Updated May 31, 2024
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Scottish folklore believe a black or dark green dog known as a Cù Sìth takes the soul of a dying person to the afterlife.
The Festival of Samhain is old Irish for “Summer’s End.” The festival marked the end of the harvest season and was the time when people took stock of their foods in preparation for the long winter to come. It was also the time when souls of the dead came back home.
The Celtics believed that the door to the otherworld opened during Samhain and the souls of the dead, as well as other mystical beings such as fairies, could cross over into our world. The souls of dead kinsmen were invited to join in the festivities and people even set places for them at tables in hopes of appeasing the spirits with gifts of food. However, Samhain also allowed harmful spirits to enter our world so people disguised themselves in costumes on this night so as not to be recognized.
In 18th century Ireland, boys would go to each house asking for fuel for the Samhain bonfire and in the 19th century people went door-to-door collecting food for the Samhain feast. Sometimes the collectors would wear costumes, such as southern Ireland’s white mare. The tradition was that a man dressed as a white mare would lead children door-to- door begging food for the feast. Those that gave food could expect good fortune from the “Muck Olla,” a being who some say was a druid and others claim that she was a goddess.
Another common practice in parts of Ireland and Scottland was the carving of turnips into jack-o’-lanterns. The term jack-o’-lantern originated from ignis fatuss or will-o’-the-wisp, known as receding lights over a bog, but others say that the jack-o’-lantern got its name from a different source.
There are many old Irish folk tales of Stingy Jack, a smart, but lazy farmer who traps the Devil with a cross. One story tells how Jack was being chased by some angry villagers who he had stolen from when he bumped into the Devil. The Devil told Jack that it was time for him to die, but Jack managed to stall for time. He tempted the Devil with a chance to do evil by saying that if the Devil turned into a coin he would give it to the villagers to pay for what he had stolen. The Devil/coin would then latter disappear, making the villagers fight amongst themselves over who had stolen the coin. The Devil fell for the trick, turning into a coin and jumping into Jack’s wallet where the shrewd farmer had hidden a cross. The cross drained the Devil of his power and so he was trapped. Jack refused to free the Devil until he agreed to not take his soul for a year. The Devil reluctantly agreed.
Jack had planned to use the year to repent for his sins, but as time went by he never did. At the end of the year the Devil returned to take Jack’s soul, but the Devil was tricked into climbing an apple tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the Devil was distracted with the hanging fruit, Jack carved crosses into the tree’s bark so the Devil couldn’t get back down until he promised not to take his soul again. But as life goes on Jack died, as all things that live do. However, Jack’s soul could not go to heaven, he had sinned too much, and he could not go to hell for the Devil had promised not to take his soul.
So Jack was left with nowhere to go and no way to see where to go since he had no light. The Devil mockingly gave Jack an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” or simply “Jack-o’-lantern.” Jack-o’-lanterns were used to light one’s way during the Samhain night, represent spirits, and may also have been used to ward off spirits and fairies.
All Saints’ Day, also known as All Souls’ Day, or All Hallows, was a day for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed who had not yet reached heaven. All Saint’s day is the second day of Hallowsmas.
It starts on the eve of October 31, All Hallows Evening, and ends at sundown on November 01. “Souling” is a custom practiced on All Hallows’ Eve where people bake small, round cakes called “soul cakes” to share with groups of poor folk, most often children, who go door-to-door singing and saying prayers for the dead. Each cake eaten was said to represent a soul being freed from Purgatory.
It was a traditional Christian belief that the souls of the dead wandered the Earth until All Saints’ Day and that spirits could get revenge on their enemies during All Hallows’ Eve. To avoid being harmed by these souls, people would wear masks or costumes to disguise who they were.
Long before pumpkin carving became popular, people carved turnips into jack-o’-lanterns.
