Tag: witches

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Usually, the Halloween post would be done by Ellen. She is the queen of Halloween. In her home, she has skeletons that remain in place all year long. She has figurines and all manner of cool ghostly decorations. But, she’s been doing all the posting lately, so it’s my turn.

Halloween is one of my favorite evenings. I love the idea of dressing up and going door to door. In times when communities were safer and tighter knit, this tradition was a wonderful way to touch base with neighbors and build closeness.

Then somewhere along the line, people started doing nasty things to candy. Children started getting hurt by the nasty people. Instead of simply opting out and not giving any treats, people gave out poisoned goodies or some with needles in them. It became dangerous to go out and ring doorbells dressed up as your favorite character or ghoul.

Today, you don’t have as many kids out trick or treating. Communities have shifted to having private Halloween parties. Churches, those that don’t take it as an evil holiday, host some as well. It is sad to see this moment of community building leaving our world.

I remember having the opportunity to dress up at school when it fell on a school day. When I first started teaching, I dressed up as an evil witch and read ghost stories. Then they started trying to control even that part of our lives. First, it was decreed you could only dress up as a character from a book. Happily, there are tons of witch characters to choose from.

Me in my favorite pirate costume.

In my new school, dressing up can only be done if your costume represents a science vocabulary word from the school provided word bank. Some kids came dressed up like a cloud, or prey, or a predator (not my favorite predator though). I considered being a black hole. You know, wearing a black skirt with a round puff ball representing the star I was slowly eating. But that word was not in the approved word bank.

So, today, I just wore a lovely black skirt with some skull decorations on the sides and a red top. I still read them some Halloween inspired stories. We enjoyed the poem “The Spider and the Fly” as well as the picture book “Bats in the Library.” We read the humorous “Velcome” and I shared my Witchy Christmas story. We also used “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick” to inspire our spooky quick writes.

By the way, I will be reading my Witchy Christmas story at this year’s Haunted Holidays readings on November 9th. Come out and join me and Ellen as well as the other amazing authors who will be there at Brazos Bookstore this year.

It’s purple… had to use it!

Would love to hear how you see the situation with Halloween celebrations and some of your outfits this year, so please take a moment to comment. Oh, and, Happy Halloween everyone.

Posted on by Ellen Seaton - 1 Comment on Holidays in Confusion

Holidays in Confusion

Lately the Gulf of Mexico reminds me of a witch’s cauldron. As I watched the news coverage of Hurricane Idalia this week, I could just see the waters getting churned up. Then late at night when I listened very carefully, I could hear the faint strains of Shakespeare’s witches as they chanted: Double, double. Toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. As I reflected on this I realized that there were forces on the loose in the Gulf that were indeed doubling our toil and trouble. Then I realized that not only is climate change messing with our weather, but it is also causing much confusion with our holidays.

Every year around this time, I pay close attention during my shopping trips, looking for my first sighting of Halloween decorations. Of course, I would always purchase something to add to my already busy collection. My personal rule is that once Halloween decorations hit the store shelves, then summer is all but over, and it is time to decorate with my favorite witches and skeletons. This usually happens around the month of September.

I had my annual first sighting this year, but it happened in July. It was over 100 degrees outside. Yes, I made my first yearly Halloween purchase, but something felt off. I sweated entirely too much taking my new purchase out to my car and then when I arrived at home, it was too hot to start decorating outside. I know that last statement to be a fact, because I tried it and it didn’t work.

Now it is the last of August and turning into September. The situation gets worse. The last time I went shopping, I not only found more Halloween decorations (which I didn’t mind, because I can always use more!) I also found a display of Christmas decorations. Please let me repeat this, because this is newsworthy and worth repeating. In AUGUST, stores were displaying both Halloween and Christmas decorations right next to each other. It wasn’t like one holiday was over and items were marked half off. No, this was more like Santa’s sleigh was going to be pulled by both reindeer and goblins! Santa’s elves will walk around in the dark and try to scare children while skeletons will help to create exciting toys for the good little girls and boys.

The holidays are now all higgledy-piggledy. Can I blame this on climate change? There seems to be a direct correlation here. Maybe if I contact Neil deGrasse Tyson he can explain this with better scientific reasoning. I’ll let you know what he says. In the meantime, please only purchase Halloween supplies in September and Christmas decorations in November. A little decorum if you please.

Posted on by Ellen Seaton - 3 Comments on Witch!

Witch!

Who were the witches,

Where did they come from,

Maybe your great, great, great

Grandma was one!

This is a snippet of a song that I learned years ago when I attended a women’s camping trip in the Texas Hill Country. I don’t remember who wrote it or when it was written. This is all I remember of the song, but I think about this every Halloween. Actually it is my interest in women’s history; including the history of witches and the Salem Witch Trials that has really sparked my interest in Halloween for many years. Anyone who is invited over to my house around October 31st gets my lecture on how witches were persecuted women. Yes, back in the old days (Really.…old days.…days even older than me!) women were subjected to torture and hanging if the local cow’s milk went bad or farmer Brown’s crops didn’t grow. Many women were killed because of the suspicions of others. I wish I had a broomstick I could ride around on today. Not only would it be better than Houston traffic, but maybe it would solve my fear of flying in planes!

Of course one would hope that after that dark period in history, humanity would evolve. However, please tell me if you have ever heard of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, Mary Ann Evans, Karen Blixen, or Joanne Rowling? They are all women writers. Maybe you are familiar with their pseudonyms; George Sand, George Eliot, Isak Dinesen and J. K. Rowling. Even Louisa May Alcott started her writing career by publishing under the name of A. M. Barnard.

 Back in the day, women had a lot of trouble getting published. It was easier to write using a male pseudonyms or initials so the reader could not tell the author was a woman. It would be nice to say that this was not the case any longer. Alice Mary Norton died in 2006 having spent a career writing science fiction and fantasy works under the name of Andre Norton. One of her works was called Witch World.

Women artists have also had their troubles. There was a time when women weren’t allowed in art academies or art guilds. They were sometimes seen as mentally ill because of their avant garde life styles and independent natures. Sometimes they were merely shunned, because they were too different from those in polite society. One sculptor, Camille Claudel, spent the last 30 years of her life in an asylum in France because her mother and overly religious brother kept her in the asylum and wouldn’t allow her to return home.

I love almost any form of art. I love taking the art history class at the Glassell, Women in Art. I also love to write. Do these facts make me a witch or does this make me crazy? No, that’s not a trick question and I won’t put a spell on you if I don’t like your answer. (Probably.) I have been called a strong and independent woman; which I consider a compliment.

Consider the image below:

Do you think this is a picture of a male figure or a female figure? How can you tell? How does sexual identity change your impression of this critter? Does it make a difference in how scary this image is?

Halloween gives me so much to think about every year. I review my list of positive female role models and hope that I have been a positive role model to some of the women in my world.

Until next time.….….….