My Goddess!! It's been a fun, exciting and busy, busy, busy month! Imagine being a witch in October, well . . . frankly . . . it's a lot like being an Elf in December! I've been interviewed on the radio, conducted a 'History of Halloween lecture at MCC, hand crafted a bunch of life size witches and cats, prepared the outside gardens for winter, harvested several herbs and plants from the gardens, amongst other things.
There's more happening this week, with Enchantments being used in a small independent horror film, myself conducting tarot readings at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, CT on Friday the 28th and then again the following night at the Daniel Rust Inn in Coventry, CT. Oh yes, there's also the actual day and night of Halloween! My cauldrons! Indeed. But I love it all, every little bit of it. Ha!
Tonight I wanted to discuss with you some fun, little known facts concerning Halloween, the pagan celebration of Samhain.
The Halloween Capitol of the World:
The Halloween Capitol of the World is Anoka, Minnesota. Anoka received this designation, back in the 1950's, due to its acceptance of Halloween when other towns were considering banning Halloween festivities due to the violence and mischief it seemed to foster. Rather than banning festivities, Anoka sought to create community friendly activities that would help curb the mischief making and vandalism that would often occur during the night of Halloween.
Activities like a Halloween Parade, where the children, dressed in costume would walk through town and all the towns folk would come out in support gives Anoka the distinction of hosting the first Halloween parade. Later there was held a community Halloween dance and party where children and adults were welcomed and encouraged to attend. In an attempt to avoid mischief after the community party, a contest was held where all of the children and young people would put their names in a drawing for a really cool prize. Think of an IPod or computer today, something you would really want to win. The catch was, everyone had but 30 minutes to be home after the party where they would listen to the local radio station which would call out the name of the winner. The winner needed to call the station within a few minutes to win. So it assured everyone was home under proper supervision shortly after leaving the party, and they thusly experienced a vandalism free Halloween. By accepting the holiday, and seeking solutions to the problems Anoka embraced the fun and excitement of Halloween earning them the title of Halloween Capitol of the World. They deserve it!
Halloween Candy Tampering
According to the FBI, there have only been two incidents of Halloween candy being tampered with causing two children to be injured or worse. Both of these cases were finally determined to be cases of a family member who deliberately wished to kill the child for the insurance money. These were separate cases, and never has there been a case of a child being injured from candy from a strangers house from trick or treating. I can't find any information as to candy or fruit actually being tampered with by sickos, because even I think I've seen those news reports around Halloween, the good news being no one has been hurt by these attempts. Its still an excellent idea to exhibit the proper precautions we all have become so familiar with i.e. check all candy, eat no candy unwrapped or homemade (its a shame but safety must be a priority!!) When in doubt, THROW IT OUT!!!, and be smart about things. I personally think this is why there have been no actual 'stranger' incidents. Not that there aren't sickos out there who just want to hurt others, but by being diligent and careful everyone can have fun and enjoy and worry a bit less about how often this type of thing occurs.
Ghost Stories:
Ghost stories go very far back in time, over 5,000 years to the early civilization of the ancient Celts. The Druid's were the priesthood of the ancient Celtic culture and they believed in the magickal, the spiritual and the invisible world of spirits, ghosts and the unseen magickal world. The nature of the ancient cultures were to pass the tribal knowledge, the legends and lessons to the young through story telling. They taught and instructed the young as to the ways of the tribe, and the spirits of those who had passed on were still considered to be a part of the community and death was considered just another step on the path. The topic of spirits and the unseen world would have been discussed and taught around the nightly campfires as this culture was an agricultural culture that worked in the fields and farms from before sunup to sundown. It makes sense that humans would congregate around the campfires at night as little work can be done in the dark of night and during this time alternative sources of light, candles, rushes, sconces were dim at best, smoky and expensive at least. The campfire or central fire in the Celtic roundhouses made a communal place to sit and be with each other. The telling of stories therefore grew out of this dynamic, and the ghost story was born. People have loved stories about spirits for centuries and I bet we will continue to do so for many years to come.
These are a few interesting tidbits that I've come across during my extensive research on Halloween and Samhain. I hope you enjoyed them also.
Peace and Happiness
© 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website.
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