christopherchen Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:32 pm(for my rough for this, I spout out all of my research as organized as I can so the length of each word varies with the amount of research I have found; feel free to tell me where to condense or elaborate to make space)
10 words
Halloween monster and superstition origins
Samhain (sah-win)
The Celtic holiday that is the ultimate root was the holiday of modern day Halloween. It all started with Celtic farmers in ancient times. They believed that one day the undead awoke to wreak terror upon the living (Samhain= summer’s end). Pope Gregory the III however, tried to wean his people of such an irreligious holiday and established All Hallow’s day, a celebration of all saints on November 1st. The Celtics accepted this holiday but still practiced the old Samhain holiday, which was renamed All Hallow’s Eve that led to the logical step of naming it Halloween.
Dracula
The story of the vampire goes deep in human history. Any widespread harm or epidemic that threatened the village was usually blamed onto an outcast, ‘monster’, or ‘vampire’. However, Brad Stoker’s Dracula rekindled the idea of evil and the thick Transylvania accented vampire we all know today. However, the name Dracula and the Transylvanian accent can be traced back in history to Vald the Third. Vlad’s story begins with a Hungarian governor who plotted the assassination of Vlad’s father and older brother. Vlad took the throne but was unable to ensure his power and fled. A Hungarian agent took over. After seven years, the Hungarian died and Vlad returned for revenged. After reclaiming the throne, Vlad held an inaugural party to which he invited the assassins and bishops of the area. At the end of the day of food and drink, Vlad order his guests, their spouses and associates, impaled. “While he was dining amidst his impaled victims, he would have [their] blood gathered in bowls. And their he would dip bread in the blood and slurp it down” (Raymond McNally). The name of stocker’s book can also be traced to Vlad’s father, named Dracole, thus came the book Dracula meaning son of Dracole.
Peter Stubbe
The werewolf is also a story among villagers to explain inexplicit deaths among the people and flocks of livestock. The origin of these tales is also traceable. The trail leads to a gruesome tale in a German town in 1591 and a man named Peter Stubbe. Stubbe studied sorcery avidly and supposedly tried to make a pact with the devil by roaming each night dressed like a wolf murdering and eating his victims. Upon being captured, Stubbe was put to the torture wheel, where he confessed to sixteen murders including children and pregnant women. Peter Stubbe’s story is brutal and disgusting until finally ending when he was tortured and decapitated by his village for his crimes.
Malleus Malleficarum
The Malleus Malleficarum ‘hammer against witches” is a witch-hunting manual written by German monks. Second most popular book of its time next to the bible, it told witch hunters how to identify and persecute witches. This book was to first embrace the connection of women’s lust and vulnerability to the creation of witches, agents of the devil. Witches however, are usually just outcasts in villages and other societies. Most witches were persecuted with leisure and usually ambiguously. Once accused, the ‘witch’ was tried. The most ironic and popular of these trials is the test of water. An accused witch would be bond and thrown into the water. Should the ‘witch’ sink, problem solved: she was innocent (and dead). If she flowed, she was guilt and instead burnt at the stake. And so, witch-hunting was widespread and soon, thousands of accused witches filed the jails. In the Salem Witch Trial alone, almost 30 people were condemned of being witches and were hanged. Historians like to believe that the witch trials ended because the witch-hunters made an accusation too many or too ludicrous: the wife of the governor of Massachusetts. Authorities, seeing now a threat to the government, they stopped the trials once and for all.
Trick or Treating
The strange tradition of trick or treating seems unclear. The most likely of the explanations if something called ‘souling’: people would go door to door and receive ‘soul cakes’ for praying for the household’s dead souls. The reason for dressing as monsters, or in the modern Halloween, superheroes, princesses, etc, seems to come from the Celtic holiday Samhain a where the priests tried to ward of spirits by dressing as hideous beasts.
Frankenstein
The image of Frankenstein is what we all see as a lumbering madman with nails on wither side of his neck. Frankenstein however, is a doctor in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein who actually created this hideous beast. The beast is described with glowing eyes, yellow translucent skin, black lips, and long black hair. Dubbed “Frankenstein’s Beast” this demon actually tried to make his way into society. Other people, naturally, were scared and did their best to shun him. Alone and frustrated, Frankenstein’s beast wielded his hate and revenge on his creator. This novel was then transformed into many old, black and white classic films, which depicts the classic tale’s character into the portrait we know today.
