π§© BND Motif Index Β· M1166
Pagan roots
Each holiday season the explainer comes round telling the custom's older folk or pagan origin, as if newly unearthed: jack-o'-lanterns from the Stingy Jack legend and Samhain turnips carved to ward off spirits (Snopes, Oct 2026); the Christmas tree and Saturnalia, Easter eggs and Eostre.
π» PerennialsποΈ Everyday talkποΈ Faith and the sacred
- 1claim filed under it
- 1fact-checker
β οΈ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
π§Ά Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-24 βCarving pumpkins for Halloween is a tradition used to ward off spirits.β π Snopes
M1166 Β· first seen 2026-10-24 Β· what this is Β· how the index works