It's frightening to be out on such a dark and stormy night.... isn't it? But don't you worry yourself because you are welcome to my "Halloween Home". Here at my manor there are lot's of things to occupy yourself with until the storm passes. But please don't pay any attention to the sounds that you may hear....or the shadow's that you may see. The storm will play tricks on you.... it will all be a figment of your imagination I'm sure. Now if you are ready ... be my invited guest.
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Halloween (also spelled Hallowe’en)
"is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints' Day. It is largely a secular celebration, but some Christians and pagans have expressed strong feelings about its religious overtones. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America during Ireland's Great Famine of 1846. The day is often associated with the colors orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols such as the jack-o'-lantern."
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Halloween Activities:
"There are several activities traditionally associated with Halloween. One common game at Halloween Parties is dunking or apple bobbing, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Other popular Halloween activities include:
• Trick-or-treating • Ghosts tours • bonfires • costume parties • hay rides • Spooky food
• reading scary stories • Halloween Carnivals • cake walks • bobbing for apples
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About Witches of old and new:
"In England, the term 'witch' was not used exclusively to describe malevolent magicians, but could also indicate cunning folk. "There were a number of interchangeable terms for these practitioners, ‘white’, ‘good’, or ‘unbinding’ witches, blessers, wizards, sorcerers, however ‘cunning-man’ and ‘wise-man’ were the most frequent."
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Haunted Houses:
"A haunted house is defined as a house that is believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences or paranormal phenomena. A haunted house may allegedly contain ghosts, poltergeists, or even malevolent entities such as demons."
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Pumpkin: One of the most popular symbols of Halloween!
A pumpkin is a coarse vine widely cultivated for its non-keeping large pulpy round orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds; subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes and a few autumn squashes.
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Traditional Halloween Food:
"Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee, candy apples or taffy apples) are a common Halloween treat made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts."
"One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish "báirín breac"), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin and other charms are placed before baking. It is said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany."
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Other foods associated with the holiday:
• Candy corn / Báirín Breac (Ireland) / Colcannon (Ireland) / Bonfire toffee (in the UK)
• Toffee Apple (Australia when celebrated, England, Wales and Scotland, instead of "Candy Apples") / Apple cider / Cider / Roasted sweet corn / Popcorn / Popcorn Balls
• Fun-sized" or individually wrapped pieces of small candy, typically in Halloween colors of orange, and brown/black.
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Celebrate Halloween with a Party!
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