G is for...

G is for Grandmaster Hwang Kee 

Grandmaster Hwang Kee is the founder/creator of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan.  He was born in 1914 during the Japanese occupation of Korea, a time when “all dimensions of Korean traditional cultural expression" -including martial arts- "were prohibited”.

So, like many martial arts masters he did not derive the art from formal instruction but rather from a variety of sources and experience.  First, at the age of seven he observed a man fight a group of people and win despite being outnumbered 7 to 1.  The History of Moo Duk Kwan doesn't specify what style this man was fighting in other than to say it was an open hand style.  He asked this man to teach him but he refused and although Hwang Kee tried mimicing some of the techniques he saw nothing really came of it.

Fast forward  15 years and Hwang Kee is working in Manchuria for the railroad company when a friend of his introduces him to a Chinese Master by the name of Kuk Jin Yang.  Hwang Kee asks Master Yang to teach him and despite refusing him on not once, not twice, but three separate occasions Hwang Kee persists and is granted his request.  He happily studies under Master Yang with the vigor that you would expect of someone so enamored and simultaneously starved of martial arts would until 1937 when he had to return to Seoul.

Thankfully, the building that served as his office in Seoul was also a library and in it he found books on Okinawan forms of martial arts (see O).  He studied these obsessively, practicing the moves described as best he could along with what he had learned from Master Yang.

As soon as Korea became an independent country in 1945 he started his own school, formally teaching others what he had learned through his limited studies.  In the beginning, it was very, very difficult for his style to get its footing. Because of the Japanese occupation, no one had any idea of Soo Bahk or the Chinese martial arts and the name he used at first, “Hwa Soo Do” (translated as ‘art of the flower hand’) was nothing anyone had ever heard of.  Being a practical man, Hwang Kee adopted the name Tang Soo Do (recognizable for the Japanese influence) for his teachings.  Within a few months his school was growing.

1953 to 1961 marked the most active and successful period in history for Mood Duk Kwan.  Hwang Kee published many books of his teaching as well as a monthly Moo Duk Kwan newsletter.  The art was widely recognized by the public and began to be taught in military bases of the US army.  And in 1961 the team was invited to the Goodwill Martial Arts Championship- the very first international competition featuring martial arts from Korea, China and Japan.  It earned Moo Duk Kwan international recognition.

Also, in 1957, Hwang Kee discovered the Moo Yei Do Bo Tong Ji- a book on Soo Bahk published 300 years earlier.  “Soo Bahk” was first used about 2200-2700 years ago in the age of Chun Chu in China. However, “Soo Bahk Ki” (Soo Bahk Technique) or “Soo Bahk Hee” (Soo Bahk Dance) seems to have been more actively known and practiced in the Ko Ku Ryo Dynasty (2000 years ago), Ko Ryo Dynasty (1000 years ago), and Yi Dynasty (600 years ago) of Korea.   Hwang Kee went through the book at a microscopic level and incorporated its teachings into Moo Duk Kwan, attempting to bridge the gap of time and make Moo Duk Kwan into the traditional Korean Martial Art.  

 

Due to wars, political shifts in favor and other factors (most notably the split of Tae Kwon Do from Tang Soo Do in 1964) Tang Soo Do was replaced as the most popular Korean martial art and that is, in a nutshell, why many of you probably haven't heard of it before.

There's a ton more detail to the story, of course, but I've written way too much already.  If you're interested, please go here for further reading.

On Candy Canes

Candy Canes are one of the few Christmas traditions which are, by all accounts, 100% Christian and therefore relatively new. The story goes that the canes were commissioned by a choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany who, upset by the rowdy children disrupting his Christmas eve service, asked a local candy maker to create something to keep them quiet. The main idea of the candy cane was that the white (already common) was supposed to be symbolic for the sinless nature of Jesus and the crook at the top was representative of the Shepard’s crook.

Apparently, the treat worked very well because soon it was being replicated all over. In addition to being a treat for the kiddies it was soon discovered how neatly they hung on trees and thus they became the popular decorations we see today. It is unclear where or when the stripe came into play but the first published recipe for the canes- complete with candy stripe- came out in 1844. Shortly thereafter the sugary treats were seen in drawings, mentioned in children’s books and otherwise initiated into the realm of Christmas traditions.

Over the years other popular stick candy flavors of fruits, soda pop and other flavors were made into cane shapes and added to the popular Christmas tradition. Now they come in just about every flavor imaginable are common enough that it’s pretty rare to see a tree without them.

The History Of Christmas: Part 4- The Christmas Story is Written

So, America was founded by puritans who did not celebrate Christmas. After the American revolution Christmas was lumped in with other English traditions and therefore made even more unpopular. While immigration brought older Christmas traditions to the new world in select areas the “American Christmas” had not yet been invented.