Bats
Bats have always been open to many superstitions and fears. In old days of ignorance and the supernatural, bats have been seen to be an agent of death and plague. Been nocturnal and flying with a chilling flutter overhead, bats’ first impressions to early society were vague, distorted, and above all intimidating. And so, bat’s reputations in early and medieval society have revolved around magic and witchcraft, such as being ingredients to potions of sorcery and darkness. Invariably, bats have been associated with blood- vampires and Dracula consort with these creatures who go to feast on the living. These myths however couldn’t be more wrong. After any amount of honest research has lead to find that bats are extraordinary creatures, so unique in fact, scientists have divided them into an entirely new group in the animal kingdom (even humans do not have their own group).
Bonfire
The jack o’ lantern is a classical sign of Halloween. Why this is relatively clear. In the originally holiday, Samhain, this was done to drive away and confuse the undead. However, the Puritan Americans were affronted by the unholy holiday of Samhain altogether and were leaved behind as relic of the past. The holiday endured in Europe however, and with the Irish potato famine and immigration in America, the US found itself again confronted by the holiday. Seeming unintentionally though, the ‘melting pot of culture’ seems to embrace the holiday nationally leaving to the typical traditions still apparent today but what of the bonfires? They slowly flickered and coughed into simple lanterns. Why this has lead to the use of pumpkins however, is less clear.
Apple bobbing
Though juvenile, eccentric, and mostly for the entertainment for other people in the vicinity, apple bobbing endures as a tradition aspect of Halloween. The seemingly lack of association of apple bobbing to Halloween or even to the tradition Celtic Samhain, it seems ridiculous for such a demonic holiday to house such a tradition. Tracing back, the best we find is as the Romans conquered the Celtics. With the Romans came the apple and apple trees and the goddess of fruit trees, Pomona. Mixed with Celtic superstition, the apple was decided to be a determiner for marriages. From this came the game of bobbing for apples. The first to bite into an apple hanging from a string or from a bucket of water they say would be the first among them to marry.
Fear
On Halloween everywhere, haunted houses and scary movies appear. Why this is seems logical since Halloween is associated with monsters. Why people pay to get the pants scared of them is less obvious. The answer may lie with the same reason people go on roller coasters: maybe emotional stimulation is something people want or even need. Uncertainty and darkness are ominous and chilling to use- recessive memories of fear makes use tense and sweaty. These things all add use to a strange phenomenon of the human psyche.
10 words
Halloween monster and superstition origins
Samhain (sah-win)
The Celtic holiday that is the ultimate root was the holiday of modern day Halloween. It all started with Celtic farmers in ancient times. They believed that one day the undead awoke to wreak terror upon the living (Samhain= summer’s end). Pope Gregory the III however, tried to wean his people of such an irreligious holiday and established All Hallow’s day, a celebration of all saints on November 1st. The Celtics accepted this holiday but still practiced the old Samhain holiday, which was renamed All Hallow’s Eve that led to the logical step of naming it Halloween.
Dracula
The story of the vampire goes deep in human history. Any widespread harm or epidemic that threatened the village was usually blamed onto an outcast, ‘monster’, or ‘vampire’. However, Brad Stoker’s Dracula rekindled the idea of evil and the thick Transylvania accented vampire we all know today. However, the name Dracula and the Transylvanian accent can be traced back in history to Vald the Third. Vlad’s story begins with a Hungarian governor who plotted the assassination of Vlad’s father and older brother. Vlad took the throne but was unable to ensure his power and fled. A Hungarian agent took over. After seven years, the Hungarian died and Vlad returned for revenged. After reclaiming the throne, Vlad held an inaugural party to which he invited the assassins and bishops of the area. At the end of the day of food and drink, Vlad order his guests, their spouses and associates, impaled. “While he was dining amidst his impaled victims, he would have [their] blood gathered in bowls. And their he would dip bread in the blood and slurp it down” (Raymond McNally). The name of stocker’s book can also be traced to Vlad’s father, named Dracole, thus came the book Dracula meaning son of Dracole.
Peter Stubbe
The werewolf is also a story among villagers to explain inexplicit deaths among the people and flocks of livestock. The origin of these tales is also traceable. The trail leads to a gruesome tale in a German town in 1591 and a man named Peter Stubbe. Stubbe studied sorcery avidly and supposedly tried to make a pact with the devil by roaming each night dressed like a wolf murdering and eating his victims. Upon being captured, Stubbe was put to the torture wheel, where he confessed to sixteen murders including children and pregnant women. Peter Stubbe’s story is brutal and disgusting until finally ending when he was tortured and decapitated by his village for his crimes.
