Let’s share some freaky, weird, horrific trivia in honor of Sunday.
I’ll start with-
The original Michael Meyers mask in the Halloween film was a William Shatner mask painted white.
During the Salem witch trials, not one person was actually burned at the stake.
The name of the architect in Ghostbusters who designed the building that Dana and Louis lived in was Evo Shandor.
And it’s a real building at 55 Central Park West, one designed by Schwartz & Gross.
Halloween was thought to be a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead was thinned or even breached. To protect their houses from evil spirits, people would carve faces into turnips and light candles in the windows of their homes. These evolved into our modern day carved pumpkins with candles inside.
So when you carve your pumpkin this year, think of it as homeland security on a miniature scale and against spirits instead of terrorists.
Some Hallowe’en superstitions from oldsuperstitions.com:
If you hear footsteps behind you on Hallowe’en night, don’t look back–it may be the dead following you, and turning back could mean that you will soon join the dead.
Girls who carry a lamp to a spring of water on this night can see their future husband in the reflection; girls who carry a broken egg in a glass to a spring of water (during the day) can not only see their future husband by mixing some of the spring water into the glass, but she can also see a glimpse of her future children.
The old Celtic custom was to light great bonfires on Halloween, and after these had burned out to make a circle of the ashes of each fire. Within this circle, and near the circumference, each member of the various families that had helped to make a fire would place a pebble. If, on the next day, any stone was out of its place, or had been damaged, it was held to be an indication that the one to whom the stone belonged would die within twelve months.
If bats come out early and fly around playfully, then it is a sign of good weather to come. If a bat flies around a house three times, it is a death omen.
If you go to a crossroads at Halloween and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.
A person born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits.
To prevent ghosts coming into the house at Halloween, bury animal bones or a picture of an animal near the doorway.
If a girl puts a sprig of rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her pillow on Halloween night, she will see her future husband in a dream.
In Britain, people believed that the Devil was a nut-gatherer. At Halloween, nuts were used as magic charms.
You should walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there’s a ghost nearby.
The Celts would herd their cow-herds between two bonfires in order to protect them from spirits in the coming year.
In Ireland, the night of October 31st is known as Oiche Shamhna (the month of November is Samhain and ‘oiche’ means ‘night’)
Pretty difficult to work out how to pronounce it if you don’t know any Irish. My very bad phonetic rendering is ee-hu how-na.
Among these communicators with the ethereal world are film director Peter Jackson and newsman Dan Rather. Michael Landon and John Candy are among the “Halloween baby” spirits the living may try to reach. More information here.
Harry Houdini is the person best known for dying on Halloween. Joining him in this club are filmmaker Federico Fellini, Power of Myth author Joseph Campbell, and more.
By the way, Kythereia, glad to see you’ve made the transition from “Guest” to “Charter Member”. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but your All Hallows’ Eve initiation will feature not an ordinary goat, but the legendary Baphomet… :eek:
flees from thread screaming, as predicted
…
wanders back in to post:
B.C. bans adoption of black cats until after Hallowe’en
flees screaming again
One Halloween night I was working in an adult critical care unit. We got a call from ER saying they were sending us a woman who had been pronounced dead, taken to the funeral home and woke up. A security guard called 911.
We didn’t get a bed ready, we thought it was a halloween joke. Sure enough, 20 minutes later, they roll in. eeeeeoooeeeooooeeeeoooeeeoooeeeoooo