All Hallow’s Eve, Halloween, a Time of Remembrances

Halloween, a Time of Remembrances

 

The leaves become a patchwork of green, crimson, orange, yellow, and brown; a brisk breeze stirs a few to the ground to be crunched under foot as I traverse through the park with my dog.  

 

 

Grinning pumpkins line porches, nearby potted mums shimmer gold or orange, and towering plastic skeletons hover over lawns. There’s always that one neighbor who competes for the gaudiest or most gruesome display with several skeletal creatures, some even dressed up or black robed mechanical witches with pointy hats and brooms, and cloth ghosts suspended from the branches of trees.

Night time brings out the vibes of the season. As darkness descends, orange, green, and yellow lights flash on. So does ephemeral  music. Electronically created howls, shrieks, cackling, or disembodied whispers break the silence. 

Ancient Tradition of All Hallow’s Eve

Halloween, a time of pretending, a time of remembering other times, and a time that has an interesting history, one not far removed from today’s traditions of wearing costumes, trick-or-treating, and telling spooky or horrific stories.

It echoes back to centuries ago with Celtic roots coming from the ancient  Irish and Scottish spiritual tradition called Samhain, pronounced sow-win, which for an agricultural society meant to welcome in the harvest and mark the start of the dark days of winter.  Generally Samhain is celebrated from October 31 to November 1. 

Trick-o-Treating

The tradition of wearing costumes on Halloween comes from the Irish tradition of mumming where participants put on costumes and went door-to-door singing songs of the dead.. There’d been the belief that faeries could play tricks on the unwary so it was best to provide the treat or you might be tricked. Treats were given in the form of cakes, also called soul-cakes which are like cookies. The notion of trick-or-treating stems from these earlier traditions, but today we hand out candy instead of soul cakes, and the tricks which might be played could include smashed pumpkins, toilet paper on one’s lawn, raw eggs thrown, or other nasty tricks. 

Pumpkins

Pumpkins are a symbol for Halloween which stems from the earlier Celts. In Ireland, for example, it was common to carve turnips and put candles into them to ward off evil spirits. The legend of Jack-o-Lantern comes from the Irish story of a man named Stingy Jack who tricked the devil. The devil had given Jack a burning coal which Jack put into a carved-up turnip. The Irish called it the Jack O’Lantern, and when both the Irish and the Scottish immigrated to America they brought this tradition with them. However, they switched to pumpkins because it was easier to carve up than a turnip.

Ghosts 

In the spiritual tradition of the ancient Celts there is the belief that the barriers between the physical world and the spiritual world break down. The notion of ghostly apparitions and contact with the departed is supposed to be strongest at this time of year. Hence, the use of divination in the form of card reading, seances, and spirit contact of some form.

In earlier times and still today in parts of Great Britain and Ireland, bonfires are lit and there’s the belief of communion with the dead on October 31.

Witches

Wicca, a pagan religion,celebrates Samhain as the passing of the old year and beginning of the new. It is a celebration of the harvest and is considered one of the most important Sabbats for Wicca. A few ways that this is celebrated is by lighting bonfires or candles if you can’t build  a bonfire and calling out to the dead, telling stories about departed loved ones or spooky stories, a silent supper with an empty chair left out for the spirit of the departed, and placing apples and pomegranates before the photos of the departed loved ones.

Apples are associated with death, and pomegranates with life. That’s interesting in several ways. We’re often told that an apple a day keeps the doctor away; the apple is considered the forbidden fruit as it represented wisdom in the Book of Genesis and has been given to teachers who impart wisdom. Some mythologies interpret apples as life giving. The pomegranate is considered the fruit of life because of its many seeds, and in ancient Greek mythology it represents eternal life. An interesting connection to Halloween is the use of apples at the party game of bobbing for apples. Candied apples, cider donuts, and apple cider are found at a lot of farm stands and in grocery stores during the autumn season. 

Wearing Orange and Black?

The traditional colors worn on Halloween are orange and black. Orange is considered a Fall color and representative of the harvest, and it is the typical color of pumpkins. Black is typically symbolic of darkness and since Halloween celebrations generally commence at night, it has become a symbolic color for Halloween. The color purple, one of my favorite colors, is also symbolic of Halloween as purple represents mystery and magic.

