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Episode 3 - Overly Jaunted
8 Plays2 months ago
In this seasonally appropriate episode, the queens of the cottage treat you to some fun facts about the history of Halloween—
And trick themselves into taking another break from boxes.
Nym navigates the nebulous name of Samhain, and she spins some stories starring the Sidhe. Nylene notes the numerous nations which host their own frightful festivities, describing homecomings —both heavenly and hellish, ancient arbitrary animal abuse, and creepy carnivals honoring curious cryptids.
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Transcript
Introduction and Puppy Guest
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we discuss dark locations, sinister media, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:48
Speaker
out of it. In case you were curious, welcome to Nightmare Cottage. We've unpacked quite a lot of shit recently. We continue to unpack. We continue. The yeah ah nightmare doesn't end. The nightmare puppy has joined us. He's curled up on the nightmare couch. I did take his collar off because I wasn't sure about the jinkles. It just like, you know, and the last one, if you heard this,
00:01:18
Speaker
that's a That was my little jingle pup.
Spider Stories and Cottage Life
00:01:22
Speaker
You can email nightmarecottage at gmail dot.com if you want to assure Nyleen that it's okay to hear pet noises in the background, or you can tell them that she's super dumb and Nyleen is correct and that nobody should hear her puppy sounds frolicking in the background.
00:01:39
Speaker
occasional puppy sounds all right what if he gets grumpy and then started digging and a jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle and it's just too much I mean sure but he's just chilling nothing now he's just staring at you anyways so before we get too into this I need you to see this picture we're okay he's super cute and he is a he and I love him I haven't named him though. So this little guy, I was working on putting all my notes together, sitting on my back porch, enjoying the cool breeze. It's finally falling in. Get it? Fall, falling in. Yes. So anyways, this little guy, he kept crawling all over me and my laptop and I kept moving him somewhere else. Cause like I'm trying to say, and he would just hop right back on my laptop, on the screen, on the keys. He kept hopping on my leg and then I'd be like, push him off. And he would just like make a little web. It was the cutest thing ever.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, so he's a little yellow guy. I'll put him in the and the notes or on the website, whatever. Yeah, I love him. um I'm convinced he followed me inside because yesterday he was, I swear it's the same one, was on my side mirror in my car, but he's not there anymore. There's also this little black fuzzy one that he looks on my sunshade that you see outside, like every time I roll it down, he just comes out a little bit and then he goes back up and I roll it down more and then he goes back up and I roll it down more and he goes back up got really bad at me the other day because it was like really like really windy and so it was like blowing and he just came all the way down and just stood there and i was like i'm so sorry just rolled it back up rolled it back up but i don't know if you know this my cottage is basically infested with spiders we like
00:03:21
Speaker
kind of are okay with them because, you know, like they get rid of all the bugs and stuff. I feel kind of bad. I'm pretty sure the infestation is partly our fault because like every time Bash will literally, there's every single day he will be doing something, playing with his toys. I don't know, doing something. He goes, fire mama, spider! And he's not afraid of them.
00:03:42
Speaker
he just wants us to know that it's there he's excited yes and he knows not to touch them so we've told him hey don't touch them but they won't hurt you if you don't hurt them and he'll just point to them and ace of course has taken to putting them outside so i think that they're just recycling they're just coming in and out at this point i'm pretty sure that they just live here so i'm really sorry if that bothers you i have kitchen spiders o I've always kind of allowed kitchen spiders over time. Both my mother and monkey have murdered some of my kitchen spiders.
00:04:17
Speaker
They just think they're cleaning and I understand, but it devastates me when it happens. But Ace has only murdered a couple of them and that's because like they were being stubborn and and wouldn't go back outside. Yeah. Can my kids playing here? Like I can't let you stay in his blocks or whatever it is. Yeah. There's, I've got one that kind of lives above my kitchen sink.
00:04:39
Speaker
And I always forget about it, except for that's where I take my vitamins and stuff in the morning, so I'll like, knock my head back to... And you just see them looking at you? And there's it's just, if they're they're not the fuzzy ones, they're real thin, they're just... Oh, like the little wolf spiders? Yeah, they're just little skinny guys, and they're not they don't bother anything. See, and the ones inside my house, the ones outside are usually like the little jumping spiders. I have those in my garden.
00:05:03
Speaker
But the ones inside my house are like the big wolf spiders where they're really thin but they've got a big body, really long legs, like not very long legs because those are fine. Right. I don't know man, they just get so skittery that I'm just like, you guys need to chill, you're moving too fast, it gets horror movie creepy when they move too fast, you know what I mean?
00:05:21
Speaker
So sorry, I interrupted you. I apologize. Okay. No spiders don't bother me. I know the two in the area that could fuck you up. I know what they look like. And I know that they're not them when I see the ones that are around and there's a little cute, there's, we have jumping spiders in the garden that like to hang out and it's, I don't know, they're adorable. Yeah. They're really sweet. They don't seem to really like mess with you. And what I know they don't mess with you unless you like really, really like they feel like they're in danger.
00:05:48
Speaker
Right? Sometimes they wear cups of water as hats. What? I will put that in the show notes because everybody needs to see that. That is adorable. Oh yeah, didn't you have, you had a few, like a whole family of lizards living there. Was it just named George? George, yes. George the lizard. George and George Jr. and every single lizard. Did they look chunky? Yeah, they were chunky Georges.
