Ohio Village to offer frighteningly good time at All Hallows’ Eve
Trick-or-treaters in 2021 are likely to dress up based on their favorite characters from movies, TV and celebrity culture, but those who celebrated Halloween in Ohio in 1898 were likelier to don far simpler outfits.
“Some of these costumes mimicked animals, but a lot of them mimicked concepts,” said Andrew Hall, the senior experience developer at Ohio Village, the Ohio History Connection’s historically accurate recreation of a small community near the end of the 19th century. But back to those costumes. “There’s mist, where it’s a dress that’s covered in fluffy tulle to make you look like you’re a cloud of smoke,” Hall said.
During the five Saturdays in October, the Ohio Village will be decked out in all things scary and spooky for the Ohio History Connection’s annual celebration of All Hallows’ Eve — an earlier name for the day we now know as “Halloween.”
“All Hallows’ Eve is a derivation of a variety of different holidays,” Hall said. “It comes from a combination of Celtic practices, Norse practices, as well as the Western feast of All Hallows’ Day and All Saints’ Day. It’s an amalgamation of five or six different cultures’ thoughts on thinking about the dead, thinking about the memories of those who have passed along.”
In years past, All Hallows’ Eve was celebrated at Ohio Village for two Saturdays in October, but, anticipating high interest, officials expanded the event to each Saturday during the month. Adding additional days will also allow the village to safely accommodate as many attendees as possible.
“Typically, we would have several thousand people there at one time,” said Savannah Robles, Ohio History Connection’s public relations coordinator. “We’re hoping, by spreading it out over five weekends, ... that we’ll be able to
keep people more safe.”
Timed tickets, which must be purchased online at www.ohiohistory.org, are required; attendees can choose to enter at 5:30, 6 or 6:30 p.m., though all can remain until the festivities wrap up
at 9:30 p.m. COVID-19 protocols include wearing masks while indoors; masks are not required while outside.
Until five years ago, Ohio Village was dressed to resemble 1860s-era Ohio before being updated to 1898. So what changed in how Halloween was celebrated between the 1860s and 1890s?
“You see huge waves of both Irish and German immigration following the end of the 1860s, into the ’70s,” Hall said. “We see a lot of those folks bringing their cultural practices with them (to Ohio).”
That includes pumpkin-carving, which was popularized during these years, he said.
“It derives from an old Irish tradition of actually carving turnips, which, if you’ve never carved a turnip, is extraordinarily difficult,” Hall said.
Pumpkin-carving is just one of many activities families can enjoy at the event. For example, a lit pumpkin path snaking through the village will take attendees to a spot where Washington Irving’s classic story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” will be read (three times nightly).
“During that program, we actually do have horses and riders who go around and help recreate the magic of that story by getting to see not only Ichabod Crane, but also the Headless Horseman himself,” Hall said.
Crowds will also encounter less fantastical Ohio Villagers — performers playing characters straight out of the 1890s — dressed for the occasion.
Ohio Village’s “marshal” will keep an eye on kids tempted to make mischief — Hall said that “tricks” on Halloween started to become popular in the 1900s — and those playing fortune-tellers will display gifts of prophecy.
Visitors curious to check out some period-appropriate Halloween costumes can head over to a 19th-century masquerade party, which is ongoing throughout the night.
Craft stations for children include assorted activities, including making Halloween masks and Headless Horseman puppets.
But don’t get scared stiff — after all, despite its creepy spooky fun, All Hallows’ Eve at the Ohio Village is meant to be educational.
“It’s kind of a guerilla learning tactic, where people don’t realize that they’re learning until they’ve already learned,” Hall said. “They’re too busy having fun.”
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