All Hallows' is here. Hope you all have a ghoulish time this holiday weekend.
Rumela has a great little history of Hallowe'en, full of facts like this:
In the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain , the Celtic New year. On that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. Naturally, the living did not want to be possessed, so on the night of October 31, 
the villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in and parade around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess. Around the eighth century, the Christian church made November 1 All Saints' Day to honor all of the saints that didn't have a special day of their own. The mass held on All Saints' Day was called All Hallowmas (the mass of all Hallows -- saintly people). The night before was known as All Hallows Eve. Eventually this name became Halloween. Neat, huh? Now on a slightly different holiday topic... John Stanley's Little Lulu
is one of the best comic books ever, and the Witch Hazel and Little Itch stories always get me in a good, Hallomassy mood.
Michele's World has some nice Halloween Lulu cover scans. For an extra treat, Bryan Munn has put up some really cool Halloween comics by the likes of Doug Wright and Jim Simpkins on his
Canadian Comic Art Centre site. It's all so good! Hope you get all your
candy favourites.