Halloween didn’t emerge in North America until the 19th century when Irish and Scottish immigration was at its highest. The celebration of Samhain and All Saints’ Day were carried over to America along with the tradition of Souling and carving jack-o-lanterns; however, carving pumpkins soon replaced carving turnips. Pumpkins were more readily available than turnips, were bigger, and were easier to carve.
Today, Halloween is celebrated by all ages in many different ways. But no matter which Halloween beginning you believe in, take time to enjoy it and have a safe night.
Many know of the evil Count Dracula as the most dangerous of all vampires, but you’ll find that most people don’t know much more about him, except for those who have done their research. Who is this monster who we so readily dress up as on Halloween? Well, Dracula is the stereotypical vampire that started it all. Count Dracula is no more than a character out of a book called Dracula, which was written by Bram Stoker in 1897. The novel is about Dracula’s attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England in his attempt to take over the world. A small group of men and women, led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing, try to stop him. Historians have determined that Count Dracula was inspired by a real life Transylvanian born man known as Valad III Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vald the Impaler. The name Dracula means “son of Dracul,” and Vald II Dracul was the real life father of Dracula. Bram Stoker links the historical Dracula to his vampire in Dracula at least twice. Today Dracula’s influence is seen through the commercial vampire, especially around Halloween when costumes appear with high collars and capes, painted faces and sharp fangs.
Just like Count Dracula, the character Frankenstein also started out as a book titled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, which was written by Marry Shelley in 1818. This novel is about a man named Victor Frankenstein who wanted to create life. Using the remains of dead humans and animals, Victor created a monster. Rejected by Victor for his hideous appearance, the monster finds Victors family, learns from them, and then kills them when they don’t accept him. More family die after the monster meets with Victor again and demands a female companion to which Victor refuses. The monster then hunts down Victor’s wife and murders her and then Victor’s second wife as Victor tries to put an end to his creation. Victor’s hunt for the monster leads him to the Artic where Victor himself finally passes away. The monster mourns the death of his creator and vows to kill himself before disappearing into the darkness. Today, the name Frankenstein is associated with the monster instead of the monster’s creator, and is seen as a lumbering creature made of patches of skin sewn together.
Halloween comes from the blending of two traditions, the Festival of Samhain, where spirits of the dead come back for one night, and Christianity’s All Saints’ Day, which was a time of praying for the recently departed who had not yet reached Heaven. Spirits have been a part of the festivities since the origin of Halloween and remain a strong part of the tradition today. Because of the Festival of Samhain, Halloween ghosts are seen as mischievous and tricky, pulling pranks and causing all sorts of trouble for their own amusement.
Throughout history, humans have been both intrigued and fearful of magic. During the Early Modern period (1400 – 1800), witchcraft came to be seen as part of a vast diabolical conspiracy of individuals in league with the Devil undermining Christianity. This fear grew into mass hysteria which quickly led to witch-hunts. A person could be accused of practicing witchcraft for many reasons: One way was if a person was caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery. Another was if a well-meaning sorcerer or healer lost their clients’ or authorities’ trust. A third way was if a person did nothing more than gain the enmity of their neighbours. And the last was if a person was reputed to be a witch and surrounded with an aura of witch-beliefs.
Europeans of the Early Modern period had three different classifications for witches:
But even though the witch-hunts have passed, the fear of witches was significant enough to have impacted history. There is now one day of the year where witches, dressed in black or dark purple, are often seen roaming the streets. They carry brooms or wave their hands to cast magic spells, going door to door asking for a sweet treat on Halloween.
Before the popular movie Night of the Living Dead made by George Romero, the belief of zombies could exist was mainly contained to one continent: Africa. It is from the West African word “nzambi” that we get the English word “zombie.” The zombies were believed to be animated corpses that were resurrected by mystical means.
In Western Africa, a zombie was a dead person revived by a bokor, or sorcerer. Since the zombie doesn’t have a will of its own, the bokor would have complete control over the undead creature. In South Africa it is believed that a dead person can be turned into a zombie by a small child or a witch. There are tales of trains controlled by a witch and staffed by zombie workers who would abduct a person boarding at night. The unfortunate person would either be turned into a zombie worker or beaten and thrown from the train.