Two writers helped to invent it. One was an American writer who wrote a series of stories, much in the same serial method as his English counterpart Charles Dickens used. The stories were titled The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent and contained some of his most famous works including “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. It also contained the lesser known but more relevant (for this topic) “Christmas” stories. These stories, titled “Christmas”, “The Stage Coach”, “Christmas Eve”, “Christmas Day” and “Christmas Dinner” told the story of the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. Akin to the traditions of 12th Night the servants in these stories intermingled with those they served and the lines that separated them vanished as they enjoyed each other’s company. Unlike the traditions of 12th Night the activities they engaged in were not marked by raucous excess but by family-friendly activities that celebrated the joy of children, friendships and togetherness.

Around the same time Irving’s better-known counterpart Charles Dickens published the ultimately more famous “A Christmas Carol”. This story also highlighted an abolishment of class lines as the main protagonist discovers that love rather than money is the source of true happiness. In so doing he abandons his former ways to embrace a spirit of goodwill towards mankind- specifically those less fortunate than him. The story also depicts familiar togetherness as he observes others celebrating Christmas with their wives and children suggesting that this is the true purpose of celebrating the holiday.

Given that reading was the primary source of inexpensive entertainment for the masses back then these two writers became, in conjunction with presumed jealousy for those observing the customs of their immigrant neighbors, the source of the American Christmas revival. Sentiment dictated that the traditions be brought back and the holiday be celebrated as the grand event it used to be. It is here that the grand “melting pot” theory of American culture can be seen- our modern day Christmas traditions are a combination of Pagan, Catholic, Protestant, English, German, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, Irish, French, Dutch and a whole host of other customs from different religions and cultures. American Christmas is a melting pot holiday- it’s got a little bit of everything.

As the holiday gained popularity churches, townships, schools and local government entities started providing Christmas activities to celebrate the popular holiday. With so many government officials celebrating it and businesses closing on the day it became a necessity to officially declare it a holiday. And so it became one in 1870.

Since then the holiday and revelries associated with it have become so popular and profitable that it is now the biggest holiday of the year economically, religiously, and socially (though many bemoan that fact). And while the emphasis on family togetherness depresses the hell out of those without family and stresses out those with them the family-friendly activities celebrated are a heck of lot less destructive than those of the older catholic traditions and therefore guarantee the holiday’s continued popularity.

The History Of Christmas: Part 3- Christmas is Cancelled

I mentioned earlier how the puritans were against all frivolity and fun and thus outlawed most of the earlier customs associated with Christmas. Well it got so bad that by the early 17th century that Christmas was- by all official religious doctrine- completely outlawed. The puritans didn’t even acknowledge the day in somber religious masses or quiet contemplation- they outright cancelled it.

Why? Because the puritans believed in purity of worship and doctrine and sought to identify the truth of the religion they practiced. One of the truths they advocated was that Christmas as celebrated by members of the protestant church was a creation of those seeking to keep pagan traditions alive. They focused on historical records which pointed to the birth of Jesus as occurring during the summer and stated that all the customs and traditions of the holidays were paganistic, hedonistic and therefore unholy.

So, during the great English Reformation they outlawed the holiday and its practices. However, this movement (along with many others) made those still in the Church of England (i.e. protestants) very unhappy and there was a great split between puritans and those remaining. Many of these devout puritans traveled to modern day America to form their own colony so that they could practice their religion as they saw fit. Those who remained in England separated entirely from the Church of England. Protestants remaining in the church returned to the more traditionally Catholic celebrations of the holiday.

Puritanism lost popularity and therefore numbers of followers back in the homeland but continued to go strong as more came over to America seeking religious freedom. And so it was that Christmas as is traditionally known did not come to America until relatively recently.

The History Of Christmas: Part 2- Christmas Mischief

It’s no surprise the rowdy roots of Christmas come from a culture marked by excess- the Romans. Specifically their holiday of Saturnalia, honoring the Roman God Saturn- the God of agriculture. They honored him with a month-long celebration of hedonism and the reverse of societal norms.

In addition to sacrificing, feasting, drinking and general partying the Romans switched up roles by acting as if the slaves and peasants were the top of the crop. They would allow them to sit at the grand banquets and indulge- or overindulge while giving them free reign to speak freely. The courts, schools and businesses were all closed during the holiday so no punishments would be doled out for a slave getting too rowdy. (Though I’m sure that after the celebrations ended those slaves who did go overboard were dealt with harshly.)

In addition, role playing and guising were common forms of entertainment and in this way a peasant might play a king while a king might act as a slave. Another reversal came in the form of gambling which slaves were normally forbidden to do. And finally, one more root of the season- gift giving which took place throughout the holiday.