Writing and Halloween

Two of my young adult novels, A Kiss Out of Time and its sequel A Dance Out of Time, are about hauntings in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, a place I love to visit.

My current fiction writing is a young adult paranormal with elements of magic as a teenage witch is learning how to responsibly use her powers in dealing with the trouble makers at school.

Halloween is my favorite holiday for many reasons, not the least of which is the storytelling and the dressing up. I think it goes back to my own Celtic roots.

 

Happy Halloween! Happy Samhain!

Reference Sources:

https://hero-magazine.com/article/159423/a-witchs-guide-to-celebrating-halloween

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain

 

Travel Writing: Safari in East Africa

This past month, I had the opportunity to go on safaris in Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa. It took almost thirty hours flight time plus layovers at airports to get to Tanzania.  It took over two days to get past the jet lag and begin the actual journey into the wild. Our tour director, Stacie Wright, a naturalist and biologist, provided a wealth of information on the wildlife and the culture we visited. We joined a tour group of twenty-nine people from all over the US and one couple from Canada.  All eager to venture forth. For most, this was our first time on safaris. We soon learned the Swahili greeting. Jambo. Commonly used when meeting others and also put into a fantastic song which children at a school we visited sang for us.

We’re literally standing on the equator in Laikipia, Nanyuki, Kenya

 

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, the biggest intact caldera on Earth with the densest population of mammals in Africa, at sunrise.
Mount Kilimanjaro as seen from Amboseli National Park, Kenya is a dormant volcano and the tallest mountain in Africa at 19,430 feet.

 

Massaging a 100 year old turtle at the William Holden Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Many orphaned wild animals are cared for and raised in the conservancy founded by the late Hollywood actor William Holden.

 

Standing up to view wildlife from the safety of a safari vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During our drives through the countries, we passed fields of recently picked maize, shrubs loaded with red coffee beans, banana trees, and fields of cotton. Coffee, tea, cashews, maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar cane, tobacco, and cotton are the chief crops. At our lodges and hotels, I woke up early and enjoyed a cup of strong Kenyan coffee or sweet, citrus-scented Tanzanian tea. Buffet style meals provided a wide choice of local cuisine that included grilled sweet potatoes, okra, mixed vegetables, plantains, sliced pineapples, various kinds of meat and fish, and baked goods.

The Serengeti National Park

Picture widespread savannah dotted with acacia trees, open plains with short grasses, riverine areas, or hilly and wooded terrain. The Serengeti is a changing landscape and home to many types of wild animals. We spotted countless antelopes, wildebeest, and zebras grazing in the grass or following the great migration for water.

Wildebeest are cow like animals which graze the low grasses and migrate for water supplies.
Giraffes sauntered in slow, graceful movements to nibble the leaves of acacia trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A leopard rested on a tree limb, probably finishing up a recent kill, then stretched and moved to a rocky lookout point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submerged in muddy brown waters, hippo lazed, argued with one another in loud grunts and groans, or splashed playfully while eyeing us.

 

 

 

 

Their water refuge protects their delicate skin from the harsh rays of the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lions slept in pairs on the grassy knolls. A  few looked up warily as we passed. Some even walked between our vehicles, oblivious to our stares and cameras. Once an enormous cape buffalo veered toward us, trying to escape a young male lion. The chase soon ended when the lion who jumped on the buffalo’s back got thrown off and stomped by the buffalo. As the buffalo rushed away, the wounded lion sat licking its wounds until another lion joined it and snuggled sympathetically, then licked the injured lion’s wound.

 

 

 

Monkeys nested in trees, in groves, or sat staring at us. These primates form large communities as protection from predators.  Smaller vervet monkeys could be found outside our lodgings, climbing fences, or trying to procure food or neglected possessions left by guests.

Baboon
Vervet monkey

 

Skye’s (Blue) monkey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thompson’s gazelles, springboks, Topi, and Grant’s gazelles graze on the grasses in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Warthogs zigzag, tails erect, as they forage, and impalas leap across dirt roads to get to the grassy side.

 

Grant’s gazelle
Topi antelope amid the tall grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Maasai 

We visited a Maasai Village in Kenya where we learned about their culture, their use of natural remedies for medicine, and their agricultural lifestyle which included farming and herding goats, cows, and cattle. Their warriors sang and danced. Their women sold handmade crafts, beaded jewelry, pottery, and woven baskets. They are a proud people, and welcomed us to visit, to join their tribal song and dance, and to buy their crafts.