Although the term zombie originates from Africa, the thought of flesh-hungry undead have been around at least since the Ancient Greeks. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem that is around 4163 years old, is proof enough of this. In the poem the goddess of Ishtar promises:
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!
Today’s fictional zombies really live up to that promise. Thanks to George Romero’s movies, the modern zombie began as a slow-walking, stiff-gaited corpse that hungers for the flesh of the living and then grew to be a brain-hungry result of a mutagenic gas. Later zombie movies, such as House of the Dead, allowed the zombies to have a degree of intelligence. They grew more agile, vicious, and were stronger than Romero’s original zombies. Zombies became the result of brain bugs, out of control viruses, and mind-altering pathogens. Video games such as Left 4 Dead created unique zombies that had special abilities such as extremely long tongues or being able to cling to walls.
But one cannot talk about zombies without talking about its companion concept: the zombie apocalypse. The zombie apocalypse is the breakdown of society as the result of an initial zombie outbreak that spreads like wildfire through Earth’s population. Widespread panic and the slow reaction of government forces allow the zombies numbers to keep growing until the walking dead become unstoppable. Usually stories involving the zombie apocalypse focus on a small group of survivors and their struggles to live in a zombie dominated world.
The first two things you need to know about mummies are: 1) that they have always been around, and 2) that mummies can be made unintentionally or intentionally. Unintentional mummies are made when corpses fall and sink to the bottom of bogs or get frozen in ice. The Ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, we’re very skilled at making intentional mummies and would often mummify their rulers or beloved pets. Even today there is a company in the United States that would mummify you, for a price. Although mummies have been around since creatures began walking the Earth, mummies in Halloween are a relatively recent addition.
Long have humans been fascinated by the Ancient Egyptians, but this fascination reached new heights during the Victorian era when Napoleon Bonaparte brought back the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is a chunk of granodiorite inscribed with a decree written three times in three different languages: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic scripts, and Ancient Greek. The Rosetta Stone was the key that unlocked the puzzle of the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and allowed the writing to be read.
Now that the mysteries of the Ancients could be read right off the walls of temples, people flocked to Egypt to begin their discoveries.
For most of the Victorian era, mummies were entertaining, a curiosity, and not dangerous what-so-ever. It wasn’t until 1821 when a book called The Mummy was published that anyone even thought that mummy tombs might be cursed. In 1869, another book came out about a curse of a mummy’s tomb called, Lost in A Pyramid: The Mummy’s Curse. However, in both of these books there is no lumbering, murderous mummy that we know today.
The idea of a mummy’s curse finally caught on in 1923, when King Tut’s tomb was opened. Two weeks after Howard Carter, the excavator, stepped inside, Mr. Carter’s sponsor, Lord Carnavon, died. Lord Carnavon’s death wasn’t that mysterious—he died by blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite—but it spurred the belief that mummy’s tombs could be cursed. Of course then Hollywood picked up the story and away she went. In 1932, Universal Pictures released “The Mummy,” bringing in the first appearance of the lumbering, murderous creature.
Today’s Halloween costumes portray a tall, lumbering figure, arms outstretched, and all bandaged up. Pure Hollywood. In reality, a mummy’s arms and legs are tightly bound together and none so far have risen from their eternal rest.
Did you know that pumpkins also come in white, blue and green? They make great monster carvings!
What Halloween is complete without seeing at least one person in a Grim Reaper costume? In most Western cultures the Grim Reaper had become the face of Death. He is seen as a skeletal man wrapped in a dark robe and wielding a scythe. At times the Grim Reaper is said to cause the victims death, but mostly the Reaper is nothing more than guide, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body and lead the deceased to the next world. However, Death has existed as a sentient entity since the beginning of history, so it comes as no surprise that other cultures portray Death in different ways.
