This is Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

And

Merry Meet

In celebration of one of my favorite holidays I thought I'd share with you links to a couple of explanations of the Origins of Halloween. This one is a little more neutral and is a bit contradictory of the first but none of the histories line up and agree with each other completely. Probably the most widely held belief is that Halloween, like most of the modern religious holidays, has predominantly Celtic Pagan (which originally meant "country dweller", by the way) roots. In this case it is based on the end-of-harvest festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). It's the time in the cyclic wheel of the year that signifies the dying off of the crops and the dying of sunlight (shorter days of winter). People were intimately tied to nature then and this time of year when the world seemed to die, of course came to represent death itself. It was believed to be the time of year when the veil between this world and the world of the dead was the thinnest. The dead souls of family and friends were thought to be able to cross over to visit in this world for a short time and so it was an important time to remember and honor those who you had lost. Because of man's (and woman's) connection and dependence on nature, the equating of this time of year to death was common in early cultures and similar observances were held all over the world. If nothing else just come away from this knowing that Halloween has nothing to do with the devil or evil. That's modern religious bullshit.

Enough history. For a little Trick or Treat here's Marilyn Manson's version of "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare before Christmas.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

I'm Baaaack

Greetings folks. Sorry I've been gone for longer than expected. As I mentioned I was off getting ready for what is one of my favorite holidays - Halloween. We threw a Halloween party last Saturday night that was a lot of fun but also took a lot of work. My wife and I pretty much agree that once every three years or so seems about right.

I promised pictures of the decorations so without further ado, here they are.

Welcome to the Cemetery

Taking it's place of honor beside the Guillotine and the Pendulum, this year's newest addition inside, the Electric Chair:

Sorry for the poor quality of the video but you'll get the gist.

Do-it-yourself Autopsy

Leftovers

I was working on last minute things right up until the end. The party was supposed to start at 7:00 and I didn't head to the shower until about 7:15. Needless to say I neglected to put together a costume. My daughters helped me out and took care of it for me. Here I am wearing their handiwork.

I Got a Rock.

Yours truly after the heavy lifting was done and the party was underway.

Yep. Every three years or so. Sounds about right.

I can't wait to start decorating for Christmas.

Excuses

I'm afraid to admit that I basically have no blog today. I wasn't home all day Saturday and yesterday I was busy beginning the process of raising the dead. So I didn't get to it over the weekend and this morning I got nothin'. Usually when I don't already have something written or at least in mind I find that at the last minute I'm struck by some divine or demonic inspiration and am able to churn out some words. Today, I'm a little foggy. It was supposed to be my day off but I decided to work so that I can trade the day and use it next week in order to have more time to prepare for what is arguably one of the biggest holidays in my household. Halloween. We're having a big party on the 27th and I've got a lot of work to do between now and then. In fact you may be hearing a lot about my progress because that's whats going to be filling my time for the next couple of weeks. I might even explain how I came to have more Halloween decorations than Christmas.

Yesterday. Corpses. For the front yard. I have the chicken wire skeletons made for two of them and need to attach heads, then do the finish work to make them gruesome. I also got two more heads made but even with bodies for those that only gives me four living dead for the lawn. Not impressive. Must have more. Must freak out new neighbors.

I haven't even started on the torture chamber and the autopsy room in the house.

More to come.