00:06:11
Speaker
And henceforth, every lizard in my garden's name is George. And if it's a small lizard, it's George Jr. Yes. Nem has the cottageiest garden ever. And I love it. And it's full of all kinds of little creatures. Yeah, it's a veritable forest back
Halloween Excitement and Misunderstandings
00:06:27
Speaker
there. I had my own kind of spooky moment. I had a, it sounds darker than it is, but I depression purchased I know the feeling, yeah. And it actually made me so happy. I got all this stuff for my trick-or-treat bags. Oh, for your Halloween bags that you put out. Yeah, so I'm super stoked. I spent way too much money. These kids are going to get so spoiled. I'll have to bring the badge by. Yes. Y'all will probably get the candy from them because it's full-size candy bars. It's like a little package of Halloween Oreos. Oh, she loves Oreos. A Ring Pop.
00:07:01
Speaker
like stretchy skelemans. Oh, he calls those bones. Vampy- He just says bones? Bones don't scare you. Because he's saying don't, that they he that don't want them to scare you. Yeah, last time I came over I had a skeleton on my shirt and he said bones.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, but you're safe. You're a safe person. By the way, oh, you know that last time you were here when you answered my door holding an Amazon package and I was like, oh, it's arrived. I'm so excited. I have been waiting. It's a little twelve dollar toy. I get it. I have been waiting to get him that way for so freaking long. And guess who opened it? You. Yes, I know. I handed it to you, but I didn't think this through.
00:07:43
Speaker
so when i handed it to you and you opened it and handed it to him he now thinks that you gave it to him i'm so sorry so every time he plays with it he goes auntie nim auntie nim give it auntie nim give it and i'm like i mean no but i guess if that's what we're gonna do then he sure why not so i'm so sorry you monkey like gets so much credit for so many things We were destined to be the cool aunt and uncle. That's true. That's what we do. That's true.
00:08:18
Speaker
So sorry, I gotta stop topic. You were talking about, oh yeah, the, um, the treat bags. yeah Yeah. Vampire teeth and stickers and stuff. And I got these cute little drawstring jack-o-lantern bags. But yeah, like how many kids did you end up having last year? Cause I know that you were saying like, apparently some of the kids were saying like your house is their favorite on the street every year. They look forward to it. Okay. So before I give the number, I just want to start with the fact that when I first moved into this house, we had maybe two trick-or-treaters.
00:08:44
Speaker
maybe two groups of trick-or-treaters. And then slowly they started to increase. And I i live in ah and an older neighborhood, so it's kind of, I want to be morbid about it, but the older people are switching into bit becoming younger families. And Mims Cottage is year-round. Yes. Halloween. Yes. I keep it. So I live on a street of white and beige houses, and there's nothing wrong with white and beige houses, but my house is like a dark, like it's like black and gray. And I have two skeletons that sit in my front garden that say hello to everybody who approaches. and One of them always looks like it's like pointing and laughing at you, which I find absolutely hilarious. The one that sits behind the, all the plants. yeah right Yes. Yes. We have a spotlight on that one. So you can even see that one in the dark. Yeah. He's my favorite.
00:09:35
Speaker
And then there's Bob. Bob, yeah, that's actually in the backyard. He's my, he's my 12 foot skeleton. I'm in the 12 foot skeleton club. Yes. Her cottage is so spooky that when the neighbors moved in next door, they decided to build an actual fence. And the other neighbors next door on the other side have let their invasive plants overgrow so much that they can't see my yard either. Yeah. So. But it's okay. It's okay. It makes it more cottage-y. Yeah.
00:10:04
Speaker
More privacy, more squirrely, birdy vibes. I don't know what I was going for there. I don't know, but um'm it's clear we're the Addams family of the street. I'm the neighborhood witch, I guess. But the kids like it. I think so. I will say though that weve we ended up, when we finally got a camera, a adorable camera, we got it because some neighborhood kids were banging on the door and running away.
00:10:27
Speaker
You guys were in the creepy house. The haunted one. I love that. I love that so much. That's fantastic. Oh my gosh.
00:10:45
Speaker
Should we get into Halloween? Absolutely. Something that's incredibly obvious to anybody that has known me for two seconds is that I'm obsessed with Halloween. Success. It's year round as we were talking about. But yeah, I have permanent spooky decor in in every room. The kitchen is specifically Halloween themed. I plan for Halloween stuff. I mean, all you so as soon as I'm done with Halloween, I start thinking about what I'm going to do next Halloween. Oh, even your Christmas tree is Halloween, isn't it? Well, it's spooky. Okay. I do spooky Christmas. It has skulls on it.
00:11:16
Speaker
Yes. But we'll talk about that when we get closer to that time of year. You're right. How dare I skip over. This is the nightmare before Christmas. You're right. Oh, I like that. So tell me all about Halloween. Tell me, tell me, tell me what I need to know about. Actually, I honestly don't think they're really like, I know very little, like very basic stuff about the origins of Halloween, but not much. You know, when you're really into a thing,
00:11:44
Speaker
and you look at everything in the world about that thing, and then you just start thinking, well, everything's the fucking same, but it's just because you happen to know everything about that thing. Yes. it's It's not fair to the articles and things. I feel like a lot of the history of Halloween, I'm like i'm afraid I'm going to be super repeating stuff that everybody knows, but I'm doing it anyways because even if that is the case, when I look into the ancient origins of of Halloween and so on, even if I know the story, I still like it. I still like to hear a different take on it or whatever. So so I didn't realize it was pronounced like that.
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, so that's a pet peeve of mine when I hear it. Sorry. you know well I'm glad I know before I get into mine. No, the pet peeve of mine is when I see it in media. My very specific example I have in my head was from the Chilling Adventures of s Sabrina.