The Ancient Greeks believed that Death was inevitable and therefore he was not evil. Wall carvings show Death as a bearded and winged man escorting the dead to the underworld. In mythological tales Death was known for being just and gentle.
The Celtics had two different Deaths. In Brenton, Death was Ankou, the spirit of the last person to die in the community. Ankou could appear to be a tall and haggard figure wearing a wide hat on top of long white hair or a skeleton with a revolving head that could see everyone, everywhere. The Ankou spirit drives a deathly wagon or cart with a creaking axle, the cart’s load a pile of corpses. If you happened to be unfortunate enough to have the Ankou stop in front of your house it means an instant death for all those inside.
The other Celtic Death is from Ireland and Death is actually a type of species called dullahan. A dullahan could be either male or female and is seen as a creature with its head tucked under his or her arm. The head itself has large eyes and a wide smile that could reach its ears. The dullahan ride black horses or drive a carriage pulled by the dark steeds.
A dullahan would act as the forebearer of Death, stopping at the house of one who was about to die and then calling out the person’s name. Immediately the person whose name was called would die.
In Poland Death is known as Smierc Smierc who appears to be quite similar to the Grim Reaper, except that she is female and wears a white robe instead of a black one.
The Norwegian Death became personified during the Black Plague and is known as Pesta, literally meaning “plague hag.” Pesta is a black-hooded, old woman who would show up in villages carrying either a rake or a broom. If she was seen with a rake it meant that people would survive the plague, but if she brought her broom it meant that everyone would die.
In the Baltic, the Lithuanians called Death Giltine and seen her as an ugly, old woman with a long blue nose and a deadly poisonous tongue. But now the Lithuanians have adopted the classic Grim Reaper.
In Hindu Scriptures, the writings tell of a man called Yamaraj (literally lord of Death) who rides a black buffalo and uses a rope lasso to snag and drag a soul back to his home.
Modern East Asian Folklore is similar to that of the Ireland Death in the fact that Death is a strange species. The shinigami, as they are known, come close to the Western Grim Reaper in that they are responsible for making sure that a person dies at their appointed time. The shinigami are actually a relatively recent concept. The old Asian folklore spoke of Yánluó, the god of death, also known in Japan as Enma-O, and in Korea as Great King Yámna. Yánluó was often depicted wearing a Chinese judge’s cap and traditional Chinese robes.
According to Halloween superstition, if you want to see a witch you must put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards.
What’s the most popular candy to give trick-or-treaters? Chocolate candy bars dominate the top of the list.
There are a variety of headless horseman tales, most telling of a headless hunter who rides the woods scaring people or blowing his horn. German folklore tells of the headless horseman, known as the wild huntsman, blowing his horn to warn hunters not to ride the next day because they will meet with an accident. Only in the American version, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, does the headless horseman pose a physical threat.
Have you ever been so afraid of something that, no matter how small it is or how much you know it can’t harm you, you still go out of your way not to get close to it? In extreme cases, these fears are known as phobias. Here is a list of phobias and their meanings for the curious-minded.