Fast forward several centuries and Christianity is born. In the beginning Christmas was not part of the Christina calendar- the main holiday of the religious year was Easter. However, many people weren’t giving up their pagan roots and continued to celebrate the winter solstice. So, to help people convert the powers that be adopted the holiday around the same time calling it the birth of Christ (even though all historians agree the man was actually born in summertime.) They took on the decorations, the feasts and the celebratory activities and tied new meaning to all of them.

Looking at the festivities of Saturnalia we can see clear connections to the tradition of 12th Night which was how most people were celebrating Christmas by the middle ages. During 12th night a Lord of Mischief is selected by getting a lucky slice of cake containing a bean. Whoever gets the bean becomes the king and whoever gets the pea becomes queen, ruling over their subjects for the evening. Those subjects, in order to please their king and queen, adapt different roles for their pleasure. Due to this role playing the normal restrictions of being a peasant or servant did not apply and people were free to live it up, drinking tons of wassail, feasting on foods and acting out uproarious roles.

This frivolity continued throughout the Carnival season all the way until Mardi Gras when people went all-out for the last day of excess before the long fast and repentance of lent. The revelers- primarily the poor- became increasingly rowdy during the 12th night carnival, going to the houses of richer socialites and demanding their best food and drink. Those who did not abide them their demands received the worst kind-of mischief.  But, just like Lent follows the Carnival so too did those in charge of Christmas observations begin to demand reform of the decadent ways of Christmas.

The History Of Christmas: Part 1- Ancient Roots of the Feast

Winter was harsh time for everyone. Even those born in warmer climates experienced the change of seasons and crops could fail if little rain fell or insects were overly populous. The life sustaining foods of nature defined the existence of early mankind and anything that threatened the survival of mankind itself. Thus winter has been a challenge to survival since the dawn of time.

Early religions, therefore, were based almost solely on pleasing whatever gods might guarantee a reprieve from the harsh punishment of the season. Gods for plants, for animals to be hunted, for plentiful rains or warm suns- all were worshiped and appeased in hopes of safe passage through the season. Though historical record came long after many religions had already died out what we do have record of indicates that most of the customs still in practice had very ancient roots.

The most ancient practice was arguable the feast- the act of consuming large amounts of food in celebration. This was done out of necessity- meats and fresh harvest fruits would not keep and needed to be eaten before rotting. A variety of different religious customs honored different gods through feasting. The Celts celebrated a full day of the winter solstice by marking the passage of the sun and oriented their societal year around the event with marriages and acknowledgements of births and deaths. The Norse Vikings burned a Yule log to symbolize the return of light after the solstice. Even the Greeks and then Romans in warmer climates celebrated the harvest with feasting and drinking.

Different customs were adapted by different people but the activities remained remarkably similar- the feast. So now when we gorge ourselves on turkey and casseroles and vegetables and pies and cookies and candies and everything else under the sun we’re actually continuing one most ancient traditions. And sure it looks a bit different, but the act hasn’t actually changed all that much in thousands of years.

On Santa Claus

I’ve seen television programming making fun of the fact that Jesus and Santa are so wrapped up with each other in a lot of children’s minds that they can’t tell the difference. The history of the figure who eventually came to be known as Santa Claus actually explains a lot of this confusion. Most people know that Santa Claus is based on the real-life Saint Nicholas from 3rd century Scandinavia (modern day Turkey). But that seems to be the bulk of what people know about him.

When we take a look at the man’s history and the reason for his sainthood we see quite a lot of similarities with Jesus. Both gave up worldly materials and lifestyles to pursue a more spiritual calling. Both traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. Both have religious observations associated with them in December (Jesus for his birth, St. Nicholas for his death). And both have been associated, in various ways, with the spirit of giving.

So it’s no surprise that he remained one of the most popular saints throughout the centuries that followed. And because of this, many other cultures around the world adopted their own version of him who, while different in appearance or traits all shared the benevolent gift-giving activities of the original Saint. But in American culture the transition from poor, wandering do-gooder to jolly fat man has much more to do with marketing than religious storytelling.

The traditions associated with St. Nicholas spread to the new world when Dutch settlers came over to America. It is assumed that the idea of St. Nicholas coming and giving gifts or filling stockings probably spread through verbal tradition in Dutch culture long before those stories started being re-told in America. One of the traditions passed down through early Dutch settlers is the name: Santa Claus derives from the Dutch Sinter Klaas, a shortened version of the Dutch translation of St. Nicholas. Other things passed down were the idea of the man as a jolly one who enjoyed merriment and gift-giving.