00:12:41
Speaker
yes and the it's been a while and it was i think the first season and it was like the the black priest guy yeah yeah the big guy he said sam hane which is how it's spelled s a m h but i remember they ended up someone ended up correcting him Oh, well, not on that episode. They didn't. Oh. It's understandable. why It's Gaelic. Gaelic is complex language and very interesting and very neat. And I don't personally know how to pronounce most of the things in it. I do know a small handful of words based on things I have looked up in the past. It's forgivable to mispronounce it unless you're on a paid production.
00:13:22
Speaker
where research should have been done. That's fair. And it seems like one person on that set wouldn't have known. I swear that someone corrects them later. Well, now I have to rewatch it and find out. It was pretty honestly, it ended up really stupidly, but I didn't end up finishing it. Yeah. That show is actually one of them. When you hit this end of the season, a particular season, just stop. Got it. It doesn't, the ending doesn't make sense. to Nothing after this point. Exactly. yeah But yeah, pronounce that one. But yeah, so I mean, even if you know the stories, it's it's kind of fun stories to tell, and and there's kind of different angles of it, so ready or not. Here I come. Trick or treat. Smell my feet. Don't smell my feet. Don't do that. That's disgusting. I'm so sorry. I don't know why I'm talking anymore. I'll shut up. Okay. Cool.
00:14:16
Speaker
Most of what we know about the ancient Celtic people, which Samhain seems to have originated with the Celtic people, but most of what we know came from like ancient roman Roman scholars that had interactions with them on their borders. Most of what we know about the ancient Celts is observations made by outsiders. So it wasn't like self-written historical stuff. It's what people noticed or even might have perceived that wasn't real. What do you think most of it's pretty well documented?
00:14:43
Speaker
I think there's some opinions and there's some colored, these savages did blah, blah, blah. Oh, fair. Yeah. Like the prejudice kind of views of it. But we do also have the Fenian cycle, which is a very, very early Irish piece of literature that explores the the Irish mythologies. So there's there's some specifically from a story in the cycle called The Boyhood Deeds of Finn, in which the hero Finn encounters a monster that I didn't write this part down.
Samhain Origins and Traditions
00:15:14
Speaker
But but but it but it's a story that takes its place during Samhain and includes a lot of the traditional things that have survived to what we know of Samhain for this day.
00:15:24
Speaker
okay So generally the ancient Celts were considered to be the combination of the many different European tribes in the Iron Age. There's a whole bunch of these different tribes, they were separate from each other, but they shared a lot of the same religious and cultural traditions and practices.
00:15:38
Speaker
yeah I fell into so many fascinating rabbit holes. What region was this? Ireland, England, Wales, and beyond, but primarily that. Primarily what you would think of as Celtic as far as the United Kingdom area before there was ever a United Kingdom. Salem was one of the most important festivals to the Celts.
00:15:59
Speaker
It's the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. It's the end of the harvest, the end of the light season, and the beginning of the dark months. In this tradition, it was believed that the barrier between worlds was at its thinnest, and this notion is shared with many different cultures all over the world, though I haven't dug into it a ton yet. I'd love to see which of these shared beliefs tied to migration versus what were independently derived.
00:16:19
Speaker
Anyways, so salon was a huge celebration. Reports mentioned bonfires started by friction from a massive wheel meant to symbolize the sun in ceremonies led by druidic priests after the end of the harvest. Families would let their hearth fires burn out and relight them with torches taken from the bonfire. It's thought that this was a ritual to increase the bond of community. I absolutely love this notion, mostly because as you know, every year at my Halloween party we gather around a fire in my backyard.
00:16:43
Speaker
and these are with a lot of our friends that we only see that one time of the year every year. And it's definitely a sense of community. Usually around midnight after I've had all of my drinks, I like to remind everybody how much I love them and how much they mean to me and how this is my family reunion every year. That's true. Very lovely. Yeah. Right around that time.
00:17:05
Speaker
There's also tales of Bluttony and Debauchery, like it's a big huge mass of parties. Which we do that as well. We do that as well. I was going to say that could be said, especially in some of the earlier years of my life. Yes. Oops.
00:17:17
Speaker
there's There's a lot more to cover here. I'm going to kind of move on to the more spiritual take and the notion of the veil-est, thinnest. Not really just between worlds, but between the human world and like the fairy world or the she world. And I was seeing a lot of that in a lot of the stuff that I'm going to cover later. I was seeing a lot of mention of the veil being thin and in some areas, like you said, of more not just the spiritual between like life and death, but also like you said, other realms, if you will.
00:17:45
Speaker
Right. Gaelic mythology, Welsh mythology. There's a lot of, the fae is a big thing. and It's not necessarily what you think about like as a pretty fairy. Oh yeah, they're like tricky... Tricksters, yes. but Specifically they're... They're tricky little jerks. They're mischievous and generally seen as... They're not the hot romance novel. No, they are not the hot fae. Well, you know though, there are some... Anyways, that's another short. Oh gosh.
00:18:14
Speaker
The word is she. It's spelled S-I-D-H-E, but it's pronounced she. S-I-D-H-E. It looks like said hey. That's what it looks like, but it's pronounced she. Interesting. Okay. You'll also hear it called the is she, which is A-O-S space S-I. Is she? This is a Gaelic word for my page. Scroll down too fast.
