The ROTTEN CAT

Welcomes you to
Her Halloween Page

She doesn't want you scared, just TERRIFIED!

  Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, has been around for AGES. The reason for the association with the colors orange and black is a mystery to me, but the association with black cats is probably related to the idea that cats (particularly black ones) were thought to be "familiars" to witches, able to communicate with them when no mortals were within earshot.

  It follows, then, that since Halloween is a time for witches, goblins, and other supposedly evil forces to have a last revel before All Saints' Day, that witches and their cats would be out and about this night.

   In modern times, we have the concept of the kids coming around in costume, with the notion of "Trick or Treat". That idea does not appear to be universal. In my own youth, when I went out in costume on Halloween, NOBODY ever said those words at the neighbors' doors. We would usually just knock, sometimes being invited in, and always given the obligatory candy or fruit WITHOUT any tricks.

  Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. That was, for them, the equivalent of New Year's Eve, since they called November 1st New Year's Day. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.  On Samhain, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. (From "The History Channel")

   People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." Jack made a deal with the devil, then cheated on the deal for a small amount of money. The Jack O'Lantern is supposed to scare away evil spirits, presumably including the devil himself.

   Originally, the lanterns were carved out of turnips. It was much later, when the Irish and English people came to North America, that the pumpkin (indigenous to America) came to be adopted as the fruit of choice for carving into the lanterns.

   Other popular images can get associated with Halloween are spirits such as the "grim reaper" who collects the dead from the earth. Of course the reaper can come for us at any time of year, and may or may not look like a man with a scythe at the ready. He may be just a soft-spoken man who comes into the room and asks that we "Just touch his hand".

   One of the most popular ideas for costumes at Halloween is the vampire, usually patterned after Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" from the movies. Just to remind you, here are two caskets whose occupants are about to climb out so they can drink your blood. Skeletons are popular, too, so we've thrown in three of them dancing in the dark.

   Then speaking of blood, how about an idea from an old Bob Hope movie, in which he was advised to slake his thirst at a particular bar, like this:

Thirsty? Have a drink at the

Some other stuff for Halloween.
Graphics from various sources:

So far as we know, all are OK to use.

Music on this page is:
Funeral March of a Marionette
by Charles Gounod,
aka Alfred Hitcock's Theme
MIDI by Lory Werths