Lots of the stores around Crystal Palace have their Halloween
decorations up. Skeletons and pumpkin’s, witches and goblins
I get the relationship between skeletons and witches, but
scary faced pumpkins…hmm
So Mr Google, why pumpkins
If you are not from the
British Isles, you won't believe where your hollowed out pumpkin comes from! In
Ireland and Scotland hollowed-out turnips with embers or candles inside, became
a very popular Halloween decoration a few hundred years ago. Baldrick would
have met his dream! (Fans of "Blackadder" will recognize this!)
Tradition held that they would ward off Stingy Jack and other malevolent
spirits on Halloween, and they also served as representations of the souls of
the dead. Irish families who emigrated to America brought the tradition with
them, but they replaced the turnips with pumpkins, which, native to the new
world, were plentiful. It didn't hurt that they are a lot easier to carve than
turnips. Have you ever tried to hollow out a turnip? People began
to carve frightening faces and other designs into their jack-o'-lanterns.
This time of year
reminds me of a party The Man and I held when we were members of a club back
home in NZ.
We decorated our lounge with bats and spiders, cobwebs and
ghosts. The Man decorated a cricket bat and rigged it up on the mantelpiece so
that with the tweak if a string it appeared to be flapping.
So decoration done what about costumes.
Hmmm…Oh I know lets tear that old sheeting into strips and
presto chango it’s a ‘ mummy As for me
well with a bit of judicial face painting, a black outfit and a long curly tail,
and presto chango I’m a black cat.
Our guests came in a
variety of costumes from Wee Willy Winky to a very impressive looking
Franknfurter from Rocky Horror picture Show, complete with net stocking, sexy
black corset, thigh high jack boots, cape and the piece de resistance green eye make-up He came in a tad late and we all had a bit of
a laugh when he told us why.
His car had broken down on the high street, fortunately near
a phone box…pre mobile phone days. So there he was cowering beneath his cape in
the glass sided phone box calling the AA for help. He said he got some very odd looks from passers-by,
not to mention the surprised look on the AA man’s face.
No comments:
Post a Comment