Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My Childhood Memories of Halloween Past part II

There will always be childhood memories that stand out to us the most. Some not so good and other just damn out right funny beyond words. Well I have one from my childhood that is from one particular Halloween while trick or treating.... (You have permission to laugh while reading this story because I laugh at the memory of it all now.)

When i was a kid, i was almost scared of everything that goes bump in the night. the best analogy that I can give you is that of me being like Shaggy and Scooby Doo but without all the eating. Hahaha!!! Anyway there was one Halloween where I dressed up as a ghost and usually my mother was the one who took me trick or treating while my dad gave out the treats to those who came to our house. But this night was going to be different because my mother happened to get sick and she was the one left to give out the treats, while my dad took me trick or treating. He didn't know all the houses that I normally went to so we ended up going to all the houses in the area. So needless to say, i got a lot of candy that year.

There was this one house that went out in the Halloween decorations and with the tricking part of Halloween and me and mom always knew this and because I scared easily when I was a kid, never stopped at the house. Well my dad stopped at this one house even after me telling him not to stop there. After much convincing on his part, I finnally caved in. I was thinking at this point, what harm would it do me? Boy was I ever wrong in thinking that.

I get out of the car and begin making my way up to the door, spooky lighting and music playing in the background somewhere. The front yard has an oak tree and in front of the oak tree was a raised flower bed that would now go little pass my knees. i had to pass this flower bed to get to the house.

Unknown to me, the owners of the house had raked up alot of leaves from the tree and put them into a pile behind the flower bed. In the pile, they had covered someone up underneath them. I'll come back to this bit later. As I continued up towards the house, I heard a bunch of leaves being rattled. I stopped and looked around me, satisfied nothing was wrong, I continued on to the house.

Two steps later, I heard the noise again. This time I stopped and took my time looking around again but this time looking in the tree branches themselves, thinking that a cat or some animal was in it making the noise. when I didn't see anything, I naively continued on to the house for the candy. Here's where the pile of leaves came in. I took two more steps and the next thing i realize is Dracula is coming out of nowhere and he was heading for my direction.

Well, I screamed and began running away from the house. Not only was i was running away from the house, i was running away from the car as well. From behind me I heard the owner yelling at me Hey! Come back here! Don't you want your candy! Needless to say, at this point, I didn't care about the candy. All I was thinking was HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE WITH A MADMAN CHASING ME AND TO HELL WITH MY CANDY!!! I kept going and wasn't going to stop for anything, including for my dad who was now calling for me to come back to the house.

I would have left the yard too if it wasn't for someone tackling me to the ground to get me to stop running. I was kicking and screaming so hard for them to let me go all the way up to the front door of the house, which come to find out it was my dad who had tackled me. He and the owner of the house spent the next five minutes or so trying to calm me down and explain to me that it was all a joke and there was nothing going to hurt me.

Well after every thing was said and done, my mom had a kick out of telling my dad to listen to me the next time when I said i didn't want to stop there. One thing was certain, he never took me trick or treating again after that. It's one of those memories that I'll never forget. As for all that candy that was still in my bag, it was a miracle that I never lost any as hard as I hit the ground when I was tackled.

Happy Halloween and remember to be safe.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Darkside of Halloween

The days are getting shorter and the nights getting longer. The sunsets are getting gloomier and darker and more ominous. This could only mean one thing, it's Halloween. We can't deny it, we see the decorations in the stores, and the kids are all a buzz about it and some adults as well. It the most fun of all the days of the year where the adults can be kids again. We've turned the day into nothing but a day of fun. But there's a dark side of Halloween...

Before the age of science and before the time of Christianity, there was one day out of the whole year that was both feared and respected and that was Halloween. Our ancestors would call the day Samhain, a day where our ancestors believed the veil between our world and the spirit world was thin. It was the only day out of the year the spirits was allowed to visit our world. If not careful, the spirits could and would, trick you into coming back into the spirit world with them, never to return...

What we think as nothing but fun and games came from these traditions that our ancestors preformed to keep the dead and evil spirits away from them. For instance, Jack 'O' Lanterns came from that of fires that was lit in the windows to ward off or to scare evil spirits away. This very tradition evolved into that of our Jack 'O' Lanterns with a well know prankster Jack.


