Why do we carve pumpkins and other #Halloween traditions by Kristin Wallace

So, it's October now, which means Halloween is a couple weeks away. Pumpkin Spice is everywhere. Hocus Pocus is on TV every day. Plus, there are other fall customs…carving a pumpkin, hayrides, hot apple cider, caramel apples. Choosing a costume. My mom made several of mine growing up, including a witch and a princess. There’s trick o’ treating and Halloween parties. 

Those are all big traditions of Halloween, at least in the US. But do you know the true history behind the holiday? Where did it come from and why was it celebrated? 

In the Beginning

The origin of Halloween dates back over 2,000 years with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain in Ireland and parts of England. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1, which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. Samhain was celebrated on October 31. On that night it was believed that the ghosts of the dead were actually able to walk the earth. To commemorate the event, the Celts dressed up in costumes and built huge bonfires to burn crops and make animal sacrifices. When Samhain was over, they re-lit their hearth fires from the sacred bonfire in order to protect their families during the winter. 

The Holiday Evolves

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, or All Hallow's Eve, a time to honor all saints and martyrs. The holiday incorporated many of the Samhain traditions, including bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes. Eventually, All Hallow's Eve became known as Halloween. 

In the US, the more popular traditions (such as dressing up & trick o' treating) didn’t take shape until the second half the nineteenth century, mostly due to the large influx of Irish immigrants who began arriving in the 1840s. It wasn’t until the 1950s that Halloween evolved into a secular holiday aimed at children.

Check out this webpage for more in-depth history.

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

Halloween Holiday Trivia:

Jack o’ Lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits on Samhain. 

It takes an average of 252 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

According to the National Confectioner’s Association, more than 35 million pounds of candy corn are produced every year. 

Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.

Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.

Chocolate candy bars top the list as the most popular candy for trick-or-treaters with Snickers #1.

Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas being the first.

Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.

Black cats were once believed to be witch's familiars who protected their powers.

What are your favorite Halloween traditions? 

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and sweet contemporary romance filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. Her latest book, SECOND CHANCE HERO, is available now. 

AMAZON  /  APPLE BOOKS  /  B&N   /   KOBO 

Writing My First by Pippa Jay

A Special Encore!!! This November 15, 2013 post by Pippa Jay, who writes SciFi and Supernatural  stories with a romantic soul, was one of the most read posts of all time which is why we're sharing it with you again. 

Writing My First

Back in October, I had my very first idea for a holiday themed story, although too late to have it out for Halloween. In the space of six days and from the inspiration of another book title, I managed to pump out 11 K of a paranormal romance based on the original pagan holiday of All Hallows Eve. I surprised myself! The last couple of years I've cursed myself as each holiday rolls past and I have nothing to tie into any of them. And although I'll now have to wait a year to share this one with the world, I'm really excited about it. For now, I can show you a rough draft of the cover I'm working on. What do you think?

I'm keeping the title a secret for now, ready for a big reveal next October. It was odd working on a paranormal, switching from aliens and spaceships to magic and fae. I'm a scifi girl at heart, although I have written fantasy in the past. Back in 2010 when I did a creative writing course through the Open University, my tutor made it clear from the start she wasn't a fan of speculative fiction. But even then, I managed to slip in a couple of ghost stories, magic realism and time travel. I just can't help myself!

And it was a lot of fun researching pagan traditions and sprites after a month on theoretical anti-gravity systems and what happens to a body in vacuum (did you know if you don't hold your breath, you can survive 90 seconds exposed in space without a spacesuit, and without any long lasting effects? Don't fancy trying it though...). But I couldn't completely escape my  scientific leanings. Chemistry became alchemy as I looked up the chemical composition of the body for a spell, and calculated what household equivalents could be used (I was an analytical chemist before I became a stay at home mum). Google Translate helped me put a roughly worded incantation into Latin.

And now I'm thinking about the other holidays. Did you know every Christian holiday we celebrate is actually set on the dates of pagan ones? It may well be that any further ideas for holiday themed stories will have to be paranormal for me, but I do know some scifi based ones. Why don't you try these three out?

Do androids dream of electric sugar plums?

A detective who refuses to modify her body teams up with her cyborg rival to track down a burglar who is putting toys into homes. A solitary ice miner finds love and friendship while stranded on the surface of Galileo. And two hardheaded negotiators put their differences aside to evade an assassin and save their planets. Enjoy these visions of Christmases yet to come with three science-fiction novellas from Carina Press.

