Good Tuesday morning.
There are other things happening today besides Halloween.
It’s Girl Scouts Founder’s Day, for example, which is held annually on the birthday (in 1860) of Juliette Gordon Low.
Low, who was big into challenging gender stereotypes, created the iconic organization dedicated to teaching girls to be independent and equip them with a variety of skills – a pretty outside-the-box undertaking at a time when women were supposed to be seen and not heard.
It’s also World Cities Day, which, according to the UN, was established to “greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities addressing challenges of urbanization and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.”
But let’s be honest, you’re here looking for Halloween content, right? If I focused for any significant length of time on something else, it would be weird. Or at least off brand.
Never let it be said that I didn’t give the people what they want.
Halloween’s roots are in the festival of Samhain, which was observed by the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. It marked the day before the new season – winter – was believed to begin on Nov. 1, but also when souls of those who had died were believed to return home for a bit of a visit.
Bonfires were traditionally lit to both honor the dead and to scare away evil spirits. Masks were deployed for the same purpose. (Ghosts and other nasties apparently aren’t terribly smart, as a simple disguise confuses them as to who they’re looking to haunt).
In typical fashion, the church moved in and appropriated Halloween in an effort to supplant a pagan holiday with a Christian one. And thus the evening before All Saints’ Day, which was moved from May 13 to Nov. 1, became a holy – AKA “hallowed” eve.
The origins of trick-or-treating are similarly tangled, In ancient times, food was left out to placate the unwelcome evil spirits. It became custom to dress up like the very things you were supposedly trying to avoid – ghosts, demons, and the like – and run around performing antics in return for treats. This practice was known as “mumming.”
The church designated Nov. 2 as All Soul’s Day, again a time for honoring the dead with the same essential elements – bonfires, masquerades, and going door-to-door in search of goodies.
At this point, people with less resources would head to the homes of the wealthy and ask for “soul cakes” as payment for prayers offered on behalf of the occupants dead relatives. This was known as “souling” and though it started out as something adults did, it morphed into a practice engaged in by children.
Fast forward to colonial times, when residents of the New World brought with them the tradition of celebrating Guy Fawkes Day – again, a big bonfire night. (What is it with our fascination with fire, anyway?) – which morphed into Halloween.
Halloween has not been without its challenges.
Things got a little dicey, for example, during the Great Depression when the emphasis was more on “trick” than “treat”, and then came WWII, when sugar rationing made the “treat” part of the equation difficult. But then came the post-war baby boom and the rise of the suburbs, with their tree-lined streets and sidewalks – basically tailor made for trick-or-treating.
We had a bit of a blip there in the 80s and 90s with the whole “razor blades in apples” and “poisoned candy” thing, which is a lot more urban legend than real life, though there were a few isolated incidents of the real thing that (thank you media) understandably got parents very worked up.
Gone are the days when homemade popcorn balls and cookies and spiced cider were offered in neighbors homes. (These were a hallmark of my youthful Halloweens). Nowadays, you’re just as likely to get a toothbrush or a granola bar or a box of raisins as you are a mini candy bar. (Teal pumpkins, by the way, signify the presence of non-food treats for kids with allergies or other conditions).
As we’ve discussed in past posts, Halloween is big business. Americans spend more than $3 billion on candy around this time of year, according to the National Retail Federation, making it the country’s second-largest commercial holiday.
For all those headed out this evening, you’re in luck, as it looks like we’ve got a reprieve from the rain. Skies will be mostly sunny and temperatures will be in the high 40s during the day and drop into the low 30s during the evening. Bundle up, kids!
In the headlines…
Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza yesterday, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants.
While he continues to declare unambiguous support for Israel, President Joe Biden and his top military and diplomatic officials have become more critical of Israel’s response to the terrorist attacks and the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “cruel psychological propaganda” a video released by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which shows three hostages captured by the militant group lambasting Netanyahu’s leadership.
Striking a defiant tone at a rare news briefing yesterday evening, Netanyahu ruled out a cease-fire in Gaza, dismissed calls for his resignation and rejected criticism of Israel’s strikes on civilian homes.
House Republicans unveiled a $14.3 billion aid package for Israel, while also cutting funding for the IRS by the same amount, a show of support for the embattled U.S. ally amid its war against Hamas.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on today regarding Biden’s supplemental funding request.
The executive director of the United Nations aid organization UNICEF told the U.N. Security Council today that clean water is rapidly running out in Gaza.
“The scale of the horror people are experiencing in Gaza is really hard to convey,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s chief official for humanitarian and relief affairs, said in a statement delivered on his behalf while he remained in the Middle East.
A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian American woman and her young son pleaded not guilty following his indictment by an Illinois grand jury.
The Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, wrote in a social media post on X that Israeli soldier Private Ori Megidish was now with her family after she was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Biden signed an ambitious executive order on AI that seeks to balance the needs of technology companies with national security and consumer rights, creating an early set of guardrails that could be fortified by legislation and global agreements.
The order, the first government action of its kind, requires new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI’s impact on the labor market.
The F.D.A. has approved many new programs that use artificial intelligence, but doctors are skeptical that the tools really improve care or are backed by solid research.