00:18:37
Speaker
Is that what I mean? Is that like a word for word translation? or It's the Gaelic word for the supernatural creatures in the but Celtic mythologies. Okay. And I could do a whole episode about those guys too. um I'll scratch the surface just in here just in a sec, but the Celts will leave out offerings to the she and the spirits while the barrier was thinned to appease them during their visit. This eventually evolved into children's and beggars dressed as ghosts and monsters going door to door, singing and mumming for soul cakes, pennies, and other small offerings. What are soul cakes?
00:19:07
Speaker
Soul cakes are really basic. It's somewhere between a cookie. It's a little bit lighter than a cookie, but denser than a bread. Somewhere between that. It's like a dough cake baked. They're very minimally sweet. A lot of times they'll have a cross cut into them and they'll have raisins in them or, and sometimes those raisins are soaked in rum. There's a lot going on. I lost, I lost that entire plot. I, I'm imagining every good dessert under the sun at this point.
00:19:34
Speaker
okay Well, I'll look for a picture of them. I was trying to be a jerk, trying to understand, sorry. No, no, no, I understand. We're gonna just- Like a scone? They're not unlike a scone. I'm going to share a picture with you real quick. Yes, please. That's a soul cake. It's just a basic little flour cake. It looks a bit like a cookie, but it's not just a cookie, it's fruit and cake. Ooh, those are cool looking. I have made these before. Really?
00:20:02
Speaker
the recipe that I used was not great well the thing is is that my American palette is used to sweeter things than because I made a traditional recipe which is probably my mistake yeah but I was glad that I tried it the correct way first and then I may recreate them sometime with a more modern recipe and those are pretty cool looking yeah They went door to door, and if they didn't get a treat or some kind of an offering, there was a perhaps threat of mischief from the spirits if they went away empty-handed. So that's kind of some ideas of where trick-or-treating kind of came from. But people would also dress up as ghosts and monsters to confuse the she so they wouldn't get taken or harassed.
00:20:44
Speaker
oh Bill's thin, the fae, the ancestors, can and will appear. It's accepted that it's real and not just can happen, but will happen. yeah Also, with all the debauchery, everybody's drunk and being silly. And so it it was just part of this big celebration of the harvest and everything. There are some ah she that are very specific to Salwyn Tales. One of them is called Lady Gwyn. She's a headless woman wearing all white, traveling with a large black pig with no tail. I thought she sounded so fascinating, but the more and more I dug, the more I kept found finding basically the same sentence over and over again and very little else to go with it. It almost makes it kind of cooler. It's like more mysterious that way. rev I do want to dig more into that, so if you know a good source for information on Lady Gwen, you can send it to... How is it spelled, you know? Lady... spelled like Lady, and then gwen G-W-Y-N. Nightmarecottage at gmail dot.com, if you have a good source. Aside from Lady Gwen, one I found the most information on was the puka. So the puka were shape-shifting mischief makers. Oh, I think they had some of those in True Blood. Probably. Sorry, I watch a lot of weird
00:21:58
Speaker
but i guess No shame, no shame. ah I am also a purveyor of not purveyor. Wait, yeah, don't, that's not, don't be. That's not the word I wanted to use. No, no, not for smart.
00:22:14
Speaker
I'm also a fan of the smut. Oh, good. Okay, so... But yeah, so they would shift into Blackford animals, most typically a horse with fiery eyes, and they would trick unsuspecting people to usually be intoxicated and take them on an unpleasant night of some sort. It's not super clear on the details, but they would take them on a ride and they would wake up all fucking hungover and... Yeah, and that's kind of what they did in True Blood. It was actually really cool. Maybe I'll send you that just that episode so you can see it. It's actually really, really, really cool. But yeah, it would like force them to like just do all kinds of really like have orgies and get really drunk and eat a lot and just but no real harm is done yeah right so that's that's well i mean like they would like destroy buildings and stuff like that oh not okay well that's not murder each other these these weren't these weren't murderous pukas these were just
00:23:03
Speaker
ah Okay. Mischievous buccas is what you're saying. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Yeah. My, my bad. No, no, no. They were just being a match us, but also selling farmers will leave behind scraps of unusable crops. It was said that these were puka touched and therefore they will belong to the puka. That's cool. It's also thought that the crops were left behind for them to keep them from messing with future harvests. That's really cool. So it's kind of like leaving, what is it? Like leaving a cup, a little cap of milk for, for the fay. Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker
and This is all from that same mythology stuff. So there's also tales of helpful puka, but it's mostly overshadowed by the mischief. They feel similar in some stories in my opinion to like the English brownies. Yeah. Another episode for them one day, baby. The puka are some of the most widely known of the she and can be found in stories all over the world. And a famous puka that people may know is Puck from Shakespeare's Summer Night's Dream. Oh, yeah.
00:24:00
Speaker
Moving to a later legend, this one started hopping up in the 1830s and there's several versions of this, but this is the most common or a very common telling of Stenji Jack.
Folklore and Christianization of Samhain
00:24:16
Speaker
Stenji Jack was an alcoholic wanker and nobody liked him. One day the devil came for him, but Jack was clever. He asked the devil for one last drink and the devil obliged.
00:24:28
Speaker
Neither of them had any money, so Jack convinced the Devil to turn into a coin so he could pay, and then turn back when no one was looking. This version of the Devil is not super coming, so he agreed. Jack then put the coin in his pocket with a crucifix, which kept the Devil from being able to change back. Jack made a parking.
00:24:45
Speaker
10 more a years to keep his soul, and he would free the devil. The devil had no choice but to agree. At the end of this 10 years, the devil came back for Jack. On the way to the other side, Jack asked the devil for an apple, as he was extremely hungry, and this would be his last meal. Again, this devil is not the brightest fire in the tool shed. So he agreed. As the devil climbed the apple tree, Jack surrounded the tree with crucifixes, trapping the devil once again.
