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Friday, October 31, 2025

Blessed Samhain...Happy Halloween!


Have a fun and safe holiday!

Some poems with Halloween vibes...


Ghost House
Robert Frost

I dwell in a lonely house I know
That vanished many a summer ago,
And left no trace but the cellar walls,
And a cellar in which the daylight falls
And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow.

O’er ruined fences the grape-vines shield
The woods come back to the mowing field;
The orchard tree has grown one copse
Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops;
The footpath down to the well is healed.

I dwell with a strangely aching heart
In that vanished abode there far apart
On that disused and forgotten road
That has no dust-bath now for the toad.
Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;

The whippoorwill is coming to shout
And hush and cluck and flutter about:
I hear him begin far enough away
Full many a time to say his say
Before he arrives to say it out.

It is under the small, dim, summer star.
I know not who these mute folk are
Who share the unlit place with me—
Those stones out under the low-limbed tree
Doubtless bear names that the mosses mar.

They are tireless folk, but slow and sad—
Though two, close-keeping, are lass and lad,—
With none among them that ever sings,
And yet, in view of how many things,
As sweet companions as might be had.



Dusk in Autumn
Sara Teasdale

The moon is like a scimitar,
A little silver scimitar,
A-drifting down the sky.
And near beside it is a star,
A timid twinkling golden star,
That watches likes an eye.

And thro’ the nursery window-pane
The witches have a fire again,
Just like the ones we make,—
And now I know they’re having tea,
I wish they’d give a cup to me,
With witches’ currant cake,


Wednesday, October 29, 2025

All dressed up for Halloween


My house all decorated for Halloween. I love doing this every year.


The origins of decorating and sweet treats

Carving Jack-o’-Lanterns

The tradition of carving Jack-o’-Lanterns originated in Ireland using turnips instead of pumpkins. It is allegedly based on a legend about a man named Stingy Jack who repeatedly trapped the Devil and only let him go on the condition that Jack would never go to Hell. But when Jack died, he learned that Heaven did not want his soul either, so he was forced to wander the Earth as a ghost for eternity. The Devil gave Jack a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. Locals eventually began carving scary faces into their own turnips to frighten away evil spirits.

Image Credit

Black and Orange

The traditional Halloween colors of black and orange also traces back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. For the Celts, black represented the “death” of summer while the orange symbolized the autumn harvest season.

Lighting Candles and Bonfires

For much of the early history of Halloween, towering bonfires were used to light the way for souls seeking the afterlife. These days, lighting candles have generally replaced the large traditional blazes.

Candy Apples

For centuries, people have been coating fruit in syrup as a means of preservation. But during the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess was often represented by and associated with apples; her name derives from the Latin word for apple “pomum” and the fruit is at the heart of harvest celebrations. It is believed that candy apples were invented accidentally in 1908 by William W. Kolb, a candymaker in Newark, New Jersey. As the story goes, Kolb was experimenting with red cinnamon candy to sell at Christmastime and he dipped apples on sticks into the red glaze and put them in his shop window to showcase his new candy. But instead of selling the candies, he ended up selling the apples to customers who thought they looked good enough to eat. They became fashionable treats for Halloween starting in the early 1900s and they remained popular up until the 1970s.

Image Credit

Candy Corn

A candymaker at the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia is sometimes credited with inventing the tri-colored candy in the 1880s. But candy corn did not become a widespread sensation until the Goelitz Company brought the candy to the masses in 1898. Candy corn was originally called “Chicken Feed” and it sold in boxes with the slogan “Something worth crowing for.” Initially, it was just an autumnal candy because of corn’s association with harvest time. Candy corn later became Halloween-specific when trick-or-treating grew in popularity in the U.S. during the 1950s.



Finally, I'd like to share this absolutely delicious drink which I found on Instagram. 

Take a cup (I used an 18 oz plastic SOLO type cup). Squirt a good amount of liquid caramel (like caramel ice cream topping) into the bottom of the cup. Add ice, not quite to the top. They added a sprinkle of cinnamon, I preferred to leave it out. Next, pour in ginger ale (I used zero calorie Canada Dry) almost covering the ice. The final touch...fill the rest of the glass with apple cider. I stirred mine. You don't have to. I also tried this with zero calorie Vernors and I liked it even more. 

Here's the link to the reel on Instagram to see how they did it. It is so yummy!
 

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

It's Halloween week! Celebrate by listening to Halloween music


When I was a kid in the 70s, we had this Halloween album called Ghostly Sounds. It wasn't Halloween "music" per se, but the sounds were scary. That, and the front and back covers, scared us to death. You can see how this album artwork could be scary to a child, especially that second image. Incidentally, I still have the album.



