Day: October 31, 2023

Halloween–2023

It’s that time again….goblins, spooks and witches (oh my)….the streets will be filled with sugar addicted children looking for that next fix.

I will take a break from my normal posting for today….I would like to do something unusual….I will drop a little history on my readers.

Since it is Halloween let’s look at something creepy….a conduit to the spirit realm….the Ouija board.

As a method of supposed communication with the spirit world, the Ouija board has terrified countless slumber partying children and served as a plot vehicle in a number of Hollywood films.

Ouija boards have their roots in spiritualism, which began in the United States in the late 1840s. (Claims that ancient Ouija boards existed are unfounded.) The new movement was led by mediums, who claimed to be intermediaries between the living and the dead.

There were a number of ways mediums made followers believe that they were communicating messages from those who had passed. One, table turning, involved the table moving or knocking on the floor in response to letters called out from the alphabet. Another method used planchettes—heart-shaped devices with two wheels at one end and a pencil at the point. Users would place their fingers on the device, which would then be guided by spirits who would “write” messages.

Both methods were problematic. Table turning took too long, and planchette writing was hard to decipher. According to the Museum of Talking Boards, some mediums got rid of these methods altogether, preferring to channel while in a trance, while others built complicated tables, dials, and tables painted with letters that required people to use a planchette as a pointer. This method became the most popular—and paved the way for the Ouija board.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12952/brief-history-ouija-board

Unfortunately I do not subscribe to this fad of communicating with the spirit world….but this has been used to scare the be-jesus out of numerous gullible people.

Have a good day and a restful one….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Halloween Tradition

Today is the day that some get all fuzzy about….Halloween. But why do we get thusly?

First let’s start with the ‘why’……

Halloween season is in full swing, with people subjecting themselves to haunted houses, scary movies, and ghoulish costumes. And why? Not to take all the fun out of the festivities, but two researchers in Scientific American have two words to explain this fascination with—and even embrace of—horror: predator inspection. The principle is familiar to researchers in the animal kingdom, and it serves an evolutionary purpose, write Athena Aktipis and Coltan Scrivner. “Morbid curiosity is a powerful way for animals to gain information about the most dangerous things in their environment,” they write. “It also gives them an opportunity to practice dealing with scary experiences.”

Take a gazelle that encounters a cheetah in the savannah, for instance. If the gazelle had to run each time this happened, it would be “physiologically expensive.” The gazelle is better off if it runs only when the cheetah is hunting, and to figure that out, it must fight the instinct to flee and observe its would-be predator to learn things. The broad principle extends to humans: When we expose ourselves to scary situations of the fictional variety, we are on some level preparing to handle real danger. “Today people inspect predators through stories and movies,” write Aktipis and Scrivner. Games, too. New ones used by researchers measure “biofeedback” and reward players who stay calm under stressful scenarios. The upshot of all this: “Embrace the Halloween season with abandon—and then bring that same energy to the challenges of the times we’re living in now,” write the researchers.

Read the full story.

Now that you have a grip on the why we will move on to some historic Halloween…..

Every year during the evening of 31st October, children dress in scary costumes and visit their neighbours declaring ‘trick-or-treat’, all in the hope of filling their little buckets with sugary goodies.

For many, Halloween is a fun-filled tradition that entertains the little ones, gives us an excuse to decorate our homes with spooky attire and provides an opportunity to enjoy some good old-fashioned pumpkin carving.

Like many of our annual celebrations, modern Halloween is the product of centuries of evolution with roots dating back to Pagan times. Over the years, traditions surrounding Allhallowtide (31st October – 2nd November) have come and gone or evolved into new ones.

One such tradition was ‘Souling’, the medieval precursor to trick-or-treating, which revolved around the giving of a small round cake in exchange for prayers. The practice remained popular in Britain until the mid-20th century but has now been largely forgotten.

To understand how Souling came to be, we have to go back 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced ‘Sow-in’), which was traditionally celebrated on 1st November. Meaning ‘summer’s end’, Samhain represented the changing of the seasons.

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/souling-the-forgotten-halloween-tradition

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

This does it for me today….if you celebrate Halloween in any form please be careful….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”