The Biden administration is looking to avoid hiccups in the rollout of new COVID-19 vaccines as it begins shifting coverage of coronavirus treatments to the private market.
Dozens of key Democrats are launching a write-in campaign for Biden in New Hampshire’s ’24 primary election after the president declined to add his name to the ballot — the latest in a standoff between the Granite State’s election officials and the DNC.
By demoting New Hampshire from its first-in-the-nation perch and moving up South Carolina, Biden hoped to preempt a nuisance primary challenge that could embarrass him before the general election. But that may be exactly what he has invited upon himself.
Biden is “very much alive” and intends to run for re-election according to Vice President Kamala Harris during Sunday’s “60 Minutes.”
Donald Trump’s tax broker was forced to admit to authorities in 2020 that Mar-a-Lago had a market value of just $27 million — not the $517 million claimed in other documents, trial evidence revealed yesterday.
Trump, 77, has relentlessly attacked Biden, 80, as too old for office. But the former president himself has had a series of gaffes that go beyond his usual freewheeling style.
Gov. Kathy Hochul held a roundtable discussion with Cornell students after a series of “horrendous, antisemitic messages” threatened violence against Jewish members of the student body.
The governor said that she wanted to show Cornell students that the state stands behind them, and noted that both federal and state law enforcement officials were working to determine who made the threats.
Hochul called for criminal charges against those who made online threats to slit the throats of Jewish students, and she later ripped professor Russell Rickford, who called Hamas’ sick killings “energizing.”
Around 20 Jewish students from Columbia University and Barnard College denounced the university’s “inaction against antisemitism” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
More than 100 Columbia University professors signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas’ “military action” in Israel on Oct. 7 and called on administrators to protect those students from “disturbing reverberations” on the Manhattan campus.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for cutting off government funding to public colleges that condone antisemitism and urged alumni to stop donating to their alma maters until the schools clamp down on hate.
Pro-Israel activists have launched a petition drive to defund a taxpayer-financed legal aid group — Bronx Defenders — after the union representing its lawyers drafted a pro-Palestinian statement that accused the Jewish State of being “genocidal”.
Hochul invoked the loss of her nephew to a drug overdose as she announced that more than $192 million has been released from opioid settlement funding into addiction treatment programs across the state.
That amounts to approximately $192.8 million and is supporting a variety of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery initiatives to help those impacted by the opioid and overdose crisis.
The state Senate’s Subcommittee on Cannabis conducted its first hearing on the lumbering rollout of New York’s highly regulated retail marijuana industry, with dozens of regulators, law enforcement officials and industry stakeholders highlighting concerns.
Efforts to shut down illicit cannabis dispensaries have been slow to yield results and are still being “fine-tuned,” state cannabis officials admitted the hearing.
During the hearing, lawmakers who championed the 2021 law legalizing the sale of adult-use marijuana– which failed to include tough enforcement measures to discourage illicit peddling — fumed that their districts are now choking on unlicensed shops.
New York’s massive spending on the migrant crisis — which state officials say has hit nearly $2 billion — is “unsustainable” and cannot continue forever, Hochul said.
Migrants ousted from city shelters due to new time limits are being offered free tickets out of NYC or sent to so-called “waiting rooms” at local shelters with no assurance they’ll get a new bed, the latest signs the crisis is crashing the social safety net system.
Top officials from the Adams administration offered a glimpse into the sprawling migrant shelter complex set to open within days at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, a radically different setup for families that’s raising questions over its suitability.
Progressives might agree on the problem, but with just over a year and a half until the 2025 Democratic primary, they’re nowhere near figuring out who should actually run against Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams showed up to speak at an NYPD police academy graduation yesterday, and was greeted with booing as his name was announced.
Early voting is underway in the city’s local elections, but just over 25,000 New Yorkers have cast ballots so far, according to data released by the Board of Elections. That translates to just 0.5% of all active registered voters across the five boroughs.
Councilmember Julie Menin says she’s discovered a rat-killing method, in which an exterminator pumps carbon monoxide into burrows in sidewalk tree pits, that’s been so effective on the Upper East Side she’s expanding it to other parts of the neighborhood.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is calling on the city’s education department to revamp its funding process to better prepare for incoming students throughout the school year, as asylum-seekers continue arriving in New York City.
MTA officials unveiled OMNY vending machines at six subway stations, marking the latest step in the agency’s delayed push to phase out MetroCards as the fare payment system for subways and buses.
State Sen. James Skoufis filed a criminal referral with the state attorney general and the FBI regarding an alleged corruption scandal involving the Orange County government over contracts it entered into with an information technology company.
It was raining outside as a completely dry news conference took place yesterday to mark receiving a $500,000 state grant to help pay for the $1.8 million Cohoes City Hall roof replacement project.
Mayor Ron Kim turned his back on Saratoga Springs’ Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino’s reelection bid. And now Montagnino is rejecting Kim’s reelection campaign by endorsing Republican candidate John Safford for mayor.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, reportedly handed out stock grants to employees that showed it was worth about $19 billion, down about 55 percent from the $44 billion that Elon Musk paid to buy the firm a year ago.
Matthew Perry’s fellow “Friends” cast members expressed their grief and sadness about his death in a joint statement to People magazine.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer said in the statement.
Photo credit: George Fazio