The eve before our tour ended, several Maasai entertained our tour group with their traditional song and dance during our farewell dinner. We applauded. “Asante.” Thank you in Swahili. We said this several times to those who served us, drove us, and guided us. They made this a wonderful trip; one I certainly will never forget.

Meet Joy Held, Author, Editor, Writing Coach, and Yogi

 

I met Joy Held when she’d been my editor for earlier editions of my paranormal romance novels Angels Among Us and Sacred Fires. We’ve made contact recently through an online chapter of romance writers. I have taken her wellness workshop for writers and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her encouragement and inspiration truly motivated me in my own writing career. I also took her online yoga classes. It’s my pleasure to introduce Joy Held, published author, editor, writing coach, and yogi, and her books.

1. Why did you become a writer?

My parents and relatives were teachers and readers.

I grew up surrounded by books. I had a natural curiosity about words and
reading and writing from an early age. They made sense to me. My dad
moved us around quite a bit, but our homes were generally in rural
areas which meant that the weekly public library trips were a major
event as was the monthly delivery of the Double Day Book Club. I could
hardly wait to open the boxes. When other ten-year-olds were asking
their mothers where babies come from, I asked my mom where books
come from. After learning about how books are born from writers, I
made up my mind to become one.

2. What inspired you to write the book The Writer Wellness?

Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020) was inspired by some members of the critique group I worked with in the eighties. They asked me how I did me, as in how I worked part-time, home schooled my daughters, and published on a regular basis. My first response was that I would have to get back to them, which I did after thirty days of documenting my life practices. The resulting areas of journaling, exercise, meditation, healthy eating,
and creative noodling around became key concepts of a workshop and book(s). There is now a workbook and guided journal to accompany the main publication.

3. What inspired you to write The Mermaid Riot?

I’ve never been a mermaid fanatic, appreciate them, yes, but when I happened to catch a tweet about a 19 th century legend popular in Charleston, SC, my curiosity was challenged. I generally read and write historical romance, and the juxtaposition of mermaids and history got my attention. I did the initial reconnaissance and discovered a fascinating story reported in the newspapers that happened after the U.S. Civil War ended. Severe storms deluged Charleston for several days, and people had heard a rumor that a doctor had allegedly captured and was holding a mermaid in his house. The people believed that the bad weather was the result of holding the mermaid against her will. It fascinated me on several levels: historical, fantastical, and emotional.

4. How did you first get published?

My first “publication” experience was being self-published way before it was as frequent as it is today. I was twelve years old, my mother had a hand-cranked mimeograph machine, and I started a neighborhood newspaper. I knocked on neighbors’ doors (it was okay in those innocent suburban days) and asked for news and tips. The Durham Heights News was my first published work.

From there I progressed to writing for school newspapers then a local weekly newspaper asked me to write a column about events at my junior high school. First paycheck and byline. Hooked me forever. I’ve written a couple of blogs about my writing journey.

5. What are you working on now?

My current project is a series of writing books for students in grades 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12.

6. Can you describe your writing process?

My writing process is very linear and inspiration based. I don’t have any problem coming up with ideas, but I have to be super obsessed with one in order to follow through with it. My process is to receive an idea, journal about it, make lists, research, make more lists, then allow myself to be taken away by the idea. I’m drawn to character-driven plots. I use index cards on a huge storyboard then progress to writing a lengthy outline which I follow pretty closely once I am writing.

For nonfiction, I create the Table of Contents first and that serves as my outline.

7. What writing organizations do you belong to?

I belong to The Authors Guild and The Society for Children’s Book
Writers and Illustrators.

8. Where are your books available?

My books are available on major online retailers as well my publisher’s websites.

The Mermaid Riot

The Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity

 

9. Anything else that you care to tell about your writing or yourself?

I’m also the founder and the creator of My WriteDay for writers and
readers. It’s a bi-monthly subscription box that contains a writing craft
book and other items such as office supplies, snacks, décor, and more.
The products are mostly sourced from makers in my home state of West
Virginia and other writers who are also crafters.

Thanks so much for this interview, Catherine.
Be well, write well!      ~Joy

“Women with clean houses do not have finished books.” ~JEH

For more information

on Joy Held, please go to her website using the link for her name.

Joy Held