the century, a movement was started to separate scary costumes from all Halloween celebrations, and by the 1900’s, most people had forgotten the superstitious and religious aspects of the holiday. Since then, and continuing into today’s culture, Halloween is simply viewed as an inexpensive way for communities across America to celebrate the harvest season.

The Halloween scene pictured above is located in Pike County, Alabama just north of Goshen.

DAM'S HISTORY DATES BACK TO 1899

Gantt Dam, pictured above and located six miles north of Andalusia in Covington County, shapes a lake encompassing approximately 2,700 surface acres. To better understand the history of Gantt Dam, one has to travel back to 1899 and take a look at the early days of the town of Gantt, which was originally established one mile east of its present location. At that time it was known as Hamptonville. With the arrival of the railroad in 1899 it was moved to the present location to take advantage of the established rail line. Meanwhile, when the town relocated, it was briefly renamed Christine, after a “very pretty” school teacher by historical accounts. In fact, the very first rail schedule published by Old Central of Georgia Railroad referred to the town as Christine. However, after the school teacher moved from the area, the town was renamed again, this time after Hiram Gantt, patriarch of the Gantt family. Shortly thereafter, Hiram’s son, Beaury Gantt, who was in need of a means of floating logs down the river to his sawmill, built the first dam across the Conecuh River. And, thus the history of the dam had its beginning. In 1920 the Horseshoe Lumber Company built the first hydroelectric plant at the site of a former gristmill at the location and commenced selling electricity in 1922. Point ‘A’ Dam and Power Plant was added in 1926. Point ‘A’ was so named because it was designated as the best site on the Conecuh River for potential hydroelectric power. Both dams failed in March of 1929 when a tropical depression moved through the area dumping record rainfalls. Hurricane Opal threatened, but did not deliver, the same fate in 1995.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Electric Cooperative (AEC) officially began generation and transmission operations in September of 1944 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released a ruling that directed Alabama Water Service Company (AWSC), owners of Gantt Dam at the time, to divest its electric generation and water properties. The ruling allowed AEC to acquire a string of small electric generating facilities (ice plants, saw mills, etc) in a number of local communities that were incorporated in the electrical grid. Gantt Dam was one of those acquired in the deal.

Though the dam has little value today in the overall scheme of AEC’s generating capacity, the impact that it has on local economic and environmental issues remains high.

In 2006, the water level in Gantt Lake was lowered approximately five feet to allow homeowners a chance to make necessary repairs on waterfront properties. Required maintenance was also completed on the dam in December of the same year, after which the lake was restored to its previous level.