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INSIDE This Issue
1
Reflecting on Our Europe Vacation
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Are You Ready for Medicare AEP?
3
Testimonial
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Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese
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Halloween’s Haunting History
Let’s Unmask Halloween: The Origins and Legends Behind Your Favorite Traditions
Here come the scary decorations, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, and spooky costumes because Halloween is just around the corner! These traditions are what make Halloween fun and exciting year after year. However, did you know that jack-o’-lanterns come from an Irish legend or that trick-or-treating comes from a historical ritual called “souling”? As we prepare for Oct. 31 activities, here are some fun facts you might not know about Halloween! HALLOWEEN IS BASED ON A CELTIC FESTIVAL. Samhain, a pagan festival held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, celebrated both the harvest and the “dark” second half of the year. During this celebration, it was believed
the barrier separating the spirits from the physical world would come down, allowing demons to enter and the spirits of all who passed away that year to move on to the next life. ‘STINGY JACK’ HELPED EVOLVE JACK-O’-LANTERNS. The Irish myth of a man named “Stingy Jack” goes like this: Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink, and because he didn’t want to pay, he convinced the devil to turn into a coin so he could buy their drinks. However, instead of paying, he placed the “coin” next to a cross in his pocket that prevented the devil from returning to his original form. Once he freed the devil, Stingy Jack continued to trick him. When he died, God turned away Stingy Jack with only coal to light his
way, so he placed the coal in a carved- out turnip to create a lantern. From there, people slowly transformed his “lantern” into the modern-day jack-o’-lantern! CANDY CORN WAS ONCE CALLED CHICKEN FEED. Candy corn, which the Wunderlee Candy Company began producing in the late 1880s, is an extremely popular Halloween candy. In fact, today, about 35 million pounds of the candy are sold each year! When the Goelitz Candy Company brought it to the masses at the turn of the century, they called the sweet tricolored candy “Chicken Feed” because so many people worked on farms at the time. Their early ads exclaimed, “Something worth crowing for!”
Now you know! Happy Halloween!
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