Dark Night of the Scarecrow

I just finished rewatching this 1981 horror flick this morning. For some reason, scarecrows, creepy ones in horror movies, always seem to get me most weirded out! I am not sure why except perhaps to say that everyone has their thing that creeps them out. I can handle blood, guts, bugs, chainsaws, knives, creepy kids....blah blah...none of that seems to bother me at all. I can take a scarecrow too, cause who doesn't love the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz movie?!

But perhaps this was the movie that made me feel like the creepy scarecrow masks and costumes, were the more scariest! The rotting pumpkin heads or maybe even taking me back to the old classic Headless Horseman? 

So I watched Dark Night of the Scarecrow, starring Charles Durning. It's about a mentally handicapped man who is killed cause some of the towns people, this group of men, decide to go vigilante as they think he killed this little girl he was innocently playing with. Of course after they kill him, they find out that no, he didn't harm the girl at all and she isn't dead and in fact, the handicapped man had saved her life! Uh oh....

Well, of course the tables get turned and "Bubba" gets revenge and you are just not sure if it is him or the lawyer or the little girl or dead Bubba's mom that is going after the men who murdered Bubba.

It's a bit of a "B" movie and it struck me as being sad watching it this time around. Sad that people are too quick to blame a mentally handicapped person for something bad happening instead of waiting for the facts to be revealed, jumping the gun and in fact committing murder themselves based on those assumptions. Reminds me of the whole mob mentality. Of course you begin to see what a horrid man Charles Durning plays as one of the men who killed Bubba and in fact had led the others to do so along with him.

The little girl is kinda creepy herself tho' with the little song she keeps singing everywhere. I can see where they could have jumped on that and played her singing it more often and how that would have really made the whole movie alot more eerie! But the scarecrow showing up in places was good too!

It's not too bad of a movie, it was touched up in 2010, tho' I don't remember how the quality was back in '81. It's worth watching at least once tho'.

You can still get it for $12. 

Take note of the pitchfork tho' in the beginning....heh heh...it comes back to haunt one of the men...

How to Corpse a Pumpkin

I came across this link of how to corpse a pumpkin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyKjm6ry-VY 

Now what is "corpsing"? It is taking a pumpkin or skeleton and making it look rotted and scary! In the case of a skeleton, it can make it look like there is flesh still on the bones! 

This is using a craft pumpkin, one of those you can get from Michael's hobby store that is made of the hard foam. As you can see, they look ok, all bright and orange but they do not have that creepy, scary look that I was wanting. I happened upon that link then of how to change my pumpkin to one that looked more sinister.

 After watching the vid, I began to collect the necessary items. I at first thought it was just using the regular liquid latex and as such, I picked up a bottle of it from the Spirit Halloween stores. I also picked up the cotton balls and lucked out in that I had managed to get the ones that you can unroll tho', that is not without a bit of patience to do so.

When I first attempted this with the liquid latex pictured here:

 It wasn't coming out as well as the video. This liquid latex is too thin and although it was sticking fairly well to the craft pumpkin, it just seemed to make the cotton balls appear thinned out over the orange pumpkin. It seemed to be a more bubbled effect. This is also not easy to apply the liquid latex and I found I had to dab at the cotton which also did not make the texture to be what I was going for.

Looking at the video closer, I realized that I was not using the same type of liquid latex and that what he uses is a type more used for mold building. So I went back to the hobby store and found the exact same stuff he was using.

 So how you do it:
I unrolled a lot of the cotton balls and opened them up a bit. Then I spread some of the latex over a section of the pumpkin and then pressed the flattened and unrolled cotton onto that area and then applied another layer of the latex over the cotton.

WOW! What a difference this stuff made! It went on thicker and tho' I still had to be careful in applying it, it gave me the desired effect.

Maneuvering around the cut out letters was not easy either and took a bit of patience. I tore smaller pieces of cotton for those areas and some places, I had to dab on the latex instead of painting it up and down.

Let it dry and then paint.

I also took the lids and added more cotton to the stems and swirled them up and over in curlique shapes. 

I let everything dry overnight and then spray painted them all black first. This dried very quickly and then I used a bit of brown paint and dry brushed it over the black very lightly.
After that dried, I took some brighter orange paint and dry brushed that over the pumpkins. 
Green was applied to the stems.

If too much of the color was put on, I just sprayed it very lightly with the black again to darken it and tone it down.


I thought they came out rather well! :) I used them just inside the entrance of the Haunted Cave.

