Archive for September, 2009
The jack-o-lantern’s mischievous grin has haunted our porches for years, but the Halloween tradition originated from an Irish myth. The Irish carried over the tradition of the Jack-O-Lantern to the U.S., not as a pumpkin, but as a turnip.
The orange glow that we have learned to love started with a drunk by the name of Stingy Jack, and his pint with the Devil. Stingy Jack was a trickster who was infamous for annoying family and friends with mischief. He took his chances with the Devil one night in the local pub. 
Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin. Instead of paying the tab, Stingy Jack slipped the “evil” coin into his pocket which conveniently held a silver cross, and prevented the Devil from turning back into his original form.
Stingy Jack bought himself a year of freedom from the Devil, and a promise that when he died, the Devil wouldn’t claim his soul. Although the Devil gave Jack a hassle, he finally agreed and Stingy Jack freed the Devil from his pocket.
A year passed, and the Devil gave Stingy Jack a visit. Keeping with his ways, Stingy Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick some fruit. During the Devil’s ascension, Jack carved the sign of the cross into the bark of the tree. He held the Devil captive until he agreed to leave Jack alone for another ten years.
Soon after that, our friend Stingy Jack died. He was a clever lad during his life, but faced closed gates to Heaven when he died. God wouldn’t allow the trickster to rest in his realm, and the Devil promised not to take his soul. Despite his deal with the Devil, Jack still gave him a visit. He was turned away from the fiery gates of hell. The Devil sent Stingy Jack into the darkness with only a burning coal. Jack placed the coal in a carved-out turnip, and has been roaming the earth ever since.
The Irish called the haunted figure “Jack of the Lantern”, and then eventually “of the” became “O”, coining the term we know today, “Jack-O-Lantern”.
Used as a fear tactic, like a gargoyle, the people of Ireland and Scotland carved out turnips and potatoes with ghoulish faces with the hopes of scaring away wandering evil spirits and of course, Stingy Jack. The English used large beets to create scary faces and placed them in windows or on door steps.
Immigrants from these countries to America brought the tradition. They soon discovered a native fruit to America known as the pumpkin, and found that it facilitated the purpose much better with a round surface and smooth carving.
A Jack-O-Lantern is one of the most recognized decorations of Halloween today. With elaborate designs and glowing lights, it is truly a part of history, and a strong defense in keeping wayward spirits away; especially, the clever Stingy Jack.
A zombie, a vampire and a sexy nurse walk into a bar. GI Joes and Transformers are seen hand-in-hand. It's no joke: Halloween has arrived.
Spirit(R) Halloween, the largest Halloween retailer of costumes and decor, kick-started the season with the opening of 725 stores across the United States and Canada. Spirit has been helping people of all ages celebrate Halloween for more than 25 years, offering the most unusual, authentic , sometimes scariest and always unique Halloween costumes and home decor.
Each year, the country's largest seasonal Halloween retailer predicts the most popular costumes with scary accuracy. This year's dead-on picks:
Musical Mania
- Michael Jackson
- Britney Spears
- Lady Gaga
Almost Infamous
- Kate Gosselin
- Sarah Palin
- Bernie Madoff
From the Big Screen
- Vampires
- G.I. Joe
- Transformers
For the Little Ones
- Star Wars
- Yo Gabba Gabba
- Light-up fairy and princess costumes
Fun for the Whole Family: matching adult/child costumes
- Sesame Street
- Teletubbies
- Nintendo
- Ninja Turtles
"Each year the Halloween season kicks off with the opening of Spirit Halloween stores over Labor Day. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, there will be more fun had by all," said Steven Silverstein, President and CEO, Spirit Halloween. "Consumer inspiration comes from everywhere. Overwhelmingly we are influenced by everything from movies to TV, from music to the latest scandal. Halloween is about having fun and taking the plunge."
For more than 25 years, Spirit Halloween has been the most comprehensive one-stop destination for Halloween enthusiasts and casual observers alike. Through the vast merchandise assortment and memorable visual presentation, Spirit stores provide an impressive, unique and unforgettable shopping experience with haunted house-quality and theatrical-quality, props, decor and animated figures.