The single largest contributor to the modern day Santa Claus seems to be the well known poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” which give us the rotund physique, flying sleigh led by reindeer and magical being capable of filling stockings for all the little girls and boys of the world. That Santa, while possessing the white beard and rosy face was dressed solely in fur and not the familiar red suit we now associate with him.

The complete image, as well as the North Pole workshop filled with busy elves and his loving wife Mrs. Claus actually comes from a cartoonist Thomas Nast who, in Harper’s Weekly in 1881 drew the full scene that we now associate with Santa Claus. Soon the Salvation Army adopted the image in order to raise money for the free Christmas meals they provided and Santa suit wearing men started standing on street corners ringing bells to collect donations, followed quickly by shop owners eager to attract holiday shoppers. Within a few decades the image and tales associated with it had cemented their legacy into the American psyche.

On Wreaths

The Christmas wreath is an example of one of those more archaic customs I was talking about earlier which has made its way, in one form or another, into the holiday through several centuries of customs. It’s also a pretty great example of necessity being the mother of invention. At its most basic, the Christmas wreath is a circle of evergreen twigs. Evergreen has always been a symbol for eternal life and back before the dawn of civilization (and indoor heating and supermarkets and other necessities for surviving cold weather) when the likelihood of surviving a winter in any given year was pretty slim people looked to evergreens as a symbol of hope.  The circular arrangement of the wreath is symbolic of the circular pattern of the seasons and a reminder that spring- and that plants that sustained them- will come again. Historians think that people were decorating their houses with them in wintertime- regardless of religion or folk custom- for far longer than historical record indicates. Because of this, there’s debate on exactly where it came from and when it became common custom. Regardless, chances are good that wreaths were decorating doorways long before Christianity came into existence.

Like most Christian holidays, Christmas sucked up the preexisting customs of the time and adapted them to fit the symbolism of the holiday. Extra colors, decorations, and variations were adapted over the years and turned into a symbol for more specific themes. Arguably the most well known variation is the Advent Wreath which marks the passage of time in preparation for the coming of Christ with candles. But all wreaths follow similar visual cues around Christmas time and as such are amazingly abundant just about everywhere you look nowadays. I like them because I grew up lighting the candles on our advent wreath so they’re deeply rooted in memory as being intrinsic to Christmas. And because they smell nice.

O Christmas Tree

During the month of Halloween, I talked quite a lot about the traditions of the holiday and their pagan roots. Unlike Halloween, Christmas is a Christian holiday and therefore can’t be directly traced back to pagan traditions. (Save the argument that it’s the Christian replacement for winter solstice festivities). However, similarly to Halloween, a lot of the modern-day traditions are a hodge-podge collection of other more archaic traditions and the Christmas tree seems to be one of those.

The Christmas tree as we know it- an evergreen decorated around Christmas time- was first recorded in 16th century Germany. The German tradition was adapted from the mystery plays done in churches at Christmas time, the most popular of which was the Paradise Play. This play represented the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin and subsequent banishment from paradise and the promise of the coming savior. The only prop for the play was a fir tree decorated with apples, representing the tree of knowledge from the garden of Eden. This play was conducted on December 24th which, in eastern orthodox religions, is the feast of Adam and Eve. The argument goes that the paradise trees went from churches to homes as people took on their own celebrations of the holiday.

Another tradition originating in the same place (Germany) at roughly the same time is the Christmas Pyramid. These are the contraptions with jolly-looking wood figurines featuring a spinning propeller on top moved by the heat of the candles below. Many people argue that the candles and decorations were added to the paradise tree to create the Christmas tree.

Traditionally, Christmas trees were erected on December 24th (the feast of Adam and Eve) and taken down on January 6th (the day after twelfth night). Thanks to consumerism they now seem to be erected most often on or directly after Thanksgiving and find their ways to street corners for trash pick-up by mid January.

Like most religious holiday traditions the Christmas tree experienced periods of feast and famine. The puritans- being steadfastly against fun or merriment of any kind- outlawed them. The rich aristocrats brought them back and used them to show off how many candles they could afford. Schools, local governments and townships have proudly displayed them and then chucked them when people called fowl over lack of separation of church and state.

The complete history, needless to say, is far more complex and fascinating because it involves cultural traditions from a whole host of other cultures who have their own spin on it, politics, religious controversy, economics and a bunch of other topics. But I’ll leave you to research far more qualified historians for that.

On Ghosts

Ghosts are, without exaggeration, the reason for the existence of Halloween. They are also the reason for all the various “Day of the Dead” celebrations that take place all over the world. They’re also the reason an extra place setting is left out at Passover, why the Chinese celebrate Ghost Day in August, why some Christmas traditions exist, why the Buddhists celebrate Ancestor day and why funeral rites are so incredibly elaborate. They are everywhere in history and part of the traditions of today.