I plan on corpsing another pumpkin that I have some of the Halloween Teeth in it that glows in the dark. It has a bit of a scary face on it and I think it would look even better if I corpsed it.
I will probably do a few more of these over the winter and into the spring/summer. After completing 4 of them, I feel very confident in making these.

One jar of that mold building latex completed almost 4 of these pumpkins. 

This was a fun project and the liquid latex that I got on my fingers easily rolled off, no problem!

Thank you Hauntcast for the great idea!

House of Wax

House of Wax, 1953, Color

Starring: Vincent Price

It was fitting that TCM (Turner Classic Movies), chose the month of October to honor Vincent Price, the King of the Macabre. The actor who brought wonderful Edgar Allan Poe poems to life. 

This Warner Bros. movie is a remake from the original 1933, The Mystery of the Wax Museum starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. Vincent Price looks great in this movie!

Of note, this is also the first 3D movie released in the movie theaters. My uncle had told me that he had gone to see it when it first came out. I could only imagine how scary it must have been back then! Bonus, you can buy it in Blu-Ray and 3D!

This movie starts out with Vincent Price as a talented wax sculptor in a wax museum. His partner burns the place down for the insurance money and later, Vincent Price returns with a new ghoulish twist on his wax figures.

Pay attention to Price's assistant, Igor, in this movie, it's a very young Charles Bronson, under his real name of Charles Buchinsky!

Also, Phyllis Kirk plays Sue Allen and you might know her from the Thin Man series as she portrayed Nora Charles. I recognized her as Ursula di Varamendi in The Iron Mistress with Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie. Jim Bowie had married Ursula. 

For those Little House on the Prairie fans, remember Reverend Robert Alden?  Yes, a young Robert William "Dabbs" Greer is in House of Wax too as one of the cops.

Who you may not recognize playing Cathy Gray is none other than Carolyn Jones, or who you may know better as the lovely creepy Morticia Addams from the Addams Family! Did you know she was also in the tv series, Batman and also the tv series Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island and numerous other series and movies. 
Check out her bio: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0427700/?ref_=tt_cl_t4

I remember watching this movie when I was a kid and it has always been a favorite of mine.

Be sure and watch it if you haven't seen it!

Halloween 2013!

Well Halloween has come and gone! September flew by so fast and it's hard to believe that this year is almost over! Time is flying by! I have wanted to really work on my tombstones and what with trips and recovering from said trips, it's been difficult to get the time. 

Some updates from this past season:

I had found about all of the dvds for the window projections and converted them all and had put together a couple playlists, one for the month of October and the other for Halloween night itself.

We had gotten the window peepers up and set up the light with a timer so they are illuminated for a few hours a night in the garage. I also set out the new zombie pathway markers but they won't get turned on until Halloween night. They play several sounds when motion or sound activated! I really love them with flashing LED light eyes. I wish I could select which sound I would like to play for they have one that has a blackbird cawing! It sounds the most eerie!

 We also put up the porch light covers, just the scary jack o' Lanterns. I noticed they are fading in our brutal Texas sun! :( I'll have to see about repainting them over at the end of the season or if I can find some time for them this year. That's the biggest problem with the plastic and blowmold stuff, is the sun fading them out. Speaking of, I did pick up a few new blowmold ghosts for the backyard from ebay. Which reminds me that I really need to hit the garage sales for better deals as ebay tends to be more expensive. It's fun to win  the auctions tho' as you sit and wait for the seconds to tick by, fingers ready at the keys to quickly put in the highest bid as your pulse races and your heart gets up into your throat! And then the elation and thrill of winning! Haha! And yet, you can have the thrill of winning in a garage sale or flea market when you pay 1/3 of the price! LMAO! Not the same but feels better in the wallet! ;)

Pics of the front graveyard:

The new flying witch, really flying in the wind!:

The circle of ghosts with white pumpkin heads and we had decided to spiderweb the graveyard!:

Can see the creepy "Time" piece I had won from the Davis Family all day workshop at last year's Hauntcon!:

Entrance to the Haunted Cave being prepared:

 The Front being put up:

At night with an eerie green glow...

 The side graveyard with the more 'fun' kind of tombstones:

The front where the Halloween vid projections are shown:

The Egyptian area with thrashing mummy and striking snake:

The entrance of the Haunted Cave with the sticker cockroaches and the rubber ones sprinkled over them to make it look real...many kids would not enter just because of these!!

The skull pile in the back was from A Corpse Maker who made the skull panels that are on the floor there. I added some loose bones on top of it for effect and some spooky material...

