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Denise's avatar

What a beautiful excerpt.

I did know of the Hallowe'en Samhain origin in Ireland.

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Hope C. Tarr's avatar

Thanks! I still cringe at how young and dumb I was. Well, I cringe about the "dumb" part, anyway. ;)

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Denise's avatar

I would never say you were dumb. How are you to know if you weren't taught about it? Our education system is so vast and there was never a true core system nationally, so many variances regionally, and even districts in the same state.

The original jack-o'-lanterns were from turnips, not pumpkins. And the story began with that in school and tying it to Ireland. It was lightly touched on. We didn't learn about Samhain--that's self-taught.

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Hope C. Tarr's avatar

All great points. I remember reading a satire by Alexander Pope (I think it was) on the Irish Problem in English lit class but that’s about it.

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