A Magical Time of the Year #amwriting #paranormal #romance

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. And this is the month where the supernatural is more on my mind. As a teenager, I was a practising witch, and I still have a fondness for Wiccan holidays and creatures of folklore, especially those in British mythology. While Halloween isn't quite the same here in the UK as the US (I take All Hallow's Eve a little more seriously than some), it's one of our biggest holidays after Christmas and Easter. Plus the fact that autumn is my favourite season of the year - still warm, but without the scorching summer sun and nights too hot to sleep. The smell of bonfires and moldering leaves, the change in colours from brilliant green to shades of gold, red and brown. That nip in the air first thing in the morning, and sparkling dewdrops on spiderwebs. Even that seems magical.

So it's probably not surprising that the first holiday romance I ever wrote is centred around this season and Halloween itself. The idea came when I caught sight of an event started by Neil Gaiman called All Hallow's Read. When I originally started writing, my central character was a thirteen year old girl called Hallow. But 'she' quickly evolved into a thirty something warlock called Hal, set on performing a forbidden piece of magic on All Hallow's Eve, the night spirits of departed loved ones briefly come back to us.

Paranormal Romance Short
GOODREADS | Available at... 
Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Oyster
ARe | Smashwords

Blurb:

Twelve months ago, Hal's world crashed and burned, taking the love of his life with it. He's waited all year for that one special night when the souls of the departed come home, hoping his candle will summon back one in particular to heal his broken heart. But the forbidden knowledge he's learned could call something far worse, and put more than his own soul at risk...