This is the cauldron creep on the left and a full skeleton shackled to the wall on the right.

Along the wall of the entrance corridor, is the swamp creature and more skeleton torsos hanging:

This is a creepy kinda guy that we made up in a makeshift open coffin complete with rats and some strobe lights on him....

Looking from the entrance about half-way thru, can see the hanging coffins and all sorts of ghoulish and creepy things:

More notes from this year:

We put up most of the Halloween decorations. We'll get the fence put together and will fill in with some of the tombstones however, I have to spray paint the backs with the Great Stuff all gray. As I redo a tombstone, I will just remove it and reattach a new back or front after scraping off the Great Stuff and using Gorilla Glue and water to get it adhered on. If I don't get them all done as I realized there are ALOT more of them that I did this to last year, then I will be holding them over in the garage and working on them over the winter and as I finish them, we'll place them into storage.

This is the first Halloween that I won't be flying off somewhere on November 1st in 2 years. So I will be able to organize everything into boxes a lot better than before which is important to do for next year so you are not wondering where everything is at. Plus, this year, I have to sort thru what I do have, save for some items for a garage sale next spring if I am still here. I also need to pack things well as we are hoping to sell the house and be out of here next spring. :)

I did get the poster from Midnight Syndicate! I will be displaying it outside the Haunted Cave on Halloween night on my Home Interior's board. I'll cover it with a black sheet or the garden material and then pin the poster on. It looks great! If you have not listened to one of their cds yet, you really should! The latest is a tribute and bears the title: Monsters of Legend. It is really great so be sure and check it out!

I did alot of updates on Facebook, so if you haven't yet done so, please do add me on as a friend there! I have most of the pics up over there as well as a short clip of the Cauldron Creep! Lloyd, who helped me to build him and did most of the mechanics for it, will be writing a blog piece on how he built it and I'll share it with everyone here! :)

For now, here is a short clip of the Cauldron Creep we built:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=543185395765624&set=vb.100002225049270&type=2&theater

Dispelling the Misinformed About Halloween

Dispelling the Misinformed About Halloween

The other day I was looking on YouTube for Halloween vids and I came across one that was supposedly unveiling the truth behind the history of Halloween. Of course I watched it, already having a feeling it was going to be downing and negative and absolutely wrong.

And of course, I was right, this video was oh so wrong.
In fact, the poster took excerpts from other shows like the History channel's History of Halloween as well as clips and pics from the older version of the movie, The Wicker Man. I recognized it all as I have the movie and I have seen that program before.

Now, anyone can take any clip from whatever show or movie, just like some do from books or speeches, and taken out of context, they can use it to prove whatever point they are trying to make, right or wrong.

To really learn about the facts of another religion or faith or belief, you have to set aside your own for a moment and read as objectively as you can. You have to toss out what is conjecture or guessing or assumptions, people stating things because they are jumping to conclusions or drawing lines or making connections with no basis in fact. You have to look at things in more logical, scientific terms, without the spiritual bias you may have grown up with.

People tend to paint the unknown with their fears or make it evil when they are unable to truly understand something. They feel if they can't fathom it or grasp the meaning, it must be wrong or evil, especially if it is different than what they were brought up to believe. Why is that? Because to doubt what you were told as a kid would mean finding fault or seeing the human frailties of parents  or clergy or other adults, casting them in a bad light when you had them upon a pedestal and of course they would not lie to you....ahem. But you have to remember that most tell you what they themselves were told or what was known at the time.

I have a link for the History of Halloween on this blog and it is probably the most accurate I have found about the true origins of Halloween. How do I know? Well, I have conducted extensive research into the origins of holidays and have taught it to elementary kids as a room mother for my daughter's 1st grade class so much so to the point her teacher wrote me into his social studies curriculum. I left out as much sex and religious slants as I could and instead focused on the practices for different countries and teaching where some of the traditions came from.

I have also fought for Halloween, against the extremists who wanted to shut it down and stop it from being celebrated while I was on an Air Base in Japan....and I won!

I have all the greatest respect for other people's beliefs and their different faiths, but I have little respect for those supposedly educated people that make assumptions or allow their own deep faiths to skew facts and refuse to believe anything different than what they believe. They think that simply because someone does not believe as they do, they must be bad or evil.
It's wrong.


Samhain & Cernunnos

One of my first observations is the mispronunciation of the word Samhain. It is not "Sam-hane", but it is pronounced Sow-in, or Sah-win, with the 'o' being short like "Ow! That hurts!"  Now what does the word mean? It is a Gaelic term meaning 'summer's end', it is not the name of the horned god they showed in the video.