00:25:12
Speaker
This time, Jack asked the Devil to never take his soul in exchange for his freedom. Again, the Devil agreed. Eventually, Jack drank himself to death. He was denied entry from Heaven since he's a piece of shit. So he went to be admitted into Hell, and the Devil proclaimed, I'm not allowed to take your soul! The Devil turned Jack away to wander for eternity, but gave him an ember tucked into a turnip to light his way.
00:25:47
Speaker
So here's where I'm going to tell you how jack-o-lanterns were first made from turnips. Pumpkins were a North American crop and plant, and so they weren't present for selling. So I'm going to send you a picture. That's why this sounded familiar, because I did read something about pieces of this. Oh, there it is. Oh, God, I have too many links open. And so that is a turnip jack-o-lantern. Cool.
00:26:14
Speaker
That is horrifying. Yeah. And they would put a burning coal into it to light it up. And it's actually, it's honestly, it's ah it's more of a rutabaga, which is really similar to a turnip, but much bigger. And so once the Irish started migrating to America and they found these glorious larger things that make way better lanterns than a turnip, the modern day jack o' lantern was born.
00:26:36
Speaker
that's pretty neat. I will say that that looks way more like a skull. Yeah. Which is really cool. Yeah. I do love my classic pumpkin jack-o'-lantern but that I'm not mad at it. I mean it's terrifying but I love the scary stuffs obviously. Could you imagine making a few of those and putting them in like the flower beds that are hanging over your I have thought about it. And it was actually today that I learned that they were using rutabagas instead of turnips. Because turnips would be like a lot harder because they're smaller. yeah But a rutabaga, that's got some potential. So if I do that, pictures will be posted. Nice.
00:27:14
Speaker
So moving on back into the history a little bit, and actually we're go of getting to it towards the end here, which is great because it's been a while, to very quickly transition into how we went from Samhain to what we see today as Halloween. Eventually, as it was wont to do, the church decided it wanted to reframe Samhain as a Christian holiday. and As they do. As they do. and They tried to move it to May.
00:27:37
Speaker
which was all fine and good, but the people didn't stop doing their fire celebrations when they're used to doing their fire celebrations in the fall. They moved it back and renamed it All Saints Day, which falls on November 1st, and then that was immediately followed by All Souls Day, which is on November 2nd. But pagan's gonna peg, and so the old traditions stayed. October 31st became known as All Hollows Eve, and eventually Halloween.
00:28:01
Speaker
When Irish began immigrating to America, they brought ah brought a lot of the traditions with them, very much including Ceylon and Halloween. We talked about how pumpkins are unworth American crops. and that's They were plentiful here, and if Americans do nothing, they definitely go overboard with things. That's true. Very true. Yeah.
00:28:22
Speaker
So we definitely overdid the the pumpkins and I'm all about it. In the early days of Halloween in the United States, the missed part of the how the holiday really started to take over with destruction of property and stuff. So communities would start to organize activities to keep the youth too busy to play pranks. So that's where you get things like the bobbing for apples, divination games, costume parties were everywhere. What you kind of know of and see is the kind of quaint family side of Halloween with kids and trick-or-treating and stuff. To keep people out of trouble.
00:28:51
Speaker
Absolutely. They were even like in the 40s and stuff. It was very, very popular. There were these magazines that were basically your Martha Stewart magazines at the time. They're your Better Homes and Gardens that were just focused on celebrating Halloween, setting up your house for a party, for decorating, for food. So even back then, it was about just making it more of a party and less of a night of mischief. Yes. Yes. And then eventually candy companies in Hollywood realized that people really love mischief, fun and magic of Halloween and the holiday expanded.
00:29:21
Speaker
today and is my favoritest thing and the end.
00:29:32
Speaker
so i basically like i knew that you were going to go over the halloween stuff and the tour of traditions and origins of halloween so i started looking into like how different cultures celebrate Halloween or Halloween type traditions and you know how it's evolved over the years and it's very interesting because I found quite a few celebrations that may or may not necessarily take place on the same day but they have like a similar sentiment of being remembered for like remembrance of the dead or a way to ward off evil from the living world that kind of thing. I also found a lot of pictures that represent each area which I thought was really really cool and it's really hard to choose just one because they're all really cool. I will show you the pictures and we'll also post them on the site as well and I will say after researching these I almost wish I could do an entire session on each one because it's just like you said like there's just so much this is just such a light coverage of all of them but yeah I feel like we've been missing out on Halloween celebrations here and that's saying something.
00:30:29
Speaker
yeah because, you know, your literal festivals that you put in your cottage. but So to start, little festivals. Little festivals.
Global Halloween Festivals
00:30:37
Speaker
I love that. They are. They're little festivals. Like every year there's just something little different and festival-y about it. So I will go ahead and just throw a disclaimer on this because I'm doing my best. This is like, I literally went over, I think maybe eight or nine different countries. And so I don't know how to pronounce some of this stuff. I'm gonna do my best. I'm gonna have Google help me. If I mispronounce it, I'm really sorry. I'm not trying to offend anybody, but here we go. All right. So the closest I found to the origins of like the original festivals of Sam
00:31:13
Speaker
Salwyn? Salwyn. Okay, it's spelled Samhain, so okay. Salwyn. So did I say that right? All right, so the original festivals of Salwyn is the festival in Ireland and Scotland on October 31st. So those are obviously the most traditional. As you've explained already, it's the origin of our modern-day Halloween. So Ireland has a few different festivals, but the two most common are the Puca Festival and the Dairy Halloween Celebration in Northern Ireland. So you can open the picture of the Puca Festival.
