All Wrathed Up!

Holy Bridgeman Downs, all-hallows-evers! Hope you all came equipped with your X-10's and mummified yourself in aluminum foil, cuz the wet pants count overheated the scales last night, bwaaaaa ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaa! Even the eidolic Bela Lugosi and his classic Hollywood ala kazam won't go soilless, for when the Vyrnwy Reservoir of North Wales spooks electric, no one is immune to the goons of spook! (giggles)



So where does this homecoming of the goons of spook originate? It is said Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). During this time, the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France combined, celebrated their new year on November 1. It was on this day where the last day of summer was marked and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on this night, the fine line between the living and the dead became blurred. So on every eve of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future, which at the time you can imagine without modern technology and other provisions, prophecies motivated their culture very much.

These Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. They wore costumes, told each other's fortunes, and when the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter from the uncertainty between life and death.



By 43 A.D, Romans conquered most of the Celtic's former territory, and within four hundred years of rule, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. Firstly, Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead, and secondly, a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and this tradition melting into Samhain is probably very well why lil' munchkins love going "bobbing" for apples each and every Halloween.

Christianity began spreading like dandelion seeds across the land in the 800's throughout former Celtic territory, and in the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. And voila, these three traditions, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.



Believe it or not, there used to be a time when Halloween wasn't about that sweet candy corn, Ouiji boards, shrunken heads and Chucky. Origins of Halloween festivities in America date back to the early-1800's in Maryland, where Halloween was most popular but Protestant influence limited the holiday from society. There would be public events to celebrate the harvest and tell ghost stories and make mischief. Then, in 1846, oh boy, when those mischievious Irish immigrant fellas came here to flee the potato famine of that year, they began spreading the traditions all throughout the country, and the European customs of dressing up and going door to door asking for food or money grew in popularity. However, parents were still uncomfortable and made an effort to keep anything grotesque out of the traditions, and so it wasn't until the twentieth century came around that it became a national popular sensation, and by the 1950's, it became recognized as a national holiday, yay! :)



So whether you're hiking in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, standing on the foggy pier of Pollepel Island, or helping cure toothaches at Dragsholm Slot, you can run but you can't hide from the goons of spook, booooo ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa!



Yep, I am quite a zany zealot when it comes to holidays, LOL, with Valentines Day being the only one I have difficulty celebrating the way I really wish to, waiting for a special girl who I can love more than anybody! So I came walking across town and sweeping into KBOO yesterday at noon wearing my sister's piggy slippers, with my signature tie-dye button-up jacket, red and black feather boas, chapeau and big sunglasses! Guess I was dressed up as Nothing In Particular Guy, or Open For Interpretation Guy! (giggles) Someone said I was Elton John, another said I was a New Pornographer, and yet another the imaginary songwriter of the March Fourth Marching Band! (giggles) Who's up for a survey, y'all, any takes? LOL!



C'mon, Lorelei, sing us a song from your tall rock on the right bank of the Rhine in Hesse-Nassau! White Lady of Hohenzollerns wants someone to dance with, she may Princess Perchta von Rosenberg and she may haunt the descendents of her cruel husband, but we have so much in common in heart (oh, yes, and in translucent spirit!) and we can never survive unless we get a little crazy! LOL!



I hope y'all had a most spooktacular All-Hallows-Eve! Markus the Carcass certainly had a blast, you could just feel his excitement seeing all the cute creepy children waltz by when his entire zombie spirit lighted up, slumbering in my Japanese rock garden in the front of my house! We still got a drum of those Bit-O-Honeys resting by the front door on the end table, my how those Bit-O-Honeys are like the ugly duckling of each Halloween season, guess every human's sauerkraut is another corpse's lizard tongues! (giggles)



Y'know who else had a great time leading up each day to Halloween? Gemmy's Robo Butler! I made an accidental encounter with him when making my shortcut through the Lloyd Center on the way to KBOO Radio, and when trekking through the wilderness of Meier & Frank, there he stood, shouting "Don't you dare steal my candy!" (giggles) All jacked up indeed, or should I say all wrathed up! LOL!



Holy Domovikha, I rambled on sooooooo much here I felt as though I had shotgun in Zorya Vechernaya's white chariot! (giggles) Happy Halloween everyone, be sure to baalnce your steady intake of Milky Ways and Sugar Daddys over the next 4 1/2 days with your recommended dosage of photobiotics and Vitamin D, and, as always, let me remind you to take caution with those holiday pick-up lines! (giggles) Use these with caution, or you may be cursed! (giggles)

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"You look dead sexy, ummmmmm, you look dead, sexy, you know what I mean!"

"Please, lady, come home with me, you never know what I'll turn into, at midnight!"

"What's a nice ghoul like you doing in a crypt like this?"

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Love,
Noah Eaton
(Mistletoe Angel)
(Emmanuel Endorphin)