There is no such thing as a Lord Samhain and that Horned god is not the devil, nor is he evil. The picture they used is of the God, Cernunnos and the reason he has an antlered crown is because he is Lord of the Forests to the Pagans. He reigns over the animals. I can see why this person tried to draw parallels to their Satan or Devil, but that's not who nor what Cernunnos is. And perhaps that is the first mistake, he was trying to make comparisons where you can't do so in that case. So why associate him with the devil? Take a look here:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/103578/Cernunnos

Back then, his image was used because of how much the church opposed the Pagans and did all they could to eradicate the old religion from the world. Mostly out of fear of the unknown and trying to force their beliefs on everyone else.
But the God Cernunnos, is not evil, not to Pagans.
Take a look here for how many Pagans see him:

 http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/godsandgoddesses/p/Cernunnos.htm

More short description:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/celtsmyth/g/Cernunnos.htm
And even from dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/samhain
And some more indepth info here:
http://hawthorngrove.faithweb.com/writings/horndgod.htm

So as you can see, he was and is not evil, although some may have demonized him for their own purposes, it is false.

This image of who the Celts and many Pagans today now refer to or identify as Cernunnos, was first found (so far) as an antlered figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron. More information about this cauldron can be found here:

http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/Gundestrup/kauldron.html

I may blog about the whole Cernunnos aspect at another time as I ran across a youtube vid someone made who questions whether this is really the God Cernunnos or not. Interesting discussion and I want to look over the vid some more as I already heard some assumptions by the poster/creator of the vid. It brought to mind tho', how one image would mean something to one person or set of people and yet it mean something completely different to another. Another topic, another time! :)


Pagans & Celts

As for the term Pagans, the people back then, the Celts, pronounced with a hard 'K' like the word 'kites', Celts, (not like the basketball team the Celts with a soft 'c' or 's' sound), did not call themselves Pagans, they just simply were who they were. Pagan is a generic term that just means a group of people who believe in more than one God, similar to Christians who believe in one God.
Christians did not steal the sabbats or holidays from the Pagans, no. The observances of the harvest and changing seasons were occurring way before either existed or were known to have formed. It was the natural way and intelligent for the people to be aware of as they depended on the land and the weather in order to survive.
As Christianity came into being and those beliefs began to spread, they attempted to convert the other people, sometimes forcibly, to drop the old ways and beliefs and practices, and they had a hard time convincing the people to give up honoring and celebrating what the Christians believed was evil. So they did the next best thing, since they couldn't beat them, try as they might with all the persecutions, they joined them instead and slowly began to change and adapt the established beliefs and practices and made them more Christian.


Druids

Next up was the maligning of the Druids and all the assumptions as to what Stonehenge was used for. I'd love to know where the poster came up with all of his conjectures and summations when no one else seems to know for sure, not even the archeologists or learned scholars.

Ok, as we all have been told, the Druids were the priests to the Celtic people and their traditions and beliefs were oral and much of it was not written down so that means alot of what they did or believed is lost to the modern world. That being said, the more we find thru archeological digs and discovering more sites, the more we are learning, but even then, we can only try to draw conclusions and still only guess about maybe half of what and why, if we are lucky. 

Now, to further that, Druids were not just priests as we can find out just reading of the old Brehon Laws that have survived from Ireland, these ARE written down. Druids were alot more than just priests. They were philosophers, astronomers, advisors, peace makers, judges, teachers, seers, the wise ones who held the wisdom of the ancient ways and so much more! 
We also know the people back then were more connected to the earth and observed the seasons and the stars as they lived off the land and had to prepare for the harsh winters, gathering food, growing and harvesting and storing it to take them thru winter. There were no grocery stores back then. Does that make them barbaric? I say it makes them more practical and as technology had not advanced to the point it has now, they were quite ingenious and I would even say more attuned to the land and each other than we are today.

