It's that time of year again, when the ghosts and ghouls come out to play. The time of year when the weather begins to change and there is a deep chill in the air. Some say it is the season changes and some say it is the remaining spirits. So grab the candy corn, and the caramel apples; I'm doing a Halloween special.
HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
Lets start with a history lesson, Yes you're required to learn something before the fun begins! Halloween is believed to have originated with a celtic holiday celebrated on Nov 1, known as Samhain. A festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the "dark times" or the darker half of the year. On Oct 31 it was believed that the dead would raise as ghosts and wander the world of the living. Celtics left bread and wine on their doorsteps to appease the spirits. They wore masks when they went out to appear as another spirit and avoid harm.
Later the church had they're hand in the holiday, go figure right. They changed it to All Saints day or later to All Hallows day (Nov 1.) and Oct 31 was known as Hallows eve. eventually shortened to Halloween.
We are all familiar with the tradition of Trick or Treating. Dressing the children in costumes, heading for the neighborhoods and main streets, Knocking on doors, all in search of sugary delights.
However the tradition is thought to have it's roots in two forgoten traditions.
Souling- On nov 2. the pour would beg for bread called Soul cake, in exchange they would pray for your dead relatives.
Guising- Children would dress up in costumes, then when they received food, wine, or even money they would perform. Either with song, dance, poetry, or Jokes.
Trick or Treating became popular in the US during the 19th century by Irish immigrants. At first it was much more about the pranks than the treats. It wasn't til the 1950's that Halloween became the Family friendly tradition it is today.
Halloween also is the second most commercial holiday after Christmas grossing $6 billion US. $2.5 billion in costumes and 3.5 Billion in Candy.
THE TALES
The woods around the Münster area are said to hold the spirits of old, several in debt to the devil haunt these woods.
The White Hunter
This story is set in the middle ages. At this time the Münster area was ruled by an Archbishop, who was known for his long hunts, and to be more of a sportsman than a politician. He refused to be bothered on his hunts and believed the politics could wait for his return. During this era the bishop had the responsibility to grant the sacrament before a priest could forgive someone.
A man had come to the priest searching sacrament but was denied because the Bishop was off hunting. The sinner knew where the Bishop would be hunting and went in search of him. Upon Finding him the Bishop was enraged that his hunt had been disturbed by politics, and saw the sinner as only a mere obstacle. He spurred his horse and trampled the sinner. God immediately damned him and sent the devil to catch his soul.
Upon seeing the Devil the horse was spooked and jumped into the air. "When you come to the ground I will catch your soul!" Laughed the devil. "Then I will never take my horse back onto ground, to save my soul" answered the bishop. To this day he is condemned to hunt the woods, never to touch ground and can never make it into heaven.
TODAY; Some say that you can hear the sound of the horse galloping through the woods, or the hunting horn blow. On rare occasions the white silhouette of a rider with a lance and a bishop's cap.
Lady of the Swamp
This tale comes from the dark ages, when woman where considered property, and had to obey their husband. A woman considered out of line or without a man to provide for her faced death.
Ellanor Nova lost her family to the plaig. She knew her only chance to survive was to find a new husband, however she wasn't what people would consider young, or beautiful. She was a very skilled spinner though. She managed to meet a man, but he was only interested in the business possibilities of her work. He told her that if she could spin 30 meters of fine wool, he would marry her. Ellanor was deeply in love with him and naive, and some say desperate to have done what he asked. It was hard work to spin thread in those times. 10 meters could take more than a week. She was determined though, and spun day and night.
Several months later she had finish her work, greatly deprived of food, water, privacy and so on. She went to tell her beloved that she had finished his task, but upon reaching the house she was forever disappointed. Through the window she saw her beloved in bed with a younger, more attractive woman. All that she had wished for was at that moment destroyed.
She shouted out "May satan help me to make my worth to you. To spin a package of wool so great you won't escape." at that moment a lightning bolt split the tree behind Ellanor.
The next day she sent a messenger to him, saying that the work was done and gave him a swatch of the fabric. It was of the greatest quality he had ever seen, so light that it seemed to be floating, and with every breath it seemed to change color. He immediately headed for her hut near the marsh.
The devil had helped her to spin this textile, it had spon day and night. Soon the barn had overflown, and after just a few hours the entire area was covered. A lake of textile now stood there, so deep that one was unable to stand in it. This lake stood like a swamp of spiderwebs, and when the man took his first steps into the fabric. He simply sunk away, struggling to find ground but to no avail.
Ellanor, still madly in love, changed her mind to help him. She began to call his name and called for help anyone to help. The devil sat back and smiled, he had his prey caught in the fabrics.
What of Elanor; she was condemned to wander the swamps trying to find her beloved for all of eternity.
TODAY: her swamp is named Wenner Moor, a groundless swamp at the gates of münster. Many lonesome wanderer have herd her cry's for help, and the name of her Beloved. For those poor souls that followed her cry's, well they found their fate in the swamp.
Dream-Land
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE—Out of TIME.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters—lone and dead,—
Their still waters—still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.
By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,—
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,—
By the mountains—near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,—
By the grey woods,—by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp,—
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,—
By each spot the most unholy—
In each nook most melancholy,—
There the traveller meets, aghast,
Sheeted Memories of the Past—
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by—
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth—and Heaven.
For the heart whose woes are legion
’T is a peaceful, soothing region—
For the spirit that walks in shadow
’T is—oh, ’t is an Eldorado!
But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not—dare not openly view it;
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fring'd lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
Cody A. Glick
