{"id":322,"date":"2008-10-31T07:04:55","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T11:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2008-10-26T00:04:15","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T04:04:15","slug":"halloween-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/halloweencard-99x150.jpg\" alt=\"Vintage Halloween Card\" title=\"Vintage Halloween Card\" width=\"99\" height=\"150\" class=\"contentimg\" \/>There are many reasons I wouldn&#8217;t really want to live in Victorian times&#8211;child labor and tuberculosis spring to mind&#8211;but it was certainly a golden age for Halloween celebrations.  In addition to the zillion games aimed at foretelling the future, there were things like the Dumb Supper: Some time before midnight on Halloween, set a table for you, your guests, and a spirit.  You must not speak during the entire process.  Cook a meal and set it on plates.  Serve each plate walking backwards, then sit down and eat, all without talking.  A spirit should appear at midnight and take a place at the table.  (If you try this and it works, drop me a line.)<\/p>\n<p>There aren&#8217;t many celebrations like that any more, but personal traditions still abound.  A friend of mine lights a candle each Halloween for any friends and relatives who have died since last Halloween.  It&#8217;s an old Celtic belief that those who leave after sunrise on November 1 remain on Earth until sundown on October 31; she sort of sends them on.  I think that&#8217;s a lovely sentiment, and nicely in keeping with the mood of the day.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not exactly a tradition, per se, but every year I keep watch for the big <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barn_spider\">Virginia barn spiders<\/a> to show up on our front porch.  They appear out of nowhere every autumn, perfectly outfitted for the season in orange and black, and it doesn&#8217;t really feel like fall around here until two or three have set up shop outside the front door.<\/p>\n<p>Today is also my wedding anniversary&#8211;which is a whole set of traditions all by itself&#8211;but Shadow Jack and I always nod to the holiday by exchanging Halloween-themed cards.<\/p>\n<p>What special things do you do on Halloween?  Share your traditions in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><B>Note:<\/B> I&#8217;m participating in the unfortunately-acronymed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nablopomo.com\/\">NaBloPoMo<\/a> again this year, so there will be a post every day of November, including weekends.  Can you hardly wait?  I thought so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many reasons I wouldn&#8217;t really want to live in Victorian times&#8211;child labor and tuberculosis spring to mind&#8211;but it was certainly a golden age for Halloween celebrations. In addition to the zillion games aimed at foretelling the future, there were things like the Dumb Supper: Some time before midnight on Halloween, set a table [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}