Druids would not have gone door to door looking for sacrifices and marking doors with a 6 pointed star, or the Star of David in blood to curse those within so that someone would die in a day or two. DOH! This sounded more like about the origin of Passover:
http://www.happypassover.net/passover-origin.html

And the whole boiling water vat of apples story about the chosen victims for sacrifice were given the choice to try to nab an apple on the first try and would be freed and not have to be sacrificed? Really?! Honestly...
More info on bobbing for apples:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/halloween/a/Bobbing-For-Apples-On-Halloween.htm

 I doubt Druids were the ones running around with carved out turnips lit with candle stubs.
Origin of the jack o'lantern:
http://www.history.com/topics/jack-olantern-history
And further back:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/halloween/a/Why-Do-We-Carve-Pumpkins-On-Halloween.htm

Did Druids have power or a say over people insomuch that they could not get married without one or such? Could be, but is that not how it was for other religions in that they needed to have their own clergy do so, before the whole JP/justice of the peace type of marriages came into being? And in their eyes you are not really married if you follow that certain faith unless a priest of that faith sanctifies the joining?


Did Druids/Celts have human sacrifices, perhaps, tho it is unknown for sure beyond what is found in the writings of Caesar and even then, it is hard to know what is fact or what was told to him second, third or fortieth hand. Like whispering a sentence in a circle of people to one person who in turn whispers to the next one and then next...all the way back to the first person and then see if you have the same sentence by then? And then you have to take into account that anything that was different or that the enemy did or believed in, was going to be vilified and cast in the worst light to rally their own forces to be against them. But, were there sacrifices? Or were they killing their own enemies and killing them in such a way as to send a message to others who might come upon them? As if to say, don't mess with us? To truly know 100%, you would have to go back in time to see for yourself.

Take a look at this link, you decide for yourself...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8037258/Druids-Worshippers-of-nature-who-were-said-to-sacrifice-humans.html
Did other religions sacrifice, persecute, torture and murder and do harm to innocent people in the past? Yes, they did and still do in some cases, sadly enough. Do all who follow that same religion do those horrible things? No, they do not.

Do modern Druids do that? No.

Do Druids worship the devil or do evil things as per their faith? No, they do not, it is not part of their faith at all. If that guy really wanted to know the truth, he would sit  down and put his own biases aside, have an open mind and look into this as a scholar and student to learn the truth before spouting off all this claptrap full of fears and assumptions.

How modern Druids think of Halloween/Samhain:
http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/samhain/deeper-samhain
And here:
http://www.adf.org/rituals/celtic/samhain/scg-samhain-99-lore.html

And take a peek here at The NY Times::
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/garden/if-a-druid-rings-the-doorbell.html?ref=garden&_r=2&pagewanted=all&
 

Stonehenge

Fact is, no one knows for sure what Stonehenge was used for. It was built before the Druids were known to be on the land. Everyone has their own theories. It is very strategically setup in alignment of the stars, summer solstice etc, yes, and there is more being discovered all the time including nearby villages etc etc.

More about Stonehenge here:
http://www.livescience.com/22427-stonehenge-facts.html
And more here:
http://www.history.com/topics/stonehenge

So the present theory is that it has been utilized for multiple purposes since it's creation.

Watch for more information and discoveries about Stonehenge coming to light in the future! I was there visiting for the second time just this summer and there will be more information revealed in the very near future! Very exciting!



History and Comparisons
Don't get me started on comparing cruelties committed by other faiths and how very barbaric they once were and in some ways, how people use their religion as an excuse to harm or abuse and even kill others. Of course this is not the norm for those religions either by the by, but just some radical people who went off the deep end beyond sense or reason.

Take a look at that link, I will post it here too:
http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/halloweenhistory.php 

That is about as accurate as I have been able to find on the net that collaborates the research I have gone thru of the many books and papers on holiday origins.

Although no site is completely, 100% accurate and I believe that in order to be so, you would have had to have been there and lived there during that time to know without a single doubt nor assumption or guess as to what this or that means.

To touch on the flip side briefly, do all Christians persecute or kill or torture Pagans or those who don't believe as they do? No, they do not. Did they do that in the past? Of course not all of them did, no. Some? Yes, sadly that did happen and is a documented fact and just the Salem Witch trials alone shows that. Does it mean that all Christians are evil? No. Most I have found to be very respectful of other people's beliefs or non-beliefs, just as most Pagans are as well.

And I just saw on Facebook someone posted how it was said that Druids would cast black cats in wicker cages into the fire.
Geez....the only place you will find that horrid statement is on extremists sites and has no basis in fact.

Again, you have to be careful in that some people will try to demonize or make evil anything that is not what they, themselves believe. Or the most fantastical tales get retold and shared, much like the grocery store newspapers, doesn't matter if it is true or not, just that it sells newspapers and captures the people's attention.