00:31:43
Speaker
I got this description from ireland dot.com about the Puca Festival. I love that. Yes. And like I said, I'm going to put all these online if you want to follow along. They're just, I wanted to make sure that you have good visuals. This is the description I got from ireland dot.com. The Puca Festival is said to celebrate the traditions of Samhain and welcomes the strange and mischievous creatures that come forth from the chasm of space and time and some of Ireland's most historic places. The Hill of Ward.
00:32:11
Speaker
where those ancient fires were first lit and the heritage town of Trim dominated by towering Norman fortress. I didn't think it could, I could describe it any better than that. So that's why I wanted to take that exact quote. What's really cool about these celebrations is that each area has its own theme. So for one area, they do a foraging walk to discover edible and medicinal plants. Yes, I know no I knew it. And another area called the gathering of the spirits procession.
00:32:39
Speaker
So along with four nights of music, comedy, fire, feasting. So that that's, that's a whole other area, which is great. And then you can open the dairy festival one. So that's the second one in Ireland that is the most common. And so this festival described as a party at a scary, joyous, fantastically fun carnival with folklore.
00:33:01
Speaker
feasting and festivities. Scary carnals are my favorite thing. It's just a really big pretty parade party type of thing with just, it's just, it all looks like such a great time. And I did not know, I knew I needed to visit Ireland one day, but I didn't know I needed to go during Halloween. So just, just something else for your better list. Yeah. So moving on to Scotland, which I also mentioned was very, you know, similar to the original origins.
00:33:29
Speaker
It has a specific festival on the state. It's celebrated as the... now this one was spelled differently. I see that. And that's how it's pronounced or spelled in the Scottish, but it seems to be pronounced the same according to Google pronunciation. So that's Salwyn as well? or Yeah, it looks like it's still pronounced as Salwyn, but it's spelled like S-A-M-H-U-I-N-N.
00:33:52
Speaker
So it's the Samhain Fire Festival with costumes, parades, fire dancing. You can open that one if you'd like. I did. I was going to say that this... Oh, I actually did have pictures. I was going to show him the the fire wheel. Yes. And this is a very, very small version of it, but it's very reminiscent of that. Nice. See? And yeah, that's what I was saying. Like it's very, very in touch with the originals, which that's what I really loved about the the Ireland and Scottish ones. It felt very organic,
00:34:18
Speaker
an organic movement from the original traditions, right? The fire festival has costumes, parade, fire dancing, as you just mentioned, while drumming acrobatics, it sounds way cooler than any of our celebrations in the US, and I would love to witness that one there. So moving to Japan. So ja Japan's festival, it's interesting, it's basically our US Macy's Day parade for Thanksgiving, but for Halloween. It's called the Kawasaki Halloween Parade. You're more than welcome to open that one. It is massive. I'm talking like 140,000 people coming to see it massive. It's held in Tokyo every October 28th. It has parade floats, musical performances, over the theater, face paint, prosthetics, anyone can come watch. And a lot of people around the world do like actually visit specifically for this. And if you actually want to like participate and not actually just watch it,
00:35:13
Speaker
you have to have a costume ready. You have to fill out an application, but oddly enough, it's only 10 US dollars to apply to be in the parade. So I thought that was pretty cool. Next one is Denmark. Okay. Denmark. I love Nordic countries. They take the darkest shit and they make it seem so light and funny and silly. Yes. It's my favorite. But when you look at the root of it, you're like, what the fuck is happening here?
00:35:41
Speaker
Well, you know, so much delightful stuff comes from trauma. It's just the best. Okay. So Denmark celebration is called, okay, hold on. I'm going to butcher this. So real quick, let me, let me Google listen. I wanted to do this earlier, but you know, I wouldn't have remembered. It says it's pronounced best to lawn. Oh God. Hold on. I found it. Okay. Best lawn. Best lawn. Yes. So.
00:36:09
Speaker
Denmark's celebration is called Festelan. It's spelled like faced-lavin. It's typically celebrated in February. This one, like the U.S., children typically wear costumes. They go door to door asking for candy, but they also get cream-filled buns. And these are called, this is why I was asking you earlier, I was like, what what are those? Because I thought it was really interesting. They're called Festelan's Bowlers.
00:36:39
Speaker
Let's see, sorry. Fislavensbuler. Fislavensbuler is what they're saying it's called. So they get these cream-filled buns called Fislavensbuler. Do them a bit. Which I'm all about. Sounds great. I love, I love, and love a creamfield I love a I love a cream-filled Danish. So at their parties, they have something similar to it to a piñata, except it's a barrel decorated with black hats and filled with candy. You can go ahead and open that one if you haven't already.
00:37:09
Speaker
The game is called Slápatin aftonden, which translated it's whacking the cat out of the barrel. So fun fact, the origin of this was the Danish people putting a live cat in a barrel and then beating the girl and the cat.
00:37:30
Speaker
to ward off evil spirits. So they've basically taken this origin and they're just like, it's fine. We'll just turn it into a pinata. It's not real anymore. But that's what they used to do to ward off spirits. And I, it's really sad. I know and it was always a black cat, but yeah, now it's a fun little pinata game. So Danish, that's what they do.