| Phobia Name | Type of Fear |
| Achluophobia | Fear of the Dark |
| Alliumphobia | Fear of Garlic |
| Arachnophobia | Fear of Spiders |
| Blennophobia | Fear of Slime |
| Catoptrophobia | Fear of Mirrors in General |
| Ceraunophobia | Fear of Thunder |
| Claustrophobia | Fear of Being in a Small or Confined Space |
| Cleisiophobia | Fear of Being Locked IN |
| Coimetrophobia | Fear of Cemeteries |
| Cucurbitphobia | Fear of Pumpkins |
| Demophobia | Fear of Demons or Evil Spirits |
| Dromophobia | Fear of Crossing Streets |
| Eisoptrophobia | Fear of Seeing Yourself in a Mirror |
| Gatophobia, Ailurophobia, or Elurophobia | Fear of Cats |
| Hemotophobia | Fear of Blood |
| Melanophobia | Fear of the Colour Black |
| Nebulaphobia or Homichlophobia | Fear of Fog |
| Necrophobia | Fear of Corpses or Dead People |
| Nyktosophobia | Fear of the Dark or Night |
| Panophobia or Pantophobia | Fear of Everything |
| Paphophobia | Fear of Graves |
| Phasmophobia | Fear of Ghosts |
| Pneumatiphobia | Fear of Spirits |
| Porphyrophobia | Fear of the Colour Purple |
| Samhainophobia | Fear of Halloween |
| Sciaphobia | Fear of Shadows |
| Selenophobia | Fear of the Moon |
| Taphephobia | Fear of Being Buried Alive |
| Thanatophobia or Thantophobia | Fear of Death or Dying |
| Toxiphobia | Fear of Poison |
Note: The tape doesn’t stick well to the plastic so the slightest bit of wind can pull it off your ghost. Fishing line stays put and is invisible in the dark giving the illusion that the ghost is floating on its own.
According to superstition, a person born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits!
There’s a little prep work for this craft. First, you need to find cylindrical blocks of wood that fits inside each can. You can do this craft without the block, but your can is more likely to dent. Also make sure you paint the cans beforehand so your kids are not waiting for them to dry.
There are several commercial bat house kits (also called bat box) available that contain pre-cut wood and only require assembly. Not all commercial bat house kits are the same. Often the less expensive kits are actually only decorative and at the very least would be unusable by bats. If choosing a commercially available bat house kit, be sure to purchase one that is certified by Bat Conservation International. Note that for all options your child will need to be closely supervised as the use of hammers, nails, screwdrivers, and screws are necessary. For some options a saw may also be needed. It is recommended that an adult supervise each bat house being built.
We’re just going to make the mummy, but you can follow the same steps to make a pumpkin, a monster, or a black cat.
Note: This craft is very hands-on and can get a bit messy.
A pumpkin is a berry in the Cucurbitaceae family, which also includes cucumbers, melons, gourds, and squash. All of these plants are native to the Americas.
Tip: For more fun you can have your kids decorate their caramel apples with candies, but be careful the caramel is hot.
Yields 8 cups.
Casper™ is a friendly ghost, and one of the oldest in cartoon history. He first appeared in a series titled “Noveltoons” in 1946 and still haunts movie and television screens today.
Challenge your kids to become as still and silent as the dead. Select one person to be the “watcher” while the rest of the players are the “living dead.”
The watcher covers her eyes and counts while the living dead scatter around the play area and strike a pose. The challenge is to hold the pose and to be as silent as you can be while the watcher is watching. If the watcher catches you moving or making noises, then you become a watcher as well; however, you can’t move from your spot. The living dead can move or moan while the watchers aren’t paying attention, but moan too long, and you might get caught! The game ends when everyone are watchers, or the watchers give up because one or two of the living dead are so good the watchers can’t get them to move.
Burn off some energy with this never-ending game of tag. First, select one, two, or even three kids to be the “Ghost Hunters” and have everyone else be the “ghosts.” The ghosts scatter as the Ghost Hunters gives chase in a classic game of tag, but with a twist. Once a Ghost Hunter touches a ghost the ghost is frozen to the spot, however; the ghosts can be freed by having another ghost tag them. The only way for the game to end is if the Ghost Hunters freeze all the ghosts.
In this game everyone is a magical witch. Break the group up into two teams, the red team and the blue team, and give each kid a flag to dangle out of his or her back pocket. Each team tries to ground the other team by removing their flags until only one team is left.
This game has three names because you can be the spider, the fly, or the web. One person starts out as the “spider,” and everyone else is “flies.” Of course, the flies try to stay away from the spider, but when the flies are caught, the spider turns them into the “web.” The web must link arms with the spider, one on each side so the spider is in the middle of the web, and follow the spider’s lead. Both the spider and the web can catch flies. The more flies the spider (or web) can catch the bigger the web becomes until not a single fly can escape.
