This week: The Myths of Halloween Edited by: Prosperous Snow celebrating  
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| As a child, I found Halloween fascinating and fun. It was neither a religious nor scary holiday. It was the night we got free candy and cookies in return for shouting "Trick or Treat". My Grandfather would take my siblings and me trick or treating, while Grandma stayed home and gave out homemade cookies to the neighborhood children, who all called her Grandma. I didn't know the roots of Halloween nor many of its myths until I became a adult. |
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Halloween can trace its roots back to the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which occurred around November 1. Exactly how Samhain was originally celebrated isn't known. What we do know is that Samhain was an annual event that occurred around harvest time. One of the beliefs, which appears to be associated with this event, is that the veil between this world and the next is very thin, and this allows the dead to easily cross over into this world.
One of the roots of trick or treating is souling, in which poor people--usually dressed in costumes--went from door-to-door offering to pray for the dead in exchange for food. One of the customs of Halloween is pranks. I remember my Grandfather telling me about a prank he and his friend pulled on a neighbor, the put the man's horse and buggy on the roof of his house.
There are several myths about the origin of the Jack-o-lantern. One of the myths is about Stingy Jack, who wasn't a nice person. He enjoyed playing tricks on and manipulating his fellowman. The devil wanted to trap Jack, but Jack trapped the Devil and made a deal that would prevent Jack from joining the Devil in Hades. When Jack died, he couldn't get into Heaven and, because of the deal, the Devil wouldn't accept him. The Devil give Jack a burning ember, which Jack put in a carved out turnip to light his way in his wanderings.
There are modern myths about Halloween as well. Some of these myths are a little scarier than others. One of my favorites is about the Great Pumpkin. The Great Pumpkin rises from the sincerest pumpkin patch and gives out candy and toys to good boys and girls.
Do you have a favorite Halloween myth? Have you written a story about a Halloween myth?
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Excerpt: Many, many years ago when Teddy got his start . . . .
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Excerpt: Lights flick on. Alicia looks over the computer monitor, the coffin-sized brown cylindrical tubes that fit into the wall and the rest of the empty space that looms in silence. She carries herself with a coffee in hand, her second cup since she awoke. Her heels clop like a horse's hooves. She hates the company policy, but having her own lab gives her enough privacy to follow her own rules. With haste, she kicks off the high heels and fetches a pair of pink sneakers from her backpack. She slides the shoes on, sets her backpack aside at the desk, and seats herself.
Excerpt: Calibri gazed over hundreds of faces. This was his job - monitoring faces for the government....
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Excerpt: J'son Kinley took another sip from the glass and licked his lips for the third time. He breathed in and out a few times, looked all over the interrogation room, twice turned to see over his shoulder at the door which had remained closed for the better part of the day. When his eyes caught mine, he let out a foolish smile. Pulling at his collar he tried to let some air into his stuffing shirt.
Excerpt: Captain James Tiberius Kirk surveyed his surroundings for the umpteenth time in the last 2 days. Or at least he thought it was 2 days, because days on the planet Heinz 57 weren’t the normal days he was used to. With three suns rising every other 7 hours, the short days were extremely hot and the nights were freezing. The barren landscape reminded him of pictures he’d seen of the Sahara desert back on his home planet Earth a hundred light years ago before the Klingons blew it up in an intergalactic war of the worlds (also known as WWIII and a half).
Excerpt: It was a place of desolation. It had all the trappings of human life save one ... hope. Lives flowed through the dank streets along the inevitable river of time, then flashed from existence without judgment, nor anything to mark their passing flicker. Vices as ageless as life itself commanded compliance, demanded homage. They were vices as jealous as ancient gods—vices of greed, need, and power over life that were in fact, powerless.
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Fantasy: October 30, 2019 Issue [#9837]
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