I love Halloween. Oh,
did I mention I Hate Halloween? It is a
heckle and jeckle holiday if you ask me.
I absolutely love playing dress up in public-but I hate that some feel
it appropriate to dress in lingerie publically, or dress up in ways that glorify
the demonic influences of the world. I
don’t understand why this is the time of year that it is okay to done our house
with disgusting images and blood.
Spiders and skeletons, okay…fine.
But seriously? Why would you want
to display a man hanging from a noose? I love the cutsy crafts my kids bring
home and display the black cat and franksteins proudly. But I love to discuss why “mommy will not
dress up as a witch” as was the true discussion I had with my three year old just
yesterday. I despise haunted houses-I
understand being scared, but I do not want to fathom a murderer stalking me, or
see horrific images of something’s insides.
Demons, are real people, do we really want to have a holiday that
invites them to come out and play? Sacrifices and Murders exist. I choose not
to make this appropriate in my household-EVER! 
When growing up, I always looked forward to what I was going
to be, my favorite costume was my homemade flamingo outfit….looking back on it
as an adult I can see that it was not as great looking as I had once thought,
but WOW did I feel special wearing it. My parents always made the holiday fun,
but were always honest with me about what I could dress up as and what was
inappropriate and why. Hence, you will
NEVER see my child dressed as a little devil, or wear a high brimmed witches
hat-sporting her broom. 
I love carving pumpkins, painting faces, making cakes and
passing out treats. I even like the
occasional trickery that can be associated: planning to TP me? Egg my house?
Smash my pumpkin? BRING IT! But don’t be upset when I get you back bigger and
better….the unsuspecting pumpkin smashers of last year can attest to my schemes
after being pelted with candies from my moving car. Don’t worry, no one got too
hurt. 
Pumpkin patch season is something I anticipate all year
long. There is just something about the
way the farms smell, the kernels feel between my toes, and how the pictures
turn out that make it such an event; which I participate in multiple times
throughout the season. The patch is also a family tradition of gathering with
our annual cousin-palooza and then carving up our pumpkins while enjoying some
taco soup at the Davis’ residence.
I LOVE HALLOWEEN!
This year we celebrated early beginning the family
trick-o-treat visits the night before.
Dressing my kiddos up in a costume-or two. I dressed up both kids, myself and the dogs
(all in costume) before leaving for work.
I spent the entire day role-paying as Ms. Swamp at school whereupon I
“threw out” Mrs. Lake’s lesson plans and inserted tricks-Homework-just
kidding-no homework and even a few sweet tasting treats. Work on time or no recess
SO Happy Halloween friends be safe, and bear witness with
your actions-tonight as in every other night of the year.
The True Story Of Dracula
As told by Ms. Swamp
Halloween
is a time when friendly neighbors pretend to be tricked by children dressed up
as ghosts, goblins, superheroes, clowns, fairies, and Teenaged Mutant Ninja
Turtles. And in return the adults--feigning surprise--pass out sugary treats; a
tradition that has helped those in the dental profession for many generations.
Unlike most of the characters that make an annual appearance on our doorsteps,
Dracula is based on a real person. Most people are familiar with the fictional
version of Dracula created by Bram Stoker, but they are only vaguely aware of
the true Dracula from the history books. The old adage that truth is stranger
than fiction applies here, and one with modern sensibilities also might add
that the truth is more horrific than fiction.
Like the
fictional legend, the real Dracula lived in Transylvania, now a province of
Romania, but in the fifteenth century it was a battleground between the
Hungarian Empire and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. Dracula was a name picked
by Vlad Tepes when he joined a fraternal order of knights vowed to protect
Christians from Muslim Turks. Dracula means both devil and dragon.
