Spooky States

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• 1. At 4:28pm on 30 Oct 2009, andycroak wrote:

  Woo-oooo-oooh!!!

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• 2. At 4:44pm on 30 Oct 2009, Big Sister wrote:

  You really know how to do it in style over there, don't you, Roberto?
  
  Thanks for the photos - they're great!

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• 3. At 4:57pm on 30 Oct 2009, ValeryP wrote:

  Ah - photo no 3 looks like the witch on sale in M*tal*n!

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• 4. At 5:49pm on 30 Oct 2009, steelpulse wrote:

  Happy Halloween Roberto. I am not a fan of pumpkin to eat I mean but I love them lit up like that.
  I cannot understand why we adopted this odd festival in Great Britain - unless our youngsters took to it. Adults have to stock up on "candies" or run the risk of their residents being omeletted I understand? Sometimes having sweet "treats" doesn't alway stop the "trick". Fiendish or what? And with all the allegies around - must everything be "nut" (and no offence meant to one who has just lost a job seemingly or political subtext) or whatever free? Or is that the parents role? To screen received goodies?
  In the dark quite rightly parents and other adults have to trail around to look after those fancy dressed offspring. Why they do not mistake various similar dressed small figures more often - as some of those costumes seem similar to my inexperienced eyes. I misused the thread title, Sequin as a brain exercise. I do not think Richard Stilgoe has much to fear competition wise.
  Subject: spooky states Q Inn your clan
  Anagram: Annoy Po-class kin - try quotes
  
  

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• 5. At 5:57pm on 30 Oct 2009, Frances O wrote:

  Guising (trick or treating, dressed up in costume) is an old Scottish custom. It probably went thence to the US and Canada. It's also gone on for a long time in N Ireland, I believe.
  
  But it's not an English or Welsh custom, as far as I know - anyone have evidence otherwise?
  
  Halloween is the eve of All Saints' Day (hallowed evening).
  
  The old pre-Christian festival of Samhain (other spellings are available) took place on October 31.

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• 6. At 6:05pm on 30 Oct 2009, Roberto Carlos Alvarez-Galloso wrote:

  Thank you BBC PM for posting the photos.
  
  For Big Sister: Thanks for your comments. The photos are just the basics since many people in Miami Florida even at work are dressed in costumes. I saw 4 people dressed as clowns in a restaurants and another dressed as a witch. Even the TV Personalities have dressed up with one pair wearing Victorian Costumes and another dressed as a baby.
  
  For Steelpulse: Thank you as well. I do not eat pumpkin but many of these lit pumpkins have become fashionable after many years of absence. The adults do have to stock up on candy as well as soda beverages since Halloween Parties have replaced the Trick Or Treat [children going to houses to receive candy].
  
  Thank you Valery P and andycroak for your comments. Best Wishes from Miami.

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• 7. At 6:10pm on 30 Oct 2009, aftigrammatiki wrote:

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• 8. At 6:15pm on 30 Oct 2009, aftigrammatiki wrote:

  I can't work out where to post my cimment: but here goes: I think Professor Nut is a bit blank about the privilege of beibg an academic. As an academic person, I love being free to find things out, and I will do my best to put what I learn in front of the public. It is for them to accept or to dismiss it. I'd rather cut my throat than be a p[olitician. The politician's job is to take the evidence and decide. Most of them are pretty silly, and are driven by otehr noptions than scientific advice. So what? the buck stops with them. Meanwhile, we just keep on doibg our best. We're paid less, but we carry less responsibility - and the consequences of being silly, biassed or stupid are not laid at our door. Prof. Nut: get real. You are a discontent with no real sense of responsibility. If this judge=ment is wrong, get out there, and stand for Parliament.
  
  

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• 9. At 6:37pm on 30 Oct 2009, andycroak wrote:

  You must be psychic, Roberto - I typed that in before your lovely pics came up ;)
  
  But, yes, they are great, good photography ... and not just a bit scary! In a good way, of course.
  
  Happy Halloweeeeeeen
  
  A

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• 10. At 7:06pm on 30 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  Yes, mischief night, apple bobbing, lanterns made of TURNIPS are all normal in N England. What's new is that the marketing folk have got onto it and adopted the American version, presumably because the merchandise is already available.

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• 11. At 7:13pm on 30 Oct 2009, Gillianian wrote:

  Thank goodness for pumpkins! My wrist was never the same again after making a neepie lantern!

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• 12. At 8:02pm on 30 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  11 It slows things down a bit if you eat as you go. Alternatively, introduce your kids to "turnip bobbing" - you have to eat the inside of a turnip out underwater.

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• 13. At 9:33pm on 30 Oct 2009, Frances O wrote:

  redheylin, giggle! That's (appropriately) fiendish.

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• 14. At 6:04pm on 31 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  Oooh! You have no idea.
  
  "Hallowe'en has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian." It's a "dangerous celebration of horror and the macabre", of "terror, fear and death", which could encourage "pitiless [Satanic] sects without scruples"
  
  I am personally bothered about Christmas. All those elves, holly and ivy. Present-giving and feasting, unscrupulous Satanalia.
  
  Instead of turnips, you see, we originally were supposed to venerate the preserved heads of our ancestors, many of whom, if they have not reincarnated, now exist in timeless fairyland, in touch with the entire stream of evolution and warning us of trouble by appearing as wailing white ladies.
  
  When Christianity was enforced it was with the condition that any ineradicable rite be incorporated into the new religion under some or other specious rationale. It's a bit late now for the Vatican to complain - Gregory the Great should have been more infallible.

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• 15. At 6:13pm on 31 Oct 2009, ValeryP wrote:

  Howabout Present-giving and Santanalia?

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• 16. At 6:38pm on 31 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  
  Numerous parallels have been drawn between Santa Claus and the figure of Odin, a major god amongst the Germanic peoples prior to their Christianization.....
  
  Odin was sometimes recorded, at the native Germanic holiday of Yule, as leading a great hunting party through the sky.
  
  According to Phyllis Siefker, children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy.
  
  Another legend of Santa says that he makes a list of children throughout the world, categorizing them according to their behavior ("naughty" or "nice") and that he delivers presents, including toys, candy, and other gifts to all of the good boys and girls in the world
  
  (wiki)
  
  You see? The thing is clear cut. All that is necessary is to teach the children that if they do not get presents at Halloween and do tricks instead then they will not get presents at Christmas either. Then they can do more tricks. Perhaps I have not thought this through.

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• 17. At 6:42pm on 31 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  If it were really Christian then naughty children WOULD get presents - to show that they are forgiven and should forgive others.
  
  Failing that, since religion continues to be a way of bribing and frightening children with chimerae into the behaviour we require, Odin is perfectly good.

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• 18. At 7:19pm on 31 Oct 2009, redheylin wrote:

  Ooohhh...
  
  Sleipnir the red-nosed stallion
  Had a very shiny nose
  And if you ever saw him
  You would almost say "this has a dangerous undercurrent of occultism".

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• 19. At 10:58pm on 31 Oct 2009, nikki noodle wrote:

  Spooky!!!
  Thats the first verse of the song we used to sing round here every All Hallow's eve....
  
  and, we always used to par-boil our turnips before we attempted to disgorge their innards for the very reason Gillianianian describes (@11).
  
  Hang on, I've got to go and let the bats out....

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• 20. At 8:53pm on 01 Nov 2009, redheylin wrote:

  You keep bats in your turnip?

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