According to legend, Jack was a trickster and loved tricking everyone he came across. One night during Samhain, the devil was about looking for someone to take back with him to the spirit world. He came across the unsuspecting Jack. The devil gave Jack a choice, either win his test and remain in the human world until his dying day or go back with him to the spirit world. Jack agreed to do his test, he thought he would pull a trick of his own against the ultimate trickster. Needless to say Jack ticked the devil but with dire consequences. After the test was completed, the devil realized he was tricked and cursed Jack to wonder the night, for ever with only a small light to light his way... only never to succeed.

Another well known tradition that we observe today as a fun time for the kids is that of Trick or Treating. Our ancestors would set out some food in the widows or outside on the door steps of their homes in the hopes to keep the deceased from coming back and haunting them.

These are just a few of the well known traditions of Halloween that we still carry on from our Ancestors of old. We may think it is nothing but fun and games today but back then to our ancestors, they took this night of all nights very seriously. So take head of what they did, fear and respect this one night of the year... lest the spirits pay you an unsuspected visit and carry you back to the spirit world, never to return to the world of the living...


Happy Halloween
(Sinster Laugh)
 
 
 

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Halloween Decorating 101

Most people think you go out and buy your Halloween decorations and lets be straight, buying them can be very expensive at times. Lets be honest too, most of us are on a budget and we can't afford all of those decorations. What most people don't know is that you can make most of your Halloween (practically any holiday decoration) from things around your house and it will cost you next to nothing. I should know because I have made several in the past and each year, I keep thinking up more and more decorations.

So I've surfed the web to find web sites that show case decorations made from things around the house. I also put some store bought decoration that you an actually make at home without paying a whole of money for it. Like I said before, most decorations can be made without the cost of paying an arm and a leg....

In this picture, you can actually make this one with any lampshade you have. All you need is some wire, bat cut outs from cereal boxes and black masking tape. You tape the cut outs onto the wire and you use the black masking tape to tape on the wires to the bottom of the lampshade and there you have it. A store bought Halloween lampshade from a Pier One store.


You can always buy a pumpkin to make a Jack 'O' Lantern but then you have a problem. buy one and make it too soon, it ends up rotting and causing a bug problem, you spray it with a chemical like hairspray to make its decay slow. Do this and it could cause a fire hazard. So therefore you can buy one of those foam pumpkins that you an hollow out and turn into a Jack'O'Lantern or purchase one that has already been made. Yet again, you can pay anywhere from $5.00 to $10.00 for one. If you don't want to go out and pay that much for one, then you can make yourself one. All you have to do is get you a bag of balloons, assorted, and they don't cost that much for a bag and get orange paint. Like one to two dollars a bag and like I said they are assorted so you can make them any size. For the bottle of paint, it's like two or three dollars for a bottle. Then find some old newspapers, and glue mixed with a little water. tear the newspaper into strips and blow up the balloon. Dip the strips of newspaper into the glue/water mixture and stick them one the balloon. Once dry, paint them orange and cut out the faces you desire. Make sure you don't set them out to where they can get damp, otherwise they may fall apart.

You've seen those light up spooky lights that you hang on the walls of your home or on the windows. they cost anywhere from $10.00 to $20.00, depending on which store you buy them from. Well here's a cheaper version of those spooky lights. Granted, you probably won't be able to to hang them on you wall or put them on your window. You can, however, place them anywhere on property where they are easily concealed but yet at the same time where they can be seen. What you do is take left over paper towel rolls cut them in two and cut out simple spooky shapes for the eyes. Then you stick little glow sticks in side, and they last for up two eight hrs. or so. You can buys these glow sticks anywhere and they are inexpensive too, like $2.00 to $3.00 per stick or you can go to your nearest dollar tree store and buy them for $1.00 a piece. If you are on a budget, then buy and create these about a day before Halloween for your trick or treators.
 
These are just a few ideas for Halloween decorations that you can create next to nothing from items around your house for next to nothing. If these ideas sparked your interest then check out these websites below for more decoration ideas:
 
 
 
 Happy Halloween, everyone...