Tidying up the workbench in the dirt-floored basement of a two hundred year old house and you feel ancient eyes watching you.
Camping and fishing with buddies in the woods when you get a strong feeling you have to go home. You arrive to find your wife has been in a car accident.
You wake up suddenly in the night thinking of someone you haven't seen in years. The next morning you get a phone call telling you that person died in the night.
Believe them or not, you hear of these instances all the time. When my grandfather died my Mom and I went to tell my grandmother. When we got there, before we could say anything, Granny said "Herbie's gone!" We told her yes, he had died in the night. Granny said "I woke up in the night and there was a little girl in pigtails at the end of my bed. She said 'Don't worry about Herbie, we'll take care of him'. I thought it might have been a dream."
Ghosts, witches, graveyards and magik have all become part of modern day Halloween.
And costumes! I loved dressing up. Twice I put together a costume for a Halloween event and no one knew who I was. Once I was a Chinese gentleman with a floor length gold and blue coat with about a hundred buttons down the front, a pantyhose pigtail and coffee grinds beard. The other time I made a half mask with papier-mâché painted white, a top hat from black cardboard, I wore black pants, white shirt and "the" red-lined waterproof black cape my Mom made me when I was about 15, and I was Erik from Phantom of the Opera. It was hilarious watching friends try to figure out who I was.
To get you in the spirit of Halloween let's delve into the world of witches, heretics, martyrs, ghosts, magik and the occult. (Use any of the keywords in these titles to find other books).
Relevant Links:
The Discovery of Witches (Pamphlet)
Records of the Spanish Inquisition
The Salem Witch Trials
The Wonders of the Invisible World
More Wonders of the Invisible World
Malleus Maleficarum (1486) : Manual on hunting and punishing witches - translated
The Witches of Warboys - 1593
Heresy Files: The records of Hussite Trials in fifteenth century Poland
The "Two Worlds" portrait of spiritual mediums, workers, and celebrities : with brief biographical sketches - Manchester 1897
Runes - Alphabet of Mystery
Write your name in Runes (PBS)
The Book of Halloween
John Hus, the Martyr of Bohemia
List of people burned as heretics
Joan of Arc
List of people burned for witchcraft (Wikipedia)
Irish Jack O'Lantern
Old English social life as told by the parish register (including superstitions) - 1898
Account of the tryals of several witches lately executed in New England : 1862
A Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery and Witchcraft - 1715
The origin of the werewolf superstition 1909
The occult sciences : sketches of the traditions and superstitions of past times, and the Marvels of the present day - 1855
La magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité et au moyen âge : ou, Étudesur les superstitions païennes qui se sont perpétuées jusqu'à nos jours – 1868
Phantoms of the deep, or: legends and superstitions of the sea and of sailors - 1903
New England spiritualists' association - list of officers - 1854
Workers in the vineyard: the progress of spiritualism, biographical sketches - US 1896
The Book of Forbidden Knowledge c1900
Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes: Sciences des mages. -hermétique. - astrologie, - kabbale. - Franc-maçonnerie, - médecin ancienne. - aberrations de tout order, - curiosités, - mesmérisme. - sorcellerie. - singularites. sources bibliographiques et documentaires sur ces sujets, etc – 1912
List of famous ghosts of the world (Wikipedia)
Halloween (Wikipedia) - History, costuming, games, food, haunted attractions, etc
The Witches' Dream Book and Fortune Teller 1885
The Discoverie of Witchcraft : wherein the lewde dealings of witches and witchmongers is notablie detected... howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne: 1584
Second sight secrets and mechanical magic 1905
Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Island of Scotland: 1902
Highland Superstitions : Druids, Fairies, Witchcraft, Second-sight, Halloween - 1901
Second sight explained - 1880
The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural. Being facts, records, and traditions relating to dreams, omens, miraculous occurences, apparitions, wraiths, warnings, second-sight, witchcraft, necromancy, etc - 1875
Book of Riddles and 500 Home Amusements: Incl games, magic, second-sight, etc: 1863
Costume Ball, Mount Royal Hotel, Montreal 1924 (McCord Museum Photos)
Historical Costume Reception and Ball, Château Ramezay, Montreal 1898
Photos of costumed party-goers 1800's McCord Museum
Les simulachres et histoirees faces de la mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imagines: Lyon 1538
I fear the days of really creative, hand-made costumes or over, at least for the little children who dress up for Halloween. It seems they want to be super heroes or princesses. It's so much more fun to create a costume than buy one. (But I'm not much of a lover of Halloween these days.)
ReplyDeleteFor the most part that’s true. My working mother kids now make handmade costumes for their kids and make wonderful creations.
DeleteI'm not much of a Halloween lover these days either.
ReplyDeleteIt’s sure not like in my day when we had the run of the village! We knew everyone and some places made us sing or dance before getting our treats. My kids were lucky enough to be brought up in a similar village.
DeleteI enjoyed reading your Halloween memories, particularly your two unrecognizable costumes. (Coffee grounds beard?!) I took a peek at The Book of Forbidden Knowledge because it was forbidden. Published in Detroit, it seemed pretty accessible to me!
ReplyDeleteThanks. If you put a bit of vaseline on your chin then the coffee grounds stick and looks like beard stubble.
DeleteRight, if the knowledge was forbidden you’d think they wouldn’t put it in a book. Haha!
Fascinating! Were you Dr. Fu Manchu or Judge Dee?
ReplyDeleteEileen
Haha Well.... I guess more Judge Dee than Fu Manchu.
DeleteDianne, I enjoyed your article very much.When we were growing up, my mom let us do what we wanted. That was mostly handmade costumes. My sister was once a half-man/half-woman for Halloween. My husband and I live out in the country now, so no trick-or-treaters. I work in a library, and we see loads of costumes there!
ReplyDeleteNow where we are we don't get any kids either and that makes me sad, but all my kids and friends post their Halloween costume photos and I love it!
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