Retro and Vintage Halloween Collectibles Featured at The Collinsviile Antiques Company of New Hartford CT

Retro and Vintage Halloween Collectibles Available at Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT Year Round

While most antique shops pull out their Halloween collectibles right before the holiday, The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, Connecticut is lucky to have a avid collector of holiday collectibles who keeps an outstanding collection of revolving holiday collectibles including Retro Halloween goodies all year round. A professional designer, this vendor at Collinsville, has one of the most attractive booths you will find in any antique mall. Many other dealers at Collinsville also feature Halloween and other antiques and collectibles.

Types of Halloween Collectibles

Vintage and antique Halloween collectibles are hot sellers and gaining momentum each day as we get closer to the holiday.

Beginning collectors will have a ball hunting for these quirky and nostalgic treats. When you start poking around antique shops, markets and thrift shops you will find a variety of treasures including postcards, greeting cards, party and paper goods, games ( board, fortune, stunts), Paper Mache, decorations noise makers, costumes, candy bags,candy containers, figurines and more.


Common Halloween Themes and Their History

Common themes and symbols associated with Halloween are ghosts,bats, Jack O Lanterns, fortunes, witches, devils, owls, black cats.

According to the website Vintage Halloween.com http://www.vintagehalloween.com/hallohistory.html

"Our modern Halloween and its customs have derived from both the ancient Celtic festival, the Roman festival, and the Christian holiday. The huge influx of Irish immigrants in the last two hundred years, led to much influence on traditions and customs of Halloween. Here are the possible roots of some of the more popular Halloween symbols:

Witches:
Witch, or "Wica" is derived from the Wiccas who performed rituals in ancient times among the Celts. Often portrayed on a broom or standing over a cauldron, these images derive from the wica rituals of potion making and divination. Superstitions abound, and black cats were often said to be a witch in disguise.

Devil:
In ancient societies, often the animal of choice for sacrifice was the goat. So images we often see of the devil portray him with horns, a pointed chin, hooves, and large eyes.

Owls & Bats:
Owls and bats were nocturnal animals and often owls were seen at harvest time, feeding on rodents and other animals in the fields. The lore of a bat being Dracula, has derived from a species of blood sucking bats. Since Halloween is celebrated mostly at night, these nocturnal animals came to be a portrayed often in stories and decorations.

Ghosts:
Since this time of year was considered to be the time when the veil between the living and dead was at the thinnest, it was a common belief that one could mingle with the dead and commune with dead relatives. Anything that seemed unnatural or odd would be blamed on "ghosts" having done it.

Fortunes:
It was at this time of year that fortunes were sought out, to see what fate had in store for people. It was seen as the time for the most accurate predictions. Through time this led to fortune games at parties and the Victorian custom of twirling apple parings over one's head. When the paring fell to the ground, it formed a shape of a letter, the first letter of the name of a future beau.

Trick or Treating:
It has been suggested that trick or treating derived from the poor begging for food or the poor begging for soul cakes in return for their prayers for the dead. In Scotland in the 1800's, kids would go out "guising" in costume for treats.

Jack o' Lanterns:
The legend of the most familiar Halloween symbol--a lighted pumpkin--comes from a tale of an old Irish miser named Jack. Jack made several pacts with the devil. He also tricked the devil. When he died, he could not get into Heaven for his sins and because he had tricked the devil, he could not get into Hell. The Devil gave him a coal and Jack placed it in a hollowed out turnip, which lit his way as he wandered the earth until Judgment Day.

These lit up turnips of ancient times were also said to help ward off evil. Pumpkins, native to America, were plentiful and took the place of turnips.

Halloween parties became a yearly tradition and were celebrated with much fanfare. Party decorations became widespread and were inexpensive to purchase. Overtime, trick or treating became more common and today is looked upon with relish as kids choose to be ghosts or witches or little devils--all in good fun. It is interesting, that for so many who deal with death or things that are scary in so many different ways, that as a society we face these things so informally and with relish for one fantasy filled evening. Unfortunately as with any aspect of life, there are people who do evil things and sometimes these things are done on Halloween, but these people are acting on their own and not in kind with the spirit and festival that is ancient or modern day Halloween. Thanks to http://www.vintagehalloween.com/


Learn More About Halloween Traditions

Some interesting lnks about the history and tradition of Halloween courtesy of the website:http://www.vintagehalloween.com

Halloween A Christian Name with Blended Christian & Folk Traditions by The Rev. Thomas L. Weitzel

From the Library of Congress website: Halloween The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows by Jack Santino

History of Halloween, Halloweenmagazine.com

The History Channel: Halloween History

UrbanLegends.Com Halloween History, Customs, Folklore

Be sure to visit http://www.vintagehalloween.com/ and http://www.collinsvilleantiques.com/

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of Iantiqueonline.com an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café.

To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link:
C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff

Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com

Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com




Dianne is a member of:
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