The 5 Days of Halloween: Day 1

Welcome to my first annual celebration of Halloween! I'm glad you joined us. Shove a corpse out of the way and get cozy...it's time to chew the fat.
Like the other big holidays (namely Thanksgiving and Christmas), Halloween is easily recognizable by the visual language we've developed for it. Pop culture icons of horror, such as the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula and the Wolfman are chiefly synonymous with the celebration as are witches, ghosts, goblins, black cats and creepy, chain-rattling nameless beasts from the Netherworld.
But, to put a face on it, the arguably most recognizable participant in the Halloween festivities is the Jack O'Lantern.

Why, exactly, do we carve out the guts (to make awesomely delicious pie, I might add), cut out hideously terrifying (or silly, or creepy, et. al.) faces in these orange vegetables, fill them with fire and set them precariously close to toddlers and children garbed in super-flammable, department-store costumery? Read on my faithful creepers.

The History of Jack O'Lantern

While there is a long tradition of using vegetables as lanterns in Europe (those crazy Europeans), it wasn't until 1866 that the pumpkin and the jack o'lantern became distinctly associated with Halloween. The pumpkin was in fact associated with the harvest season in general. So the celebration and the pumpkin seem to go hand in hand.

The Folklore

Irish folklore features a character by the name of Stingy Jack, who supposedly captured the Devil with a cross. Long story short, the Devil offered not to take Stingy Jack's eternal soul in exchange for release. When Stingy Jack dies, he's been so bad he's not going to Heaven and Hell can't take him because of his deal with the Devil. Eternally doomed to wander the earth and find his way in the dark, the Devil offers Jack a never-dying ember to see by. Jack quickly carves out a turnip (his favorite food) as a lantern for the ember. Endlessly wandering he became known as Jack of the Lantern, or Jack O'Lantern.

Yeah. Real uplifting.

The Reality

Really, the term 'jack o'lantern' originally meant night watchman, or man with a lantern. There are variations on the story, but perhaps the most interesting is one in which the Devil takes Jack's head. Jack then uses a carved pumpkin as a substitute. Which brings me to our next section. Walk this way.

Popular Culture

Well, ol' Jack gets around, doesn't he? From the Headless Horseman to Jack Skellington, the jack o'lantern is the de facto symbol of Halloween. Witches, black cats, nameless shambling hordes of the undead...these all pale in comparison to the awesome might of the flame-filled carved gourd. Seriously, just try and deny it. I dare you.

Links of Interest:

• The top costume picks of 2010, from Costumezee.
• The worst Halloween costumes of all time, via Retrocrush.
• The Ghosts of Gettysburg. Apparently they run tours. Sounds like fun!
• The best ghost photos ever taken. Try and find an explanation. 

Halloween is coming...

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I mean, what's bad about dressing up like a monster, scaring people and foraging for as much candy as your gluttonous stomach can hold? Am I right?
To celebrate this favorite of favorite holidays, I'm posting a series of special Halloween-related blogs over the next few days. Let's call it The Five Days of Halloween, shall we?
To get you in the mood, I thought I'd ramp things up with some YouTube goodness. Whet your appetite while I go troll the dungeons for the goodies. Trick or treat, indeed!

A strange thing happened...

...the other day. But first a little history.
I've mentioned my brother before and how his stack of horror comics and magazines heavily influenced (some would say for the worse) my childhood and outlook on life. As a kid I remember absolutely loving this one story about a elementary school boy who believes his father is a vampire. For years and years I couldn't remember the name of the story, the title of the magazine it was in or even what the cover looked like. I knew it was black and white and probably one of the Warren horror mags from the sixties or seventies.
Then, the other day, I decided to use Google and search for the exact story. 'Lo and behold...I found it!
"There's a Blood Sucker Among Us!" was published in the May, 1971 issue of Voodoo Tales magazine. The inside blurb read: 'A spine-snapping creepy saga of a school teacher and a pupil who's father is a vampire!'
Without further ado, from May, 1971..."There's a Blood Sucker Among Us!"

The End...of the Beginning!

I'm going to shake up the lineup a little for everyone. Mostly for myself. I find it much easier to blog on a regular basis if it's about something I find interesting all the time. Since the internet ate me whole, and I now have tons of subjects I'm interested in, I'll be posting more general topics.
Like the title tag says, I'll still focus on comics, strangeness and pop culture shock. I just won't limit myself (or any readers) by focusing so narrowly.
I'll also try to update with new posts regularly: three or four times a week at least; ideally every day. Over the course I'll begin adding new features and information for everybody, eliminating what doesn't work and trying new things. This is a work in progress!
For now I'll give you a taste of what I'm talking about: NAZI UFO's! Were they real? Is it all a hoax? Look at the information and decide for yourself.
Keep watching the skies...

Nazi UFO's - HERE!