It’s guestimated that roughly a third of people in this country (I couldn’t find statistics on other countries but I’d guess it’s even higher) believe in ghosts. This belief leads people to celebrate them, search for them, incorporate them into their celebrations and traditions, and take vacations with them. There are paranormal societies all over the place. Ghost Hunters, a show about looking for ghosts in various haunted locations, does a live search on Halloween and gets a huge number of viewers for this event every year.

Most families have ghosts stories and even if everyone doesn’t believe them they tend to get told and retold just like the oral traditions that started with the birth of language. It’s not uncommon for people to attribute unexplainable events to ghosts whenever something strange happens. They’ve been the favorite subject of horror movies since horror movies came into existence, more so than the whole of monster lore. They’re around all the time, but especially on Halloween.

Because on Halloween, when the veil that separates our world from the world of the dead is thinnest, they come back. And even though most people don’t know the druish rituals that lead to this great holiday they sense that Halloween is a time for things not of this world. It’s a magical time, literally. There is a feeling that pervades the day, like anything can happen. And if the ghosts can come out and have a grand old time of it then why can’t we?

On Monsters

A monster is anything- a creature, a being, a person, etc- that incites fear in the eye of the beholder. The term was used to describe ancient creatures in Greek myths who had the parts of various animals and the overall appearance of something not found in the natural world. Over the years, monsters became more and more human looking and the term began to be used to describe people doing things that were considered “monstrous” therefore making the term synonymous with evil.

One of the most famous human monsters was Frankenstein’s monster, cited as part of the birth of the zombie franchise and a revolution for the idea of what a monster is. That monster (who never had a proper name but is often referred to by his creator’s name) was all human but so horrifying in appearance that people were too afraid of him for him to ever be able to interact normally with other people. Another thing that Frankenstein’s monster did for the genre was introduce the idea that monsters, how frightening their appearance, could have human emotions.

Nowadays, just about anything can be a monster. I credit horror movies and video games for pushing the envelope on fear-inducing creatures that challenge what we typically imagine monsters to be. Some of them are very much like their Greek predecessors in that they’re all scary appearance with little character. Others, the more human ones, are like Frankenstein’s monster in that they’re capable of human emotions and the struggle for the audience is therefore connecting with this creatures who may feel very familiar. (This is where vampires, werewolves and the like fit in). And, given the general nature of the definition, we now see serial killers and other people who are completely human but do evil things lumped into the category.

It’s easily arguable that Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without monsters. They’re in our costumes, our entertainment, our decorations, our celebratory activities, our music and everything else about the holiday. And because of this, Halloween is the great melting pot of archaic traditions, ancient religious rituals, old world mysticism and superstition, celebratory activities, Greek myths, horror fiction, literature, movies, video games, television shows, food, culture and uncategorized stuff that it is. Thanks to monsters, Halloween is the insanely fun holiday that I love most.

On Werewolves

Animals of various shapes and sizes have long been part of ancient religions and thus saturated the culture of many peoples around the world. There is no doubt that wolves have been part of rituals long before recorded history. However, werewolves are not wolves. They’re people, and they spend most of their time in human form, only transforming at a certain time of the month. That’s their trademark.

Given this parameter the first recorded case of people transforming into wolves comes to us from the Greeks (our first organized recorders of history). Greek mythology tells the story of Lycaon, a king of Arcadia, who decided to test Zeus by making him a nice meal of a child’s flesh. Zeus, terribly angered by this, punished him by turning him into a wolf. There are several different version of the story, some of which involve not only Lycaon but also his 50 sons being turned into wolves, but all involve Zeus’ wrath in the form of transformation into a wolf.

This myth lead the citizens of Arcadia to adapt an annual ritual called Lykaia which involved the testing of young adolescent males coming age by the offering of human flesh from a victim of sacrifice. It was said that whoever ate the human meat would turn into a wolf and remain so until they abstained from human flesh for nine years. Although this ritual and the myth it’s based on are presumably metaphorical and not literal the stories of such events tell that people actually turned into wolves. These early rituals and their stories paint the scene for much of the werewolf story common today: nocturnal transformation into a wolf, the consumption of human flesh, and the bestial behavior of werewolves.

In addition to Odin’s story of the Arcadia kingdom there also reports of men turning into wolves from Virgil, Pliny the Elder and Agriopas. From there, the mythos of the werewolf spread throughout Europe and the world through verbal tradition and mysticism.

Like zombies, vampires and witches the specifics of werewolves vary from region to region so you might get a different story about how a werewolf comes into being, how to identify a werewolf when not in wolf form, and how to cure or kill a werewolf. Modern culture with all the movies, stories, and other forms of entertainment where you find werewolves maintain these differences, illustrating the contrasting styles of depicting wolves as cursed or evil.