00:37:52
Speaker
<unk>
00:37:54
Speaker
see I'm so sorry, but We do not beat kitties. I know, I know. And we don't have anymore. But you know, we all did some things. We've all, we've all done some things. Oh. So. I'm sorry, my heart. Okay, move on. Moving on to Germany. It's another country whose origin of their celebration is dark, but it's turned into something a little more lighthearted and fun. that They celebrate, not going to try to pronounce that one.
00:38:24
Speaker
wal porgasna So they celebrate Walporgesnacht or Witches Day in Thale, which is held on April 30th. You can open that one throughout the hearts region and 20 different festival locations. The folklore is that the witches get together as they fly atop their broomsticks to the highest peak in the hearts mountains. It's an all day event. They do costumes, parades, bonfires, music, community performances, food, craft stations,
00:38:54
Speaker
From what I was reading, it sounded like the original wall parkas is based in something darker, like devil worship, witches and pagan sacrifices. Nothing like the light celebrations that are held today, but of course we all have roots in something a little darker. Moving on to Dia de los Muertos. Most of us, I think, know about Dia de los Muertos. It's celebrating in Mexico.
00:39:18
Speaker
It's celebrated from November 1st to November 2nd, and it's known for the decorated skulls everywhere, vibrant costumes, vibrant colors, cool makeup. Traditionally, it's celebrated by building home altars for those that have passed and for one day have to send you from heaven to join the families. So these altars are stocked up with fruit, meat, beverages, pan de muerto, which chant translates to the bread of the dead. I don't know if you were able to open that one yet.
00:39:46
Speaker
If the altar is being built for a child that has passed, they'll usually leave toys as well, which I thought was really cute. In cemeteries, the graves are decorated with Aztec miracles and sugar skulls. Those are known traditionally as calaveras. I do wonder about the aftermath of this. Is all the food collected the next day?
00:40:07
Speaker
because I would worry, like, with the sugar skulls and bread, they would have a big pest problem on their hands, right? Like, I mean... This is the, the, if you want ants, that's how you get ants. Yeah, if you want ants, that's how you get ants. Yeah, and I mean, like, it's such a beautiful celebration, not to minimize it at all. I, I can't believe, you know, you would, you would think of that. You would think of what is left over after the party. I would, I do. How many times after your own party have I just been so incredibly drunk still trying to clean?
00:40:38
Speaker
It's, it's hard. I understand. I'm always there drunk and still trying to clean. Oh goodness. So yeah, that's, that's the Adenos Huertos, which most of us already know. While the Mexican tradition believes in heaven, opens for their loved ones. Hong Kong, China has a similar celebration, except they believe the gates of hell open. You can open that one up. Which one is it? They call it the Hungry Ghost Festival.
00:41:05
Speaker
Here it is believed that on the seventh month of the lunar calendar, I'm not sure if you know what that is, specifically. I'm familiar with the lunar calendar, but I don't know which is the seventh month. So here it's believed that on the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the gates of hell open and allow spirits to roam free, haunt the living. Their belief is that the spirits become restless and ravenous, wandering around, visiting their families for two weeks.
00:41:32
Speaker
So on the 15th day of the lunar month, members of the Qi Chao community attempt to appease the spirits by offering fruit, meats, and pastries. So a lot of food offering, as you mentioned, right? They also burn something called hell money, which is what you're seeing in that picture, or other paper items. They light lanterns and candles, and they believe this helps the deceased find their way back to the spirit world. So this is seen as a time for families to reconnect with those that have past and an opportunity to make amends for offenses committed against them. So to kind of help them move on from that hell, right? So another celebration in China is known as the King Ming festival. And it's celebrated in the beginning of April. It's known as Tomb Sweeping Day. I actually didn't give you a picture of that. As the name suggests, they sweep and clean the tombs of all their loved ones. And this is seen as the way to honor the deceased, which I thought was pretty cool. You'll love this last one, Nim. Day of Dracula.
00:42:30
Speaker
You can open that one up. So Romania, of course, celebrates Day of Dracula. It seems to be more of a touristy thing than a local day to celebrate the dead. Yeah. But it sounds really cool because Transylvania opens Bran's castle this day to allow visitors to explore the hidden tunnels, go through secret staircases while getting a history lesson about the 14th century fortress and why it's relevant to the to the Bram Stoker novel.
00:42:55
Speaker
So I just thought that was really cool because it it is still a way that the city, the area celebrates, right? Whether or not it is rooted in tradition, it is rooted in a book and a movie, which in a way is its own tradition. A book and several movies. Yes. So that was.
00:43:11
Speaker
you know, just a little really, really, really thin history on a few different areas, which... An appetizer to make you go and want to look at more. Honestly, like I, it was really hard to narrow it down just to these because, and I wanted to go into so much more. and So like there is so much more to all of these festivals. So please don't think that it was just... We can't cover everything. I do want to mention though that some of these pictures are remind to me, i last less Halloween for our anniversary trip, we went to New Orleans.
Halloween Celebrations and Predictions
00:43:40
Speaker
One of the things that we did that was specifically Halloween related is that we got to see the parade, the Halloween parade that they did.
00:43:46
Speaker
and Once I got past some annoying situations and we were actually there and able to see the parade, we had rented ah a balcony. it It was a party in a bar restaurant thing and they made their balcony available to X number of people. It was like...
00:44:03
Speaker
unlimited food and drink and whatever. That's awesome. Yeah, it was like open bar for real. and And it was a balcony overlooking the parade as it went by. And it was just some pretty amazing energy just like being surrounded by everybody excited about Halloween and and just having this just grand old time. It was super awesome seeing some beautiful costume and the amazing floats and the the entertainers and stuff.
