Once upon an autumn, long ago, there was an especially wicked demon whose name no one remembers. They only remember him by the name of the holiday he helped create: Halloween.
Now on this particular autumn, Halloween had spent the whole harvest season in a small town, spoiling crops, pushing people into wells, and trying to convince half-drunken men to kill each other. Seeing these things happening so often and without proper explanations, the village priest teamed up with the village witch to capture the demon that was obviously running amok. Now, witches and priests don’t usually get along well, but it was possible in this case for two reasons: one, because this priest and witch were a brother and sister who had chosen wildly different career paths, and, two, because their mother was one of the people who had been pushed into a well.
Thus, they set a trap for the demon Halloween. They used branches from an ancient elm and a dozen or so crucifixes to build a cage that the demon could not escape from. It was bigger than a bread box and smaller than a golden retriever, but light enough to carry. Then the priest simply stood at the edge of a nearby cliff and said, “Golly, I would die if I fell from here!” Within moments, the demon came rushing from the town to push the priest off the cliff to his death. But the witch was quick, and she leapt out of the bushes with the cage and caught the demon inside it. She slammed the little door behind it and locked it with some enchanted twine. And thus, Halloween the demon was caught.
The brother and sister agreed to keep the caged demon in the church basement for half the year and in the witch’s basement the other half of the year. Each time they carried the cage between basements, the demon Halloween begged to be let out, calling upon Christian charity and the gods of the earth for mercy. Twice a year he begged, all the way to the church, then all the way to the witch’s house. And indeed, he did slowly prevail upon the kind hearts of the witch and priest, even though they never forgot what the demon had done to their poor mother, and the evil that he would surely do if he were released.
And so they hatched another clever scheme. By this point, the priest and witch were quite old, so the whole town listened to what they had to say. They told all the townspeople that on the day the priest moved the demon’s cage to the witch’s house, they should all dress up like hooligans, ne’er-do-wells, and demons. Disguised thusly, they should go throughout the whole town pretending to be vile and evil: breaking things, laughing at death, pretending to push people into wells, and blackmailing the other townspeople with threats of violence to get valuables (which were, of course, to be prepared in advance).
The townspeople thought this was odd, but they trusted the witch and the priest, so, on the day appointed for moving the demon’s cage, which happened to be October thirty-first, they did as instructed. When they demon begged to be set free, the priest promptly opened the cage door without another word. The demon leapt out and scurried away, laughing and planning to do mischief. But when he came upon the town, he found that things had changed in the decades of his absence.
Demons bigger and scarier than Halloween filled the streets alongside every form of villain imaginable. Vandalism, violence, blackmail, and pushing people in the wells! Evil on a scale that Halloween had never dreamed of. Grotesque faces all around, laughing at death and taking what did not belong to them. The joy that Halloween felt at first quickly transformed to dread. Everyone committed evil without prejudice. What horrible things might they do to him? He did not wish to be pushed into a well or robbed. The faces all around were terrifying and suggested acts of evil they could do to him that even he could not imagine!
And so he fled back to the only place he knew he would be safe from evil: surrounded by the branches of an ancient elm and a dozen or so crucifixes. He dashed back into the cage, which still sat at the waiting priest’s feet. “I’d like to stay here, if you please. Shut the door. It’s the only place in town safe from all that evil. I don’t envy you or the witch, out there, dealing with all those big demons and dangerous townspeople. Let me out again when you’ve got things straightened out.”
And so the demon stayed in his cage forever, happy to be safe. Every few years, even after the witch and priest had died, the townspeople would dress up and pretend to be evil, and someone would bring out the demon in his cage so he could see that it was still too dangerous to come out. And the demon never discovered how he had been tricked, and the practice of frightening evil things with pretend evil things continued to this very day.
So next time you walk safely past a well without being pushed in, remember Halloween and the clever and kind people who inspired it.
Now on this particular autumn, Halloween had spent the whole harvest season in a small town, spoiling crops, pushing people into wells, and trying to convince half-drunken men to kill each other. Seeing these things happening so often and without proper explanations, the village priest teamed up with the village witch to capture the demon that was obviously running amok. Now, witches and priests don’t usually get along well, but it was possible in this case for two reasons: one, because this priest and witch were a brother and sister who had chosen wildly different career paths, and, two, because their mother was one of the people who had been pushed into a well.
Thus, they set a trap for the demon Halloween. They used branches from an ancient elm and a dozen or so crucifixes to build a cage that the demon could not escape from. It was bigger than a bread box and smaller than a golden retriever, but light enough to carry. Then the priest simply stood at the edge of a nearby cliff and said, “Golly, I would die if I fell from here!” Within moments, the demon came rushing from the town to push the priest off the cliff to his death. But the witch was quick, and she leapt out of the bushes with the cage and caught the demon inside it. She slammed the little door behind it and locked it with some enchanted twine. And thus, Halloween the demon was caught.
The brother and sister agreed to keep the caged demon in the church basement for half the year and in the witch’s basement the other half of the year. Each time they carried the cage between basements, the demon Halloween begged to be let out, calling upon Christian charity and the gods of the earth for mercy. Twice a year he begged, all the way to the church, then all the way to the witch’s house. And indeed, he did slowly prevail upon the kind hearts of the witch and priest, even though they never forgot what the demon had done to their poor mother, and the evil that he would surely do if he were released.
And so they hatched another clever scheme. By this point, the priest and witch were quite old, so the whole town listened to what they had to say. They told all the townspeople that on the day the priest moved the demon’s cage to the witch’s house, they should all dress up like hooligans, ne’er-do-wells, and demons. Disguised thusly, they should go throughout the whole town pretending to be vile and evil: breaking things, laughing at death, pretending to push people into wells, and blackmailing the other townspeople with threats of violence to get valuables (which were, of course, to be prepared in advance).
The townspeople thought this was odd, but they trusted the witch and the priest, so, on the day appointed for moving the demon’s cage, which happened to be October thirty-first, they did as instructed. When they demon begged to be set free, the priest promptly opened the cage door without another word. The demon leapt out and scurried away, laughing and planning to do mischief. But when he came upon the town, he found that things had changed in the decades of his absence.
Demons bigger and scarier than Halloween filled the streets alongside every form of villain imaginable. Vandalism, violence, blackmail, and pushing people in the wells! Evil on a scale that Halloween had never dreamed of. Grotesque faces all around, laughing at death and taking what did not belong to them. The joy that Halloween felt at first quickly transformed to dread. Everyone committed evil without prejudice. What horrible things might they do to him? He did not wish to be pushed into a well or robbed. The faces all around were terrifying and suggested acts of evil they could do to him that even he could not imagine!
And so he fled back to the only place he knew he would be safe from evil: surrounded by the branches of an ancient elm and a dozen or so crucifixes. He dashed back into the cage, which still sat at the waiting priest’s feet. “I’d like to stay here, if you please. Shut the door. It’s the only place in town safe from all that evil. I don’t envy you or the witch, out there, dealing with all those big demons and dangerous townspeople. Let me out again when you’ve got things straightened out.”
And so the demon stayed in his cage forever, happy to be safe. Every few years, even after the witch and priest had died, the townspeople would dress up and pretend to be evil, and someone would bring out the demon in his cage so he could see that it was still too dangerous to come out. And the demon never discovered how he had been tricked, and the practice of frightening evil things with pretend evil things continued to this very day.
So next time you walk safely past a well without being pushed in, remember Halloween and the clever and kind people who inspired it.