Summation:

But now you can see that when you tear away the fears and extreme religious beliefs of "if you don't believe as I do, then you are evil" silliness, and when you set aside all of that and dig just a little deeper, you can learn of the scientific and historical facts and not be clouded by fears and assumptions and conjectures of the unknown.

It is ashame this guy did not continue watching the History channel so he could have learned the true facts as we know it about Stonehenge as well as the truth of the origins of Halloween.
Here are a few superstitions about Halloween explained:
http://www.livescience.com/16677-halloween-superstitions-traditions.html

It was like this misinformed and confused man took all the traditions of this holiday from all over the world, including movies no less, and mixed it all up and spit it out as his gospel to try to prove how evil Halloween is. *rme*

Is Halloween evil? No, it is not.

Halloween or Samhain, both, is all about honoring the dead, our family and friends who have passed into the next world, passed thru the veil, ventured or journeyed to the other side, to the spirit world, they have died. We remember them with honor and reverence. Go to their graves and clean them off and leave food or special items there in remembrance. Or honor them at the table and leave a seat open and talk about the great stories that we remember.

This time of year is also about the end of the harvest, preparing for the dark days ahead when winter will soon be upon us, already the days grow shorter.

For kids and now adults as well, it is the time for trick or treating, dressing up and getting or giving away candy and trinkets and novelty toys. A time to scare each other and laugh and come together for feasting as pumpkins are harvested and we celebrate the end of the harvest time. We dress up and have parties and go to haunted houses to get scared, face our fears and then laugh about it. We have harvest parties and gatherings and just enjoy a mug of hot apple cider and some pumpkin pie, maybe even bob for apples. Kids get to dress up as their favorite heroes or monsters just for fun and they indulge in their fantasies of being different for just one night out of the year.

It is also a great time for divination, tarot, tea leaves, and runes, etc.

If you don't want to celebrate Halloween, or it's Pagan roots, that's fine, out of respect to your own religion, celebrate those traditions and holidays as your faith dictates or feels right to you, that's cool. But don't put down other people's faith or beliefs or spout off a lot of guess work and assumptions, grasping at straws, or taking things out of context. Be smart and not brainwashed, go and open your mind and learn the real truths with the facts from archeologists. Talk to those who are Druids and those who are Wiccans or Pagans, and learn what it is they really believe or worship and not parrot what someone else's fears have told you as a kid to manipulate you to do what they wanted you to do or think as they wanted you to think. Try thinking for yourself instead and read. Don't just listen to one channel or side of things, flip the channel, go learn of the other side, go to the original sources if you can, so that when you choose to celebrate or not or make a statement about another religion or beliefs, you will make an informed choice and statement and not one steeped in fears or paranoia or just utter nonsense.

For more reading on how this thought process came about:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm


If you don't want to follow a nature based religion, then don't. Trying to make it all be evil tho' simply because it is not what you believe or feel is right for you, is very wrong.
Just because someone doesn't believe as you do, doesn't make them wrong, it just makes them different. What they may or not believe is right for them and if it isn't, there are plenty of other faiths out there to study and learn from whether you believe, worship or practice or not.

That being said, I hope that each of you enjoyed Halloween and Samhain in your own unique ways! Thank you to all those parents who sent out their kids that night and came to my own home, all 381 kids who entered the Haunted Cave and faced their fears that night and just laughed and enjoyed the frivolty and celebrations we have here for the end of the harvest. We invited the ancestors and gave them the gift of voice once again as they watched the many costumed groups of kids come thru! It was grand fun full of pumpkin pie, chilli and mummy dogs and pumpkin muffins with icing ghosts, witch hat cookies and Halloween cupcakes and water bottles, gift bags, glow bracelets and Halloween novelty items given away!
To some, Halloween went commercial, but to me? It became more fun with the kids to embrace all the magic and mystery, the eerie and the creepy, the screams and the laughter and all the joy in seeing the kids' face light up with such happiness and dressing up as whatever they want to be, for just one night out of the year! 

And for some who think it's just about the candy? Nope! I can't begin to tell you how many kids came thru the Haunted Cave and brought their parents in with them for 4, 5 or even 6 times through and put up their hand and said "No thank you, you already gave me candy." They just wanted to come thru it again and again! To see themselves glow in the dark under the black lights or show and share in the wonder and magic of the display we set up in our garage. :)
We mix Halloween with the ancient traditions of the past of Samhain and honour our ancestors who have passed to the next realm. It is a time of light and dark, a time of frivolty and celebration of life and the lives of those passed.  Love it!

Blessed Samhain! Happy Halloween!

*bugs n hisses*

Wanda
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