00:44:25
Speaker
I never would have thought to go like at a time other than Mardi Gras out in New Orleans. So that's amazing. See, but for me, I will never go when everybody else goes. Oh, 100%. And it was it was he hit the crowd it was even a bit of a stretch to go, but you know, it's a bit of a bucket list thing. Yeah. You know, I went to Salem, but I didn't go during Halloween and I'm very glad that I did that because I got to see so much more. I didn't have to wait in line to get into a shop.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I didn't have to wait three hours to eat. And anyways, that was a great, a good middle time to go, like, because there's still people and it's bustling and it's great. The the French Quarter was all decorated and stuff, but it wasn't like super crazy swan for people. But anyway, so that's my own experience with a Halloween type festival. That's your own experience? You don't, you're not talking about your every single year experience? The extra special. That is one.
00:45:17
Speaker
One of your entire Halloween existence. That is one of the things I did. Shut up, asshole. No, I'm just saying that. You literally live and breathe Halloween is what I'm saying. You are the queen of Halloween. But as far as a big festival, is anything comparable to any of the things that you should make your life? Yeah, no, that sounds amazing. That is the closest to real life experience. Yeah.
00:45:48
Speaker
We've hit that point of delirium from our nightmares. I think that means it's time for a little spooky Halloween divination. o So I have brought with me to the Nightmare Cottage my Halloween tarot deck and my Halloween oracle deck. So I will say that both of these were purchased for aesthetic saloon. And I'm actually, i've I've played a lot with tarot cards. I've actually never played with oracle cards. In fact, I don't even know that I've ever all opened this box. It seems dangerous. It's only dangerous if you make it dangerous. No. Can I redo a card? Yes. Okay, do you want an oracle card or a tarot card? You said you don't know what the oracle cards are. There's a book in it that will tell me what to do. I want those. Okay.
00:46:37
Speaker
I told you I'm a weenie, but I like spooky things, but then I get scared. Okay. Well, this is a very cute, like it's like courage, cowardly dog. I am. That's me. I want to show you. Oopsie. Okay. Nothing going on here. Don't look at the man behind Kurt. But I'd like to show you the art and I'll take a picture to add. It's all like really cute. They are cute. jerry That clown is horrifying though.
00:47:06
Speaker
Well, don't look at the clown. Okay. Okay. So I want you to, oopsies. And it was the foal that dropped. I just dropped a card and it was the foal. The clown, the clown, the one that I hate. Do you see? Do you see this is why you don't play with these things? I need you. Listen, I want, to I just, I just want everyone to understand like, I don't believe in any of this, but I believe in all of it. So I'm a little, I'm a little conflicted. Okay. It's okay to demystify something and still celebrate it.
00:47:36
Speaker
So I would say that you should either think about something that you're concerned about or excited about, or, um, maybe we can keep it as simple as how is Halloween going to go. I was about to say, because the last time we did this, I don't want to talk about that yet. Okay. Really traumatized. Talk about nightmare. oh i'm in a play Okay.
00:48:00
Speaker
Aww, yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about how we think Halloween's gonna go this year. Halloween party, Halloween vibes, Halloween in general, Halloween home, Halloween brisket, whatever, man. Oh, I love Halloween brisket. Oh, Halloween brisket. So my husband, Ace.
00:48:24
Speaker
makes the most delicious brisket and he brings it to the Halloween party. Well so far it's only been one year, right? Oh yes, but I will allow it any other years it wants to happen. It's delicious. Yeah. This is delicious. He does smell like smoked meats for like a couple days after so it is kind of weird because we always come home from a party smelling like bonfire. Yeah.
00:48:44
Speaker
So we always have to shower, but it's funny because now like he actually, like his beard ends up smelling like smoked meats as well. So now what? I shuffled them. So I probably should have been, well, I was talking about Halloween. That's okay. Cut it and lay it down. And it's going to be, however, it's facing you is how I'm going to read for it. Face it up. Yeah. Well, I didn't mix them. You got the hero Fent, which is the mummy. He's right side up to you. I'll take a picture of that card. He's all being a little Halloween scepter. He has a spooky kitty.
00:49:14
Speaker
Okay. I don't like your face. You're my hero. No, it's because I'm ah aging and I have to stare at something while I read it. Like, like with a circle. I just wanted to make sure I was a little traumatized from the last time that you try to read my whatever. So, well, no, yours isn't it was fine. It was mine. That was the one that was awful and turned out to be true. So, so this one, the hero fan tarot card, upright general meetings are traditional institutions.
00:49:42
Speaker
ah traditional values, conventional commitment, beliefs and knowledge sharing, general interpretation upright. It's the card of traditional values and institutions, which I love that. That's kind of the tradition. I mean, it is. Yeah, it's the tradition. And we all get together, like you said, once a year and see everyone that we don't usually see any other time of the year. And it's like, no time has stopped. And it's fantastic and amazing. So it's just saying all shall be as it's always been.
00:50:11
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, I think that's where we can stop. That's a good one. I like it. Yeah. Let's see how this lighting works. No, don't touch it. Oh. We're just straightening it. Sorry. but I was trying to make it look like kind of fun and jaunty. But no, no, no. Now it's too jaunty.
00:50:34
Speaker
I'm really jaunted.
00:50:41
Speaker
We survived the nightmare. We'll be meeting back with more. And goodnight. If you have topic suggestions, movie or book recommendations, questions for the cottage, or just want to say hi, you can email us at nightmarecottage at gmail dot.com. You can find us on Instagram at nightmarecottage and on our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sleep tight if you dare.