However you cut it they are part of the pantheon of monsters we hold near and dear, and therefore part of the scariest holiday and all that comes with it.

On Zombies

There are a lot of similarities between vampires and zombies. They both originate from the same oral traditions in ancient folklore: undead creatures who eat flesh/drink blood (they didn’t distinguish between the two back then). References to them can be found in most cultures. They’re both considered infectious: zombies can make another zombie by biting them, vampires can make another vampire by biting them. And now, after years of literature, movies, and other forms of entertainment they’re both insanely popular in fiction.

And yet the differences between the two are striking. Vampires are suave, sophisticated, often handsome, hypersexual creatures with powers to seduce, bespell and enthrall. Zombies are shambling, decaying, mindless creatures that cause nothing but fear in the eye of the beholder. Vampires might be pursued by some for the purposes of romance, sex or just a wild time. Zombies are something you flee from and if you come into contact with one your only choice it to kill it. Vampires are (usually) limited to moving about freely only at night whereas zombies are not. Vampires tend to be solitary creatures and can often be found independent of other vampires. Zombies tend to travel in packs making them more difficult to kill and attacks more deadly. Vampires are rarely (nowadays) depicted as causing apocalypses where the entire population becomes infected and survivors are few and far between whereas zombies are usually solely depicted in this format.

I’ve already spoken at length about my fear of zombies and why they’re frightening while vampires are exciting so I won’t rehash that now. But I will say this: in terms of fear I would venture a guess that a lot of people agree with me. And possibly because of this zombies are an extremely popular staple of Halloween.

On Vampires

References to vampires (or entities like them) have been found in just about every culture in the world since the beginning of verbal traditions. Most of these early vampires weren’t vampires as we know them now- they were demons, zombie-like walking dead creatures, witches, and a variety of other things. The uniting factor for all of them was that they drank blood and that this action allowed them to continue existing despite the absence of normal human life.

Given the variances in stories and distinguishing characteristics between all these different groups of vampire-like creatures it’s no wonder that the idea of a vampire as we know it now didn’t exist. Back then, the folktales described drastically different creatures from area to area and none of them were identified by the term vampire. Still, the idea was planted long ago.

Fast forward several centuries and you start seeing reports of vampiric activity in eastern Europe. These stories are what lead to the modern-day idea of a vampire: a creature who looks rather human in appearance, rises at night to feed on blood, and is mischievous, charismatic and randy.

It was the late 17th century when reports of vampires first started popping up in small villages. The stories would go that someone in the village would die, somehow not stay dead, cause general havoc, and the villagers would have to take action. Staking and beheading as methods of killing started pretty early on and become the norm for trying to rid a village of its pesky vampire problem.

Soon after, the idea of vampires entered the world of fiction literature and there was a mad dash by writers of the time to expand on this genre. Starting in the early 18th centuries poems and books describing blood-drinking creatures of the night using the term vampire started being published. With the accompanying verbal tradition spreading the folklore the idea of the creature became common place.

So common place, in fact, that there was actually a bit of vampire hysteria much like witch hysteria had swept the continent earlier. It became a common occurrence for precautions to be taken during the burial right to prevent the rise of a vampire. These precautions varied from region to region but the thing they were trying to prevent seems to be similar.

There are a number of hypothesis to explain this. First, there is the idea premature burial wherein a person in a comatose state was improperly declared dead and buried before escaping later on to scare the locals. There’s also the scientific process that occurs in decomposition: dead bodies bloat seeming to grow in size and gain a sometimes ruddy complexion, the skin shrinks giving the appearance of hair and nails growing, and depending on the rate of decomposition a person might be exhumed several weeks after their death and look pretty well considering what people expected to see. Add in too all the very healthy folklore traditions with stories of revenants, demons and the like and you could see the fertile ground for the stories to take hold.

Needless to say, by the time the 19th century rolled around the world was ripe and Bram Stoker took full advantage of that. Although Dracula is nowhere near the first publication on vampires it remains the most well known, even all these centuries later. And by the 19th century vampires were their own genre and remain so to this day.

It is because of their nature as supernatural beings, their penchant for only coming out at night, their common label as evil things and most of all their ability to inspire fear that they are celebrated during this holiday.

Skeletons

Skeletons, in addition to being incredibly useful in the study of anatomy, are traditional depictions of the dead. Just about every culture around the world uses skeletons in representing the dead. Death itself is most often associated with a skeleton dressed in a dark robe. Here in the US the most local culture is Mexico where the day of the celebrations incorporate some of the most elaborate skeleton based artwork ever imagined. And that’s just pictorial representations of skeletons.

