I have another Round of medical starting at 0900 and god only knows when it will cease so this will be my only post today and hopefully I will be back up and writing for Halloween.

Tomorrow is the day for black cats, ghosts, ghouls and witches but on this day of days did anything happen in the chronicles of history?

Of course there was all kinds of events on this day…..

According to ancient pagans, Halloween is when the “veil” between the living and spirit worlds is at its thinnest, meaning the day is ripe for supernatural occurrences, haunting encounters, and tragic events. Here are 10 Halloween happenings that show October 31 isn’t just a spooky holiday.

1. Polls opened for the 11th U.S. presidential election // 1828
2. Hundreds perish in the Monmouth steamship disaster // 1837
3. Nevada becomes the 36th state // 1864
4. The “last great cavalry charge” secures an Allied victory during World War I // 1917
5. The deadliest month of the flu pandemic concludes // 1918
6. Mussolini celebrates Fascist Party power in Rome // 1922
7. Harry Houdini dies under mysterious circumstances // 1926
8. A German U-boat sinks the Reuben James // 1941
9. Sammy Baugh plays the best individual game of the best individual football season of all time // 1943
10. “Monster Mash” remains at the top of the Billboard 100 // 1962

Interesting stuff, huh?

But let us continue with the Halloween history stuff.

Halloween is slippery. There’s no clear reason to celebrate on October 31. It doesn’t mark the anniversary of anything. The date is next door to a religious holiday, but Halloween isn’t a religious holiday itself. Modern Halloween practices and tropes are knitted together like a cultural sweater, partly from disparate ancient traditions, religious rites, and folk practices (maybe), and partly from modern sources. There is no clear line from any past holiday to current Halloween, and everything we believe about where Halloween “came from” could be speculation and any thoughts about what it means are opinions. A true folk holiday, Halloween is a muddy, confusing collection of practices that owes as much to Peanuts comics as it does to Medieval Catholicism.

The most commonly repeated Halloween origin story says that the holiday began with the Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) celebrations of the Celts in Ireland, England, and Northern France. The date of November 1 or October 31 is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice, and ninth century Irish literature describes gatherings and feasts marking Samhain, the day when ancient burial mounds were opened, and with them, portals to the Otherworld, the land of the Gods and the dead. Later, the theory goes, these practices were Christianized, renamed “All Hallow’s Day” and “All Hallow’s Eve” by the early Church, and that’s where we get Halloween.

Or maybe not. The idea that Halloween comes from pagan rituals usurped by Christians originated with Welsh scholar Sir John Rhŷs, and he didn’t back up his theory with a ton of evidence. Some modern historians maintain that ties between Celtic celebrations and early Christian practices are tenuous, and medieval Christian festivals provide the real blueprint for the holiday. We know that medieval Christians celebrated All Saints’ and All Souls days during the observance of Allhallowtide—the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead—by holding community feasts, emphasizing dead souls, decorating skeletons, and other Halloween-like activities. So what did they need Samhain for?

(There is so much more history about the day)

https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/real-history-of-halloween

I shall return and back to normal self (fingers crossed)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”