Start off by explaining the boundaries of the playing area. Use the pylons to mark a center line dividing the playing area in half as well as two squared off areas (one big and one small) at the back of each side, but not out of bounds. Separate your group into two teams and give them some way to distinguish themselves from the other team; whether that’s through flags, coloured jerseys, or by having one team’s shirts inside out is up to you. Next take the glow sticks and place one in each team’s small squared off area, also known as the “wand zone.” The goal of the game is to get the other team’s glow stick or “witch’s wand” into your witch home; however, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Let’s use an example of a red and blue team. When a red player crosses the center line into the blue team’s side, she risks being “captured” or tagged by the blue team. If captured, the red player is escorted by the blue player that captured her to the “prison,” the bigger squared-off zone near the back of the playing field. Once the red player has crossed into the prison, she is stuck there until rescued by a teammate and the blue player can go back to what he was doing. To be rescued, another red player would have to come, grab his imprisoned friend, and escort her back to the red side.
While any two players are linked together they are considered safe. Thus a red player can’t rescue a teammate that is in the process of going to the prison and a blue player can’t recapture a rescued red (or her rescuer) while she and her fellow teammate go back to their side. Once the pair cross the prison boundary (for a capture) or the center line (for a rescue) then they are immediately back in the game.
If a player manages to grab the witch’s wand from the other team, say a blue player just grabbed the red’s witch’s wand, then the blue player needs to run back to his side as fast as he can. (Often times the player carrying the wand gets mobbed, but that’s part of the fun.) If the blue player gets tagged while carrying the witch’s wand then the wand is dropped to the ground and the player is escorted to the prison. Another blue player can pick the wand off the ground and run with it or a red player can pick it up and return it to the wand zone.
Even if a blue player manages to make it back into his zone he is not safe because the red team can come across and tag him. This is the only time members of the opposite team can tag in their rival’s side and they can only tag the wand carrier. The blue player has to get the wand into his own wand zone in order to be safe and win the game for his team.
However, if the blue player returns to his wand zone to find that his own witch’s wand has been stolen by the red team then he’s in trouble. A team can’t win the game unless both wands are on their side and in the wand zone. The blue player now has to hold onto the wand and try to keep it safe as his teammates try to retrieve their own wand. While the wand carrier has the wand he cannot capture a member of the opposite team. Also, the red team now has a free pass to come over to the blue side and tag him to take the wand back. His teammates had better hurry. When the game does end you can shake things up by switching teammates around if the teams are unbalanced or move the wand zone closer to the center line for an added challenge.
It’s time to test out your oral skills through one of the oldest traditions of mankind: storytelling. Huddle around a campfire or under the stars and tell your best tale of ghosts, ghouls, or goblins. Share your family’s stories of close encounters with monsters, make up your own knee slapping tale of Freddy, your pal the zombie klutz, or take turns reading terrifying ghost stories from a book. The only rule for this activity is to have fun and enjoy your night.
If you need some ideas for good ghost story books, try these spooky reads:
Animal Phantoms by Barbara Smith
Horribly Haunted Houses by Barbara Smith
Ghost Riders by Barbara Smith
The Kids Campfire Book by Ann Love and Jane Drake
The Little Book of True Ghost Stories by Echo Bodine
Fireside Ghost Stories by A. S. Mott
Canadian Ghost Stories by Barbara Smith
Canadian Ghost Stories II by Dale Jarvis, Edrick Thay, and Susan Smitten
Ghost Town Stories of Alberta by Johnnie Bachusky
The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories by John Robert Colombo
Ghost Stories of America by Dan Asfar and Edrick Thay
This scavenger hunt is not your normal nature walk, but rather, it’s for a stroll around town before or shortly after Halloween. Check out your local neighbourhoods and admire their decorations while checking items off your search list. After your walk, reward your kids with a take-home Halloween item like Halloween pencils, glow sticks, or candy.