In addition to being a fun and interactive event for shoppers, the locations offer complete selections of costumes and accessories for infants/toddlers, children, 'tweens, teens and adults. A broad assortment of decor and party goods complete any look. A large portion of the selection is exclusive merchandise found only at Spirit Halloween.
About Spirit Halloween
Spirit Halloween (www.spirithalloween.com) is the largest seasonal Halloween retailer in the country with 725 locations in strip centers and malls across the United States and Canada. The authority on all things Halloween, Spirit has offered one-stop shopping -- ranging from costumes to decor and party goods to accessories -- for more than 25 years. In addition to being a fun and interactive event for shoppers, Spirit stores offer complete selections of costumes and accessories for infants/toddlers, children, 'tweens, teens, adults, and even pets. At the heart of Spirit Halloween is the Spirit of Children program, which is devoted to bringing the fun, imagination and fantasy of Halloween to pediatric patients in hospitals and rehabilitation centers across the United States.
Every year for the past nine years I have broadcast three stations of Halloween themed music for fans of Halloween the world over. They're all back this year for another five weeks of shivers, shenanigans, silliness and sinister, shadowy delights.
NeverEndingWonder Radio broadcasts a freeform mix of music ranging from some of the earliest music ever recorded, to brand new releases, including big band, blues, jazz, popular, classical, folk, rock, punk, Goth, electronic, psychobilly, punkabilly, gothabilly, horrorpop, metal, avante-gard, experimental and other styles, as well as horror and sci-fi soundtracks classic and contemporary. Also, twice a day (starting October 1st) we'll be presenting an hour of spooky and scary old time radio shows.
New this year, we've added a plague of Zombie music, including more Zombina & The Skeletones, Zombie Girl, Zombie Ghost Train, Zombie Night in Canada, The Great Erotic Zombie Shakedown and more! Halloween garage classics, some devilish Halloween music from the 20s & 30s, Rocky Horror Norwegian cast, spooky Halloween soundscapes from In a World, the brand new release from horror rock band The Horrorgans and more!
New soundtracks this year include House of 1000 Corpses, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Crow Soundtrack & Unreleased Score & many more!
The Voices of Halloween series is back this year, expanded to include the voices of Halloween fans from around the world- NeverEndingWonder Halloween Radio is ONLINE NOW!
Welcome to Weirdsville presents our unique mix of Halloween themed novelty hits and comedy, everything from the familiar Monster Mash & Purple People Eater, to a plethora of obscure music you'll have a hard time finding anywhere else! Dickie Goodman, Spike Jones, Weird Al, Allan Sherman, Killer Tomatoes- it's all here! Welcome to Weirdsville is ONLINE NOW!
Halloween on Broadway will be back with strange & unusual musical theatre- Rocky Horror, Phantom of the Opera, Little Shp of Horrors, Sweeney Todd- those are only the beginning! Dance of the Vampires, Silence of the Lambs The Musical, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jane Eyre and much more! New this year: Norwegian version of Rocky Horror and a new version of Hunchback of Notre Dame by former Styx keyboardist Denis DeYoung. Halloween on Broadway will return October 1st!
Come join the fun with the most unique, most interesting Halloween radio station on the internet!
http://www.NeverEndingWonder.com
The Insane Uncle Ozma will be back for his popular live broadcast marathon October 30 & 31! We'll be giving away personally autographed photographs of Vampire hottie Brooke Lewis! See NeverEndingWonder.com for details.
Music and sound effects are crucial to creating the perfect Halloween atmosphere. Whether you’re trying to create a scary haunted house or a rocking Halloween party using music and sound effects can make or break the mood. One of the best parts about Halloween is that you can’t go too far when it comes to decorating or setting a mood. The more over the top you go the more fun you and your friends and family will have. Here are some tips to help you effectively use music and sound effects 
to set the right Halloween mood:
Stick with the classics – When you’re trying to scare the costume pants off little Trick or Treaters by turning your house into a Haunted House the classic scary sounds are the best. Screams, chains rattling, boards creaking, diabolical laughter, witches cackling, and ghosts moaning are traditional Halloween sounds that are super scary, especially combined with light effects and props. Make sure you have a couple of Halloween noise CDs on hand so that you can change the noises randomly throughout the night.
