In the northern hemisphere, October marks the transition from summer to fall. Pumpkins appear at grocery and garden stores. Leaves swirl in the breeze before dropping in colorful abandon. The days grow shorter. Pumpkin spice is everywhere, especially in coffee and pastries. Neighbors put skeletal Halloween decorations in their yards. And, in general, we become
Articles Tagged Halloween
Ichabod Disappears
Imagine. Two horses approach Sleepy Hollow Bridge at a thunderous gallop. No doubt the first horse, Gunpowder, is on his last legs. He’s hardly fit enough for a trot. Now he catches his rider’s terror, and gallops as if the very devil is behind him. The second horse is sleek and muscular. His hooves pound
Ichabod Crane Flees The Headless Horseman
Ichabod Crane is a poor man with aspirations; a lover of ghost stories who fears the dark. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving creates an unsympathetic character as the subject of his American ghost story. Last week, Ichabod courted Katrina Van Tassel, hoping she would accept him as a suitor. One wonders why
Ichabod Crane Goes a-Courtin’
In honor of Halloween, I’m sharing Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow this month. It’s about more than a wild horseback ride in the dead of night. Last week we met Ichabod Crane, a man of unfortunate appearance and few prospects. Nevertheless, Ichabod persevered in his quest for a comfortable life. Ichabod set his
JACK-O’-LANTERNS & STINGY JACK
Jack-o’-Lanterns carved from orange pumpkins are a Halloween staple. Traditionally the pumpkin is cleaned out, it’s shell carved into a scary face, and a candle placed inside. As simple or as elaborate as the artist decides. But why do we call them Jack-o’-Lanterns? Why not Carved Pumpkins or Scary Faces in an Orange Vegetable? There
FRANKENSTEIN & THE CREATION OF A HALLOWEEN MONSTER
Today is Halloween – a day of Spooktacular parties, costumes, ghost stories, and watching scary movies. And let us not forget the annual showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Halloween is a day when, potentially, nothing is as it seems to be. For instance, who would have thought a young woman in pre-Victorian England
AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY
American writer Washington Irving published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820. It’s a spooky tale of murky possibilities. A perfect story for Halloween. The story begins in 1790 in an area near Tarrytown, New York that is called Sleepy Hollow. The hollow had a reputation for enchantment and the appearance of unusual apparitions, the
BLACK CATS & NUTCRACKERS
Spoiler Alert – Don’t read this blog if you dislike Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Today’s image shows what happens when holiday decorations crash into each other. This phenomenon often occurs at craft and card stores, where we’re sure to find Valentine’s decorations and cards on January 2. But such confusion is seldom on public display at
Witches, Broomsticks, & Hallucinogenic Drugs
We recognize a witch when we see one, right? Take the one on this sign, innocuously travelling by broom. We know her by her conical black hat, hooked nose, and pointed chin. This witch has pretty good posture – no hump on her back. Do you think she practices yoga? The dead giveaway, of course,
“THE GOBBLE-UNS ‘LL GIT YOU, EF YOU DON’T WATCH OUT!”
Halloween is a distinctly odd holiday – initially a day when the boundary between the living and the dead was more than a little blurred. How it became a celebration of costume, children, and candy treats … well, it seems a bit odd to me. Living humans are generally a bit nervous around the dead.
