Good morning —BOOOOO. (which in ghost means I love you) There are all manner of legends and things–there are some in my novel–check out quotes and research on my pin: https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/my-novels/ I do have Druids—but don’t worry no Halloween, well not anything you’d recognize. Honorable mention: HOME AND GARDEN TREASURES Mt. Dora http://www.hgtreasures.com/ all the pictures in this episode are from my former décor—sorry can’t find any Druids: https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/getting-ready-for-the-holidays/
All Saints’ Day perpetuated the pagan Samhain of November Eve. (Bonwick, James, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions, Dorset Press, 1984 (1986ed), p.87
Scaring fans and leaked auditions:
Witch: Probably not a good choice of costumes for 18th century Scotland:
and another Jamie LOOK
Rita Rudner
Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, “Never take candy from strangers.” And then they dressed me up and said, “Go beg for it.” I didn’t know what to do!
Today all things that go bump in the dark are fair game.
Jean Baudrillard
There is nothing
funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.
Did you know that Thyme was once to thought to be where the souls of the dead use to dwell and in English tradition, the scent of thyme “was associated with the ghosts of the murdered.” ? In fact it was actually placed in the house when the deceased was in the house, but it was never one of the plants used to dress the coffin. However in some parts of the country it was dropped on the coffin as it was lowered into the grave.
Darkness night and shinning moon
Harken to the Witches Rune
Doreen Valiente
April 30, Walpugisnacht, was a time similar to Halloween which was in Germanic and Scandinavian countries. It was a time when dark creatures held sway and both midday and midnight were times when the barrier was thin (a belief shared by the Greeks and Romans).
The genesis of many of America’s Halloween traditions can be found in these ancient celebrations . . . (Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt, Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1990 p. 6)
Horse shoes were amulets used for protection in Britain, Europe and Arabia. Nailed above a door (which it was in houses churches even stables) it was believed to protect against evil spirits, fairies, even the evil eye. Placed in a chimney it protected against witches flying down same and above the bed it kept nightmares and demons away. It has also been used for good luck—but there is a catch— to keep beasties and bad dreams away you have to place it with the opening at the bottom–for luck (to keep it from spilling out) it must be places with the opening up.
Anonymous
I’ll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.
Vampires vary around the world
Malaysian vampires “Penanggalan” were creatures with severed heads and intestines dangling down.
Kali the Hindu goddess has bloody fangs in some pictures.
Gypsy and southern Slavic vampires return for sex with former lovers but were known to attack others including live stock.
Malaysian vampire creatures “Langsuyar” would take the place of the wife and could bear and raise children and were only found out from chance events during these times.
Eastern European male vampires just moved to a different location and took up a new life often along the same lines as before they became vampires.
Henry David Thoreau
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
THE Pitchfork. Often associated in our culture with demons and the Devil.
Ancient Celts viewed it (the trident) as a male fertility symbol
India’s Kali’s bridegroom was the trident bearer.
Neptune & Poseidon (Greek and Roman deities) carried a trident as a symbol of fertility and the birth of the sea waters.
It is felt that the fertility angle (and how you go about using that fertility) was why the early Christian Church might well have transferred its use by Lucifer.
“Carry me.” She leaves this trail
through a shudder of the veil,
and leaves, like amber where she stays,
a gift for her perpetual gaze.
Werewolves are also a popular legend.
Navajo lore states that witches can become wolves or other creatures simply by wrapping themselves in their skins.
Medieval Europe and Baltic countries had lots of werewolf legends specifically they made contracts of one sort or other with the devil. In fact a serial killer (murdered 13 children and two pregnant women and then ate their hearts) after torture confessed to being a werewolf. He was tortured, beheaded and burned along with his daughter and another accomplice in 1590 Germany.
Now the dogs of the cemetery are starting to bark
At the vision of her, bobbing up through the dark.
When she opens her mouth to gasp for air,
A moth flies out and lands in her hair.
Maurice Kilwein Guevara, “A Rhyme for Halloween”
WITCHES
In many parts of the world are associated with vampires
Central and South American (especially Brazil) Witches are considered blood-drinking in their own right. The two are often confused with each other.
Owls like many nigh birds are the subject of superstitions.
Romans: Hated owls which they associated with death and disaster.
Greeks: Associated it with the goddess of wisdom and it was a sign of victory when it flew over their soldiers.
Britain and Europe: considered unlucky, especially when encountered in daylight and looking into a nest can cause depression
Ireland: In some parts an owl entering a house is killed immediately to prevent it from taking the household’s luck.
Wales: Continued hooting means a girl in the vicinity will loose her virginity.
France: When a pregnant woman hears an owl hoot she knows the baby will be a girl.
Germany: Carrying the heart and right foot of the bird under the left arm pit protected against being bitten by a mad dog.
Macbeth: Witches used an owlet’s wing ‘for a charm of powerful trouble.
Backwards up the mossy glen
Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
“Come buy, come buy.”
Sources
A FIELD GUIDE TO THE CREATURES THAT STALK THE NIGHT VAMPIRES/Curan
HALLOWEEN/Ravenwolf
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERSTTIONS/ Radford
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHS & WITCHCRAFT/Guiley
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Witches/Macbeth