Don’t forget the ambient music – Scary noises are, well, scary. But ambient music that has no words and is played in the background can really scare people because it sets their sense on edge. Dark ethereal music, 
especially organ music or very esoteric electronic music can transform an ordinary room into a creepy crypt, a haunted mansion, or a witches cottage. Ambient music should be always playing in the background. Combine ambient music with a few witches cackling sounds or evil laughter sounds for a truly scary effect.
Go for the gore – If you want to induce Halloween nightmares don’t shy away from the extreme noises. One of the reasons why horror movies are so horrifying is because of the sound effects. Use those sound effects to really turn up the fear factor at your Halloween party or for Trick or Treaters. Sound effects like saws, heavy machinery, roaring fires, bubbling beakers, electric shocks, and the sound of breaking bones can be terrifying in the right context. Make sure that you have several different type of scream effects so that it sounds like several people are being murdered in the background and not just one.
Pick up Halloween Party Classics – If you’re having a Halloween party there are just some songs that your guests will expect to hear. Since you can only play these songs on Halloween night put these songs on repeat and party the night away! Classic Halloween party songs that you should buy on CD are Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Monster Mash, Witch Doctor, I want Candy, Thriller, the Buffy the Vampire Theme Song, the Great Pumpkin waltz from It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Funeral March of the Marionette from the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show, the Addams Family theme song and the Munsters theme song.
The image of a witch dressed in black with a big pointy hat riding a broomstick is an iconic Halloween image. But why are witches so closely associated with Halloween? There are a lot of reasons why the image of the evil witch became associated with Halloween, and most of them are rooted in Middle Age Christianity.
When the Christian Church in the Middle Ages started to take over as the dominant religion throughout Europe the leaders of the Church needed to find a way to get people to stop believing in old Pagan traditions and embrace Christian beliefs. In order to convince people to convert to Christianity they waged a negative public relations war against anything associated with Paganism. One of the things associated with Paganism was the practice of Witchcraft, or manipulating energies and using plants, herbs, and other natural materials to heal disease and to help growth. Usually witchcraft was practiced by women who worked as natural healers and were seen as being very wise and educated. In order to convince people to turn against Paganism the Church began a campaign against witches saying that witches were evil people who worked with the Devil and were using herbal potions and other mixtures to harm people, not to help them. The campaign worked and witches were hunted, tortured, and vilified.
When the Church wanted to stop the celebration of Samhain it used the same tactics that it had used against witches to make the celebration seem evil. Samhain was described by Church elders as the night when witches and the Devil would roam the Earth killing the innocent, stealing souls, and causing havoc. The stereotype of the witch that has come down through the centuries to modern culture developed from various practices and stereotypes throughout the years. The image of a wicked witch that most people have today was derived from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West with her long black dress, black pointy hat, green skin, and mole. For many modern people the image of a wicked witch flying through the air on a broom with a pointy hat, black dress, and green skin like Margaret Hamilton in the Wizard of Oz movie is the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “witch”.
Witches are almost always ugly because they are evil, and evil is ugly. Unlike the vampire cult in literature and film which makes vampires seem like sympathetic, attractive, misunderstood creatures who still have human feelings and emotions witches are always portrayed as ugly, mean, evil creatures who want to harm humans. Witches will always be associated with Halloween because they are supposed to be minions of the Devil, and Halloween is the Devil’s holiday for some Christian sects. Even though today Halloween is considered a secular holiday when Paganism and Christianity were both fighting for control as the dominant religion in Europe Halloween was a religious holiday. The Church tried to end the holiday by scaring people into not celebrating so that the witches wouldn’t get them but they never quite succeeded. Their image of the witch as an evil force to be reckoned with who flies out on Halloween in search of victims still endures though.