Vlad Tepes
seized the throne of Transylvania in 1436 and tried to stay neutral when the
Hungarians went to war with the Turks. Hungary lost the war, and they blamed
Vlad who they forced from the throne. In contradiction to his vows as a
Christian knight, Vlad allied with the Turks and regained power. However, to
insure continued loyalty, Vlad had to leave his two sons, Vlad and Radu, as
hostages in Turkey--a common practice during this time period. Vlad, the son,
is the one who the legend of Dracula is based on.
In 1444
Hungary went to war with the Ottoman Empire again, and this time the elder
Dracula was killed and replaced with the Hungarian puppet kin, Vladislav II.
The following series of events was like a game of musical chairs: Vlad, the
son, returned with the support of the Turks in an attempt to gain power,
Vladislav was afraid that he would lose, so he switched sides and joined the
Turks, and Vlad switched sides and allied with the Hungarians. Vlad won.
As king
of Transylvania, Vlad declared war on poverty. He invited all the poor people
and beggars to a grand feast in a castle. He then locked all of the exits and
burned the castle down. He even said, "I did this so there would be no
poor in my realm."
Vlad
earned his nickname, the impaler. Historians estimate that he impaled between
forty thousand and one hundred thousand people. Vlad would have big banquets
and would enjoy seeing people being impaled, while he ate. The victim could be
anyone, and the reason could be for any excuse or whim. He even had women and
small children impaled for trivial reasons. He seemed to enjoy the impaling.
Early
belief in vampires is thought to have come from people at the time not fully
understanding the process of a body decomposing after death and so trying to
rationalize this by creating the figure of the vampire to explain what they
didn't understand.
Historically,
the name "Dracul" comes from group of knights in old Romania called
the Order of the Dragon. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III Ţepeş's (who is the
person history calls Vlad the Impaler) was admitted to the order around 1431.
The name Dracula means "Son of Dracul".
In modern
Romanian, it means "son of the devil" but in Vlad's time it meant
"son of the dragon."
Bram
Stoker borrowed the name for his famous vampire novel, "Dracula,"
Stoker toured Romania while gathering material for his novel and heard of Vlad
in his travels. However, he demoted his character to the rank of count. The
real life Dracula was a prince.
It was
believed in myth that Vampires drank the blood of the living to keep themselves
going. As blood is seen as the energy of life itself, it makes sense that the
undead would seek it.
Prince
Vlad was also known for his drinking of blood. He would take his bread and dip
it into the buckets of blood that he would put under the people he killed on
the stakes. He was known for carrying out extremely cruel torture and
executions.
Prince
Vlad had a man over for dinner one night. Vlad saw that the man wasn’t very
pleased. Vlad asked him, "What is wrong?" The man looked at him and
said I can’t stand the smell of all of the rotting corpses. Prince Vlad smiled
and said, “Well, if you can’t stand the smell...” and had one of his men cut of
the man’s nose. When the man was dead Vlad had him put on a stake to hang, dripping
with blood like the others. Prince Vlad smiled at the man and said "Well you
wont have to smell the corpses any more!" and laughed.
Vampirism
is one of many superstitions that were held by the illiterate peasants of Transylvania
during the middle ages. The human mind needed explanations for the enigmatic
occurrences of everyday living.
Busy,
exhausted peasants didn't have the time or energy to dig deep graves. They
buried their loved ones in shallow graves. During the warmer months, this
practice could have disturbing consequences. Decomposition would cause the
bodies of the corpses to fill with gas. The escaping gas from decaying, bloated
bodies would make funny noises, and the peasants thought the bodies were
becoming undead. The expanding gas could also make the corpses sit straight up,
and because they were in shallow graves, they would break through the surface
of the soil. This would not be a comforting sight for a feudal age peasant. The
peasants would rebury the corpse and stake it to the ground. Sticking a stake
through the bloated body would release more gas that to a fearful peasant might
sound like screaming. Vampirism was the explanation for what we now know as a
chemical process.
One can
see how a writer gets his, or her ideas. Bram Stoker combined two different
legends into one, and wrote a classic novel. Perhaps this practice is also the
origin for Zombie tales?
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