Skeletons themselves- like, the actual bones- also play an important role in every culture around the world. They may be used in rituals for various purposes, placed in important locations in order to complete spells, or meddled with in some way to thwart a ghost. In fact, it’s hard to find a death ritual that doesn’t involve a skeleton in some way.

And because of their relative simplicity, they’re pretty versatile. They can be evil or they can be jolly. They can move independent of muscle or lie perfectly still for centuries. They can be associated with somber funeral rites or uproarious parties.

Much like a lot of the other things I’ve discussed- witches, harvest celebrations, and the myriad of traditions linked with this crazy holiday the full conversation of skeletons and their cultural significance throughout the world is far beyond the scope of this entry. For the history buffs out there I recommend you look into it further. But for now, I offer a shout out to those bony friends of ours who are so deeply embedded in the culture of my favorite holiday.

Haunted Houses/Attractions

Tonight I am attending my first haunted house/hayride/whatnot of the season. I go to these very year. Being just outside of Philly, there are a whole lot of them about. As I stated earlier, I enjoy being scared. So I pay to have people dress in elaborate costumes, hide in scary settings and jump out at me. It’s a yearly tradition.

It’s hard to get a clear answer on the origins of haunted attractions. According to my “Halloween Handbook” the most likely origin comes from ordinary Halloween parties wherein, in addition to dressing up, hosting games of bobbing for apples, dancing, divination and the like; hosts might set up “haunted” locations in their house. They might set up their basement to look like a catacombs. They might decorate their attic with creepy lighting and let the cobwebs take effect.

Add in the tradition of pranking which, up until 1930’s was far more common than trick or treating, and a picture starts to emerge: some neighbors get together in their house for a Halloween party. Their kids, wanting to prank and joke, set about making noises and spooky sounds while the adults are down in the basement telling ghost stories. Seems plausible, right?

Also, according to the history in this book, it seems like haunted houses might fit right in with the attractions that local townships might’ve encouraged in order to keep kids occupied so that they wouldn’t prank. The history goes that as the population grew more and more people came into more urban settings where, instead of your next door neighbor’s kid tapping on your windows and then running way, you’d have a kid from twelve blocks over breaking your windows and playing increasingly dangerous pranks leading to property damage. In order to keep kids from doing these things, organized activities such as Halloween parades, trick or treating and the like would be planned.

Organized haunted attractions where people would pay a price of admission are a more recent development with the first ones documented only popped up around the 1970’s. Like most of our newer traditions, however, they gained popularity and now it’s estimated that well over 12 million people in the US attend some sort-of haunted attraction every year.

Wherever they came from, I’m glad they’re here. Where else am I gonna see a life-like recreation of a scene from my favorite horror movies? Or get scared enough that I jump in a seemingly super-human way? Or have an excuse to scream loudly enough to break glass? All these things, in my opinion, are necessities for celebrating the season and part of what make Halloween the best holiday.

On Spiders

Spiders are fascinating creatures.  It’s estimated that there are over 40,000 different kinds (and that number keeps growing) and they comes up with some of the most ingenious ways to hunt.  Seriously- humans aren’t this creative.  They’re also some of the scariest looking insects on earth.  8 legs, disjointed body, exoskeleton, many eyes, fangs.  Monstrous looking things.  The scare factor in and of itself fits them in the Halloween category. 

But, to increase the stigma, they’re also part of the massive hodgepodge of stories and myths in the Witch category.  They were rumored to be another type of witch familiar.  It was said they were a main ingredient in the deadly potions witches brewed.    People said they were witch spies: hiding in the corners and rafters of houses, collecting vital information, and then bringing it back to their witchy masters.  Plus seeing a spider, just about anywhere, was considered a bad omen.

Lucky for spiders, there’s way more of them than there are humans so they didn’t push the envelope of extinction like their feline friends.  Plus, several of those 40,000 plus species live in places where humans do not.  And that scare factor I mentioned earlier make a lot of people too scared to go near them let alone kill them.

I often wonder if they get confused when they see people purposely decorating their houses with cobwebs when they spend the rest of the year destroying theirs.

On Black Cats

Black cats, like witches, got a bad rap.  Just as paganism was once the premier religion that everybody practiced and devolved into secret meetings and hidden agendas so too did black cats once start out being praised and ended up fearing for their lives.

Back in Egyptian times, cats were so highly valued for their vermin killing abilities that the Pharaoh declared them all demi-gods.  It was a capital offense to kill a cat.  And when they died they were given just as grand of funeral rites as the high-up humans.

