Halloween Page

Spooks on Parade

Happy Halloween

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Now a children's holiday, Halloween was originally a Celtic festival for the dead, celebrated on the last day of the Celtic year, Oct. 31. Elements of that festival were incorporated into the Christian holiday of All Hallows' Eve, the night preceding All Saints' (Hallows') Day. Until recent times in some parts of Europe, it was believed that on this night witches and warlocks flew abroad; and huge bonfires were built to ward off these malevolent spirits. Children's pranks replaced witches' tricks in the 19th century, but most of the other Halloween customs are probably survivals from the Celtic festival.

The head bones connected to the neck bone.
The neck bones connected to the shoulder bone.
The shoulder bones connected to the arm bone,
I'm falling apart, oh no......

Like my "monkey dance"?????

Hey, don't dare try to smash these pumpkins!

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), one of the most famous horror stories ever composed, was the first novel of Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley. It was written in 1816 as a result of a contest among Mary Shelley; her husband, Percy; Lord Byron; and Byron's physician, Polidori; to write a ghost story. The tale concerns Frankenstein, a German student scientist who learns how to breathe life into dead flesh and who thus creates a nameless monster. Physically ugly but innately good, the monster turns evil when Frankenstein refuses to accept and nurture him. After the monster kills Frankenstein's wife and brother, the scientist pursues him to the North Pole, where they both perish. In his "Preface," Shelley warned against interpreting his wife's book as an attack on romantic philosophy; rather, it attacks romantic isolation. Numerous films were based on the story, including a popular 1931 version with Boris Karloff as the monster.

They did the mash, they did the monster mash...

BOOOOOOOO! Now did I scare you????

I'm a friendly ghost, you believe me don't you???

Did you say add a wing of bat??

Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble!

Dracula (1897), a novel by Bram Stoker, chronicles the ascent and destruction of Count Dracula, a vampire who feeds on human blood. Set in London and Transylvania, the story is told in diary form by a young Englishman who unravels the secret of Dracula's attacks on young women, who then become vampires. A Dutch metaphysician and scientist named Van Helsing is called to deal with the menace and finally kills the vampire. The tale has been the subject of films and dramatizations, including the German film Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). In the 1930s, the actor Bela Lugosi in the title role won lasting fame.