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Depending on the size of your group you might have to split your kids up into reasonable sized hunting teams. For this activity we’ll just use one group. The Monster Hunt requires quite a bit of preparation time beforehand.
Start off by wandering around your treasure hunt area with a piece of paper and a pen. Get familiar with any object you come across, whether it’s a tree, a fence, a rock, or what have you. Your goal is to guide your kids through this area to the treasure by using written clues and Halloween props.
The clues should be clear and easy to follow. For example, don’t write, “Look for a tall, thin object.” This clue could refer to a tree, a light post, or a particularly long stick. Remember that a child’s mind works differently than an adult’s. However, if there is only one very obvious tall, thin object around then by all means use the clue.
By including Halloween props you can add a whole new element of fun into the classical treasure hunt. For example, you could have one of your clues say, “Look down” and below the clue is a set of monster footprints leading to the next clue or a skeletal hand clutching a piece of paper.
Be careful setting up your clues. The kids don’t know that the clues are there so make sure you place them in hidden, but easy to find spots. Also if you are using a clue like foot prints, be sure that your clue path doesn’t have the kids running over them. Take your time setting up the Monster Hunt and then just sit back and watch the kids run around. It’s guaranteed to make you smile and allow the kids to burn off some excess energy.
If you see a spider on Halloween night it is thought to be the spirit of a loved one watching over you.
The song “Colcannon,” also called “The Skillet Pot,” is a traditional Irish song that has been recorded by many artists, including Mary Black. Colcannon is an Irish dish mainly consisting of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage.
It begins:
“Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?
With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.
Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake
Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?”
The chorus:
“Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I.
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I’m to cry.
Oh, wasn’t it the happy days when troubles we had not,
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot.”
This song is another traditional Irish song sung during “souling,” a time when children would go door-to-door begging for soul cakes. Soul cakes are small round cakes. Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from purgatory.
It goes:
A soul! a soul! a soul-cake!
Please good Missis, a soul-cake!
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all.
This song is sung to the tune of Michael Finnegan.
One little, two little, three little witches. (Hold up 1,2,3 fingers)
Fly over haystacks, fly over ditches. (Make flying motion with hands)
Fly over moonbeams without any hitches. (Make flying motion with opposite hand.)
Hey, Ho, Halloween Night! (Clap)
To the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
If you’re a monster and you know it, wave your arms.
If you’re a monster and you know it, wave your arms.
If you’re a monster and you know it,
then your arms will surely show it.
If you’re a monster and you know it, wave your arms.
(You can pick other Halloween creatures and motions too. e.g. If you’re a dragon and you know it give a roar, etc.)
Discover fun games, an easy to use card creator, and more!
http://www.thekidzpage.com/halloween_games/
This website has interactive colouring pages, puzzles, and games.
http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/halloween/
Funny Halloween jokes, pumpkin art, hot science, and Halloween treats all wrapped up in one link.
http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/halloween/games.php
Go monster hunting with Scooby Doo, race zombie karts, or dress up a magical fairy on this fun site.
http://www.bristolvaschools.org/mwarren/halloween_sites_for_kids.htm
Explore this flashy site to find Halloween desktop themes, the Black Cat card game, and instructions on how to make a Halloween rap.
“Halloween.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Dec. 14, 2012. Dec. 26, 2012.
“Frankenstein.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Jan. 02, 2013. Dec. 28, 2012.
“Ghost.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Jan. 02, 2013. Dec. 28, 2012.
“Zombie.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Jan. 02, 2013. Dec. 23, 2012.
“Witchcraft.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Jan. 02, 2013. Dec. 27, 2012.
As a third-generation Scouter, Pauline is a writer passionate about giving back to the Guiding and Scouting programs. She grew up making beaver buggies with the boys, selling popcorn as a Cub and practicing outdoor skills with the Scouts. Instead of moving on to Ventures, she became an assistant leader for Cubs, also known as a Kim. Pauline is proud to pass on her Scouting knowledge to an international audience.