Halloween music is not the sought after genre that Christmas music is, but it does have a following, with certain areas of the country embracing it more than others. Places known for scary origins like Salem, Massachusetts is one such place where Halloween music is popular. 

According to Billboard, Halloween music is gaining in popularity and the 25 biggest Halloween songs of all time (on the HOT 100) are:

25: Eagles, Witchy Woman
Hot 100 Peak: No. 9
Peak date: 11/18/72
The Vibe: Spellbinding

24: Blue Oyster Cult, (Don't Fear) the Reaper
Hot 100 Peak: No. 12
Peak date: 11/6/76
The Vibe: Morbidly romantic

23: Golden Earring, Twilight Zone
Hot 100 Peak: No. 10
Peak date: 3/26/83
The Vibe: A dimension of sound

22: Michael Jackson, Thriller
Hot 100 Peak: No. 4
Peak date: 3/3/84
The Vibe: Spooky, funky (and not just the smell).

21: Elvis Presley with the Jordanaires, (You're the) Devil in Disguise
Hot 100 Peak: No. 3
Peak date: 8/10/63
The Vibe: Smitten, rollicking.

20: Olivia Rodrigo, Vampire
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 7/15/23
The Vibe: Wounded, vitriolic.

19: Bobby Vee, Devil or Angel
Hot 100 Peak: No. 6
Peak date: 10/17/60
The Vibe: Sweet, obsessive.

18: Justin Bieber, Ghost
Hot 100 Peak: No. 5
Peak date: 4/2/22
The Vibe: Inconsolable, incorporeal

17: The Charlie Daniels Band, The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Hot 100 Peak: No. 3
Peak date: 9/15/79
The Vibe: Rollicking, unstoppable.

16: Kodak Black, Super Gremlin
Hot 100 Peak: No. 3
Peak date: 3/19/22
The Vibe: Creepy, taunting.

15: Santana, Black Magic Woman
Hot 100 Peak: No. 4
Peak date: 1/9/71
The Vibe: Witchy, libidinous.

14: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bad Moon Rising
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2
Peak date: 6/28/69
The Vibe: Rootsy, easy-going.

13: Cliff Richard, Devil Woman
Hot 100 Peak: No. 6
Peak date: 9/25/76
The Vibe: Rockin’, swingin’.

12: Classics IV, Spooky
Hot 100 Peak: No. 3
Peak date: 2/10/68
The Vibe: Sultry, groovy.

11: Imagine Dragons, Demons
Hot 100 Peak: No. 6
Peak date: 12/7/13
The Vibe: Fist-pumping, fist-bumping.

10: INXS, Devil Inside
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2
Peak date: 4/16/88
The Vibe: Seductive, playful.

9: Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly
Hot 100 Peak: No. 4
Peak date: 11/26/66
The Vibe: Raucous, devil-may-care.

8: Janet Jackson, Black Cat
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 10/27/90
The Vibe: Hard-rocking, ferocious.

7: Cher, Dark Lady
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 3/23/74
The Vibe: Eerie, sly.

6: Rockwell, Somebody's Watching Me
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2
Peak date: 3/24/84
The Vibe: Paranoid, spooky.

5: Bobby Brown, On Our Own (from Ghostbusters II)
Hot 100 Peak: No. 2
Peak date: 8/5/89
The Vibe: Boisterous, fresh.

4: Eminem featuring Rihanna, The Monster
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 12/21/13
The Vibe: Harrowing, haunted.

3: The Edgar Winter Group, Frankenstein
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 5/26/73
The Vibe: Head-banging, swaggery.

2: Ray Parker Jr., Ghostbusters
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 8/11/84
The Vibe: Party-starting, campy.

1: Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, Monster Mash
Hot 100 Peak: No. 1
Peak date: 10/20/62
The Vibe: Goofy, endearing.

Billboard also has a recent article where you can watch 20 terrifying music videos from a variety of popular music artists. Check it out here.

Visit our music page (linked in the blog menu) to listen to more Halloween music. 

Ken Kessler of The Sounds of Christmas plays Halloween music through October 31. Click here to discover three ways to listen, or click the Sounds of Christmas tree in the sidebar. Speaking of Ken, he is once again sharing new Christmas music out this year. Stay tuned for his annual guest post coming up next week. 

I'll be back with more Halloween fun through the auspicious occasion on Friday. 🎃




witchjournal.com





This and the preceding two images - preply.com