Malleus Malleficarum
The Malleus Malleficarum ‘hammer against witches” is a witch-hunting manual written by German monks. Second most popular book of its time next to the bible, it told witch hunters how to identify and persecute witches. This book was to first embrace the connection of women’s lust and vulnerability to the creation of witches, agents of the devil. Witches however, are usually just outcasts in villages and other societies. Most witches were persecuted with leisure and usually ambiguously. Once accused, the ‘witch’ was tried. The most ironic and popular of these trials is the test of water. An accused witch would be bond and thrown into the water. Should the ‘witch’ sink, problem solved: she was innocent (and dead). If she flowed, she was guilt and instead burnt at the stake. And so, witch-hunting was widespread and soon, thousands of accused witches filed the jails. In the Salem Witch Trial alone, almost 30 people were condemned of being witches and were hanged. Historians like to believe that the witch trials ended because the witch-hunters made an accusation too many or too ludicrous: the wife of the governor of Massachusetts. Authorities, seeing now a threat to the government, they stopped the trials once and for all.
Trick or Treating
The strange tradition of trick or treating seems unclear. The most likely of the explanations if something called ‘souling’: people would go door to door and receive ‘soul cakes’ for praying for the household’s dead souls. The reason for dressing as monsters, or in the modern Halloween, superheroes, princesses, etc, seems to come from the Celtic holiday Samhain a where the priests tried to ward of spirits by dressing as hideous beasts.
Frankenstein
The image of Frankenstein is what we all see as a lumbering madman with nails on wither side of his neck. Frankenstein however, is a doctor in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein who actually created this hideous beast. The beast is described with glowing eyes, yellow translucent skin, black lips, and long black hair. Dubbed “Frankenstein’s Beast” this demon actually tried to make his way into society. Other people, naturally, were scared and did their best to shun him. Alone and frustrated, Frankenstein’s beast wielded his hate and revenge on his creator. This novel was then transformed into many old, black and white classic films, which depicts the classic tale’s character into the portrait we know today.
Bats
Bats have always been open to many superstitions and fears. In old days of ignorance and the supernatural, bats have been seen to be an agent of death and plague. Been nocturnal and flying with a chilling flutter overhead, bats’ first impressions to early society were vague, distorted, and above all intimidating. And so, bat’s reputations in early and medieval society have revolved around magic and witchcraft, such as being ingredients to potions of sorcery and darkness. Invariably, bats have been associated with blood- vampires and Dracula consort with these creatures who go to feast on the living. These myths however couldn’t be more wrong. After any amount of honest research has lead to find that bats are extraordinary creatures, so unique in fact, scientists have divided them into an entirely new group in the animal kingdom (even humans do not have their own group).
Bonfire
The jack o’ lantern is a classical sign of Halloween. Why this is relatively clear. In the originally holiday, Samhain, this was done to drive away and confuse the undead. However, the Puritan Americans were affronted by the unholy holiday of Samhain altogether and were leaved behind as relic of the past. The holiday endured in Europe however, and with the Irish potato famine and immigration in America, the US found itself again confronted by the holiday. Seeming unintentionally though, the ‘melting pot of culture’ seems to embrace the holiday nationally leaving to the typical traditions still apparent today but what of the bonfires? They slowly flickered and coughed into simple lanterns. Why this has lead to the use of pumpkins however, is less clear.
Apple bobbing
Though juvenile, eccentric, and mostly for the entertainment for other people in the vicinity, apple bobbing endures as a tradition aspect of Halloween. The seemingly lack of association of apple bobbing to Halloween or even to the tradition Celtic Samhain, it seems ridiculous for such a demonic holiday to house such a tradition. Tracing back, the best we find is as the Romans conquered the Celtics. With the Romans came the apple and apple trees and the goddess of fruit trees, Pomona. Mixed with Celtic superstition, the apple was decided to be a determiner for marriages. From this came the game of bobbing for apples. The first to bite into an apple hanging from a string or from a bucket of water they say would be the first among them to marry.
Fear
On Halloween everywhere, haunted houses and scary movies appear. Why this is seems logical since Halloween is associated with monsters. Why people pay to get the pants scared of them is less obvious. The answer may lie with the same reason people go on roller coasters: maybe emotional stimulation is something people want or even need. Uncertainty and darkness are ominous and chilling to use- recessive memories of fear makes use tense and sweaty. These things all add use to a strange phenomenon of the human psyche.
