Some modern Halloween customs, including trick-or-treating, trace their roots to both Samhain and the St. Martin’s Day tradition of children going door to door, singing songs, and receiving treats.

Traditions included lantern-lit processions of children (Laternelaufen) led by a horseman portraying Saint Martin, bonfires, and the first wine of the season. Saint Martin was also said to bring gifts to children.

It also marks the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours, a 4th-century Roman soldier best remembered for cutting his cloak in half to share with a poor man in rags. This medieval festival, celebrated across much of Europe, marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter revelling season.

But the Spooky Season doesn’t end there. November 11 is sometimes known as Old Halloween or Old All Hallows Eve. It’s a date when Halloween was celebrated in some regions before the calendar reform.

Though she and her sisters were painted and studied, they did not hold official roles at court like their father and brother. They were treated more as wonders than equals.

Fontana’s portrait invites us to ask: When we look at someone who is different, what do we truly see?

Atop her head sits a crown of snowdrops, clover, and a carnation. The crown gives an impression of refinement, but each flower grows in the wild. This contrast suggests how Antonietta was often seen, part courtly marvel, and part mystery.

Behind her right ear is a lily of the valley, symbolizing purity and humility. It also grows wild without human care, reflecting how people at the time often viewed those with hypertrichosis—as natural, untamed, and outside societal norms.

Fontana’s portrait captures the tension between admiration and alienation. Antonietta appears poised, dressed finely, and holding a handwritten note that explains her background.

Her father, Pedro Gonzales (Latinized as Petrus Gonsalvus), was the first well-documented case in medical history. The family became known as curiosities, observed by doctors, written about by scholars, and immortalized by artists.

Antonietta was real. She was not a myth or a sideshow act. Her family lived in the courts of Europe and shared a rare condition called hypertrichosis, often nicknamed “werewolf syndrome” for the thick hair it causes on the face and body.