Like paganism, cats spread all over and in their transition from Egypt the all black variation was bred.  They were out and about as pets, vermin-control devices, household staples.  Until some asshole decided to call that little old lady with all the pet cats a witch.  Pretty soon everybody with a cat was a witch.  And since that which was evil, that cat must be their demon companion (familiars, they called them).  So, just as they tried to rid the world of witches, so they tried to rid the world of cats.  And black cats were considered the worst.  The cat hunt was so bad that by 1400 cats were on the brink of extinction in Europe.

Thankfully, much like with the whole Witch history, people became less superstitious and more educated and stop killing cats.  And now You Tube viewers all over the world rejoice at their cuteness.  But you know how it is, there’s always some random asshole that won’t give up the ghost and every year some jerk gets his hands on a black cat and does something horrible.  Thankfully we have the ASPCA now and they don’t take too kindly to that.

On Witches

Imagine this.  Thousands of years ago a group of people got together and decided to make a soup.  They decided they would include in the soup all sorts of tasty and healthy ingredients and eat it all the time.  In fact, they would structure most of their time and activities around this soup.  The soup was so good, that people specialized in learning how to make the soup and devoted their entire lives to that practice so that everyone else could eat the soup.  The soup was so popular that pretty soon everybody and their grandmother was eating it.  And as its tastiness spread, some natural variations occurred.  People added their own spices, threw in some local vegetation, varied the cooking time based on the kind of fire they had to cook with.  All in all, it’s still soup but it tastes a little different depending on where you eat it.

Fast forward a bit and this group of people come around eating sandwiches.  The sandwich eaters think the soup eaters are just crazy- all those ingredients  is blasphemous.   There should be one main ingredient- the true ingredient.  The soup eaters don’t like the sandwich eaters for trying to take away all their ingredients, so they do their best to get rid of the sandwich eaters.  It’s a huge fight.

Then one day this king decides he’s gonna eat a sandwich.  He decides he likes it.  He likes it so much, in fact, that he decrees that from now on everybody has to eat sandwiches and those found eating soup are gonna be in big trouble.  This starts happening all over the place and now entire kingdoms are outlawing soup.

The soup eaters, not wanting to give up their tasty meal, start eating their soup in secret.  They go out into woods cause no one will see them eating soup there.  Even better, they do it at night so there’s definitely no chance anybody’ll see them.  The sandwich eaters become convinced the soup eaters are up to no good.  In fact, they think, they’re making poison soup!

Chances are some mean spirited folk did poison the soup, but most of the soup eaters just want to eat their soup in peace.  But now the sandwich eaters start saying that not only is all soup poisoned, but the soup eaters must be evil.  So not only will you get in trouble for eating the soup, but if you know anyone who does or if you ever asked anyone to make some soup for you- even if you only intended to give it to a friend cause they could use some tasty soup- you’re in big trouble.  The sandwich eaters become so intent to rid the world of soup eaters that they start burning them at the stake.  The practice of making soup becomes so obscure you wouldn’t even recognize the soup if you tasted it- virtually none of the original ingredients are there and it tastes totally different.

This, in a nutshell, is the story of paganism and witchcraft (metaphorically speaking).  And yes, I did just boil down thousands of years of human history involving religion, politics, culture, gender roles, the structure of civilization and a bunch of other key factors into a story about soup.

My point?  The story of soup- er- witches, is a fascinating history that is far beyond this little entry here.  But in terms of knowing why witches are associated with Halloween?  Well, all those thousands of years ago, people ate soup on Halloween.

On Bats

I’ve already commented on Halloween being the source for all things scary. That’s pretty much the only reason that bats are associated with the holiday. In actuality bats are seriously cool creatures that do all sorts of incredibly useful things that help out us humans (like eating insects and pollinating plants). But, they still earn mention in my month of all things Halloween.

Bats, by their very nature, are kind-of creepy. They’re nocturnal and that by itself earns them ranking in the list of things that have historically frightened people. They are also weird-looking with their spiny wings, giant ears, snouts and fur. They live in caves and hang around upside down. They tend to travel in swarms. They can spread disease and therefore death. And, as if all that weren’t enough, some of them even drink blood (granted it’s only three breeds out of over twelve hundred, but still). All of that combined was enough to make prehistoric people scarred of them.

Because of this fear, there are a number of superstitions, stories and traditions associated with bats coming from different cultures all over the globe. They are said to be omens of death. They’ve been used as symbols of destruction and decay. They became associated with witches and witchcraft and were used in supposed black magic. It was said that witches could turn into bats, used their blood and bodies in black magic and even drank their blood to gain some of their powers. They became associated with vampires who were also said to have the ability to turn into bats and fly.

Perhaps it’s because they’re so associated with witches that they gained such a firm spot in the Halloween lineup. Perhaps it’s just cause they’re kind-of scary and have long been associated with death, night, darkness and all things of that nature. Whatever the reason, bats are part of the holiday and earn a shout out. Yay bats!