The Truth About HALLOWEEN

Pagans! Take heed! Celebrating Halloween is a two thousand year old tradition, dating to when the Celtics of northern Europe, who acknowledged only two seasons, celebrated the festival of "Samhain" (pronounced "SOW-in", meaning "the end of summer") to mark the beginning of winter and the Celtic New Year. Families would place food and wine about and perform divination spells for fear dead ancestors would reappear in, say, the form of a black cat. Parades of camouflaged Samhain, dressed as "ghost and ghouls", tried to blend in with the "real" spirits of passed relatives, leading away of town to lure evil spirits from homes.

Similarly, Druid priests made hilltop fires at festivals for the "sun to return at the end of winter" and for "good fortune". Families attending the Druid bonfires would take embers back to their hearths in hollowed turnips which had scary faces carved on the sides to ward off wayward spirits -- the first jack-o-lanterns.

The Catholic Church, during the Middle Ages, created a trio of Christian holidays known as "Hallowmas" with October 31st named as "All Hallows' Day" (which was later shortened to "Halloween"), November 1st was named as "All Saints' Day", and November 2nd was appointed "All Souls' Day" to honor "nonsaints". "Soul cakes", kinds of small pastries or bread, were offered to the poor in exchange for prayers for the giving party's passed family members -- in place of setting food and wine about for the dead. In a type of developing trick-and-treating behavior, people dressed as angels, saints, or devils and went from house to house.

In America, in the New Colonies in the nineteenth century, with the Salem Witch Trials in full swing, Puritans dressing as devils wouldn't have been the best idea. Irish and Scottish immigrants in the "New Country" brought their traditions and rituals with them -- ghost stories and folklore, apple bobbing, and pranks.

Popular newspapers of the day featuring stories of superstition created a national pastime trend for themed parties during Victorian America. By this time, the celebration of seasons or of harvesting had been divested from the holiday.

Today, elaborate celebrations are held all over the globe. Merchandise for Halloween tripled between 1983 and 1993 in America. An estimated 35 million Halloween cards were sent in 1992. Sales of Halloween candy rise about two percent a year.

Amusement theme parks such as Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios hold multi-million-dollar events, packed with tens of thousands of people. From West Hollywood, California, to New Orleans, Louisiana, Halloween is a major holiday, being the second grossing revenue-producing holiday after Christmas.

For many in the Goth/vampire scene, Halloween is an important, highly-anticipated time of year, manifesting in pagan rituals and visiting graveyards in search of a "connection with the dark".

From everyone at gothicbeachstudio.com, we wish you a Happy Halloween and hope to see YOU at the "Bizarre Vampire Bazaar"!