A Paranormal Romance short story

~~~

But as well as sharing my book, I thought I'd share a recipe from it with you. In Hallow's Eve, Hal has a magical housekeeper - a brownie called Hodge - who's a master at making spice elderberry cordial (something I finally got around to making myself this year!). Something to warm you up along with my story. ;)

Hodge

Hodge's Spiced Elderberry Cordial

1.5 lbs elderberries (or however many you have!)

Demarara sugar

Cinnamon Sticks

Cloves

Lemon

Method:

Remove the elderberries from the stalks using a fork. Place the elderberries in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them, then bring to a simmer and allow them to cook for 20 minutes.  The berries will soften and the liquid will be dark red.

Strain out the berries with a sieve or use muslin cloth (crush with a fork or squeeze the cloth to extract as much juice as possible), keeping the juice (be careful as this stains!)

Measure the amount of juice.

Pour the juice back into the empty saucepan. For every 2 cups of juice, add 2 cups of demarara sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cloves and the juice from ½ a lemon.

Bring the mixture to a boil and maintain for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to ensure all the sugar dissolves.  Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Let the mixture cool while you prepare the bottles.

If you’re planning/able to store the cordial in the fridge, simply clean your storage bottles with hot, soapy water and then rinse in boiling water. Once the bottles are cool, fill with cordial, stopper and store.

Serve diluted with hot water as a warming winter drink and a boost during illness. In folklore elderberries were used as a protection against influenza, and research has now established that elderberry extract is a clinically proven treatment against flu. You could also add the same spices used in mulled wine for a more Christmassy variation.

Pippa Jay - Halloween Surprise #3

Hello! I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul, and a Genre-ista for over a year now. Welcome to my first ever holiday-themed release--a sweet paranormal romance short story based around the old myths of Halloween, and something to warm your heart this Fall.

Blurb:

Twelve months ago, Hal's world crashed and burned, taking the love of his life with it. He's waited all year for that one special night when the souls of the departed come home, hoping his candle will summon back one in particular to heal his broken heart. But the forbidden knowledge he's learned could call something far worse, and put more than his own soul at risk... 

Hallow's Eve is available in all digital formats from most online retailers, including:

Amazon US - http://www.amazon.com/Hallows-Eve-Pippa-Jay-ebook/dp/B00O4CRBYI/
All Romance eBooks - https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hallow039seve-1636619-140.html 

Find out more about me and my books at my website or blog. Happy Halloween!

Tara Quan - Halloween Surprise #1

Hi Everyone! First off, I’d like to thank my lovely hosts and hostesses for having me over today. I write romances as Tara Quan. As a newbie author, I’m still finding my way in the world, which is code for being a bit all over the place as far as subgenres go. My first published work was a sci-fi post-apocalyptic retelling of Rapunzel. Needless to say, it wasn’t what I’d consider a commercial success, but it led me to the SFR Brigade and Pippa Jay, and that connection brought me here.

Ever since Tower in the Woods came out in January 2013, my creative compass has led me to explore both fantasy and contemporary worlds, and it recently pointed me in the direction of the paranormal. My Halloween surprise, Flirting with Fire, came out a few days ago, just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. The first installment in my A Witch’s Night Out series, it features a clueless fire mage, his fed-up cat familiar, and Decadent Publishing’s renowned 1-night stand service. With the aid of an elevator, my witch and warlock will iron out the kinks of an outdated employment contract in a spectacularly fiery fashion (two nights from now in real time).

In case I’ve thoroughly confused you with the description, I’ve included the blurb below (it was written by someone far more skilled at synopses than I). Before I run off, I should let you know I’m giving away a $15 gift card to celebrate my release. To enter, leave a comment here, and drop your details in the Rafflecopter widget on my website: TaraQuan.com/FlirtingwithFire.

Flirting with Fire (A Witch’s Night Out, 1)

Apprentice witch Catalina Gato is prohibited from assuming her human form in front of her new employer without his express permission. Since he doesn’t know he’s a warlock, he can’t give it, leaving her in a familiar’s limbo. To make matters worse, she’s barred from leaving his house, and her attempts to enlighten him of his true nature results in burnt notes, charred walls, and exploding laptops.

On All Hallows’ Eve, she gets one night of freedom. Deciding some no-strings-attached sex might take the edge off the intense attraction she feels for her clueless boss, she signs up for Madame Eve’s service. When she meets her masked mystery date at the Castillo Capital, she realizes she might have gotten much more than she bargained for.

After being gifted a one-night stand from his annoying best friend, attorney Leo Difuoco reluctantly ventures to the Castillo Capital to celebrate Halloween. When he meets his oddly familiar green-eyed date in a Cat Woman costume, flames literally ignite, sparks magically fly, and life as he knows it changes forever.

Website: http://www.taraquan.com/

Buy Links:  

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00B19HWJQ

AllRomance    

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Tara+Quan

Close Enough

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. I guess writing a bit of paranormal should make me familiar with death and what might happen after. Personally, I've never had a 'real' near death experience, for which I'm grateful. There are a lot of things I've researched as an author--sometimes terrible things--and there are times I've even tested things out myself like holding my breath for as long as possible (I was researching drowning). But I've had one experience that, at the time, felt as close to death as I ever want to get.

In February 2008 I was heavily pregnant with little monster number three, and suffering from a nasty cold that had kept me in bed for a week. I'd already seen my doctor about the chronic earache accompanying the cold that stopped me from sleeping, and been curtly informed that she couldn't give me anything because I was pregnant. So I'd stuck with whatever pathetic remedies I could take--paracetamol for the pain, fluids, and a few drops of an aromatherapy breathe-easy type medication dripped onto tissue. I was all blocked up, coughing, feverish, struggling to breathe and thoroughly miserable.

Then one evening it got worse. I felt I was really fighting to breathe, and every passing moment the feeling intensified. I tried shouting for my husband, but I'd lost my voice and trying to shout only made me even more breathless. It got to the point I felt I couldn't breathe at all.

I crawled out of bed and onto the landing. By now, all I could think was that I was going to die, and so would my poor baby. And rather than scared, my overriding emotion was anger. Fury, even. If the anthropomorphic representation of Death (as portrayed by Sir Terry Pratchett in the Discworld novels) had turned up at that moment, he'd have got the beating of his life...er, death. I can't remember being so angry in my life before. And that's my predominant memory of the event. I can remember hearing the panic in my husband's voice as he called an ambulance, and I remember feeling momentarily sorry for him having to deal with it (a terribly British attitude, I think). Apparently I went a lovely shade of purple.

By the time the ambulance arrived, my breathing had settled down but I was very shaky after the whole experience. The paramedics gave me oxygen and recommended I go to hospital. I wasn't going to say no (although I have to say the night spent there was almost as hellish as my near death experience, between constant checks, needles, monitors, a chronic snorer and another patient moaning and talking in his sleep). Less than 24 hours later I was sent home with antibiotics for a chest infection and a memory I'll never forget. And that's as close to a near death experience as I ever want to get... *plans on immortality*

Phoenix

Perhaps that's why death and resurrection are a common theme in my stories, even though I don't personally believe in reincarnation or any kind of after life. And yet they're often in my writing. Funny how my stories don't reflect my beliefs in those things. In my newest release, my hero has lost the love of his life, and makes a risky attempt to summon back her soul during All Hallows' Eve, when spirits are most likely to be abroad and loved ones come home. I'm glad I hadn't gone far enough to need any magic to bring me back. But how would you feel about being brought back from the dead, especially if you'd been gone a year?

Hallow's Eve, paranormal romance short

Blurb:

Twelve months ago, Hal’s world crashed and burned, taking the love of his life with it. He’s waited all year for that one special night when the souls of the departed come home, hoping his candle will summon back one in particular to heal his broken heart. But the forbidden knowledge he’s learned could call something far worse, and put more than his own soul at risk...

Writing My First

Back in October, I had my very first idea for a holiday themed story, although too late to have it out for Halloween. In the space of six days and from the inspiration of another book title, I managed to pump out 11K of a paranormal romance based on the original pagan holiday of All Hallows Eve. I surprised myself! The last couple of years I've cursed myself as each holiday rolls past and I have nothing to tie into any of them. And although I'll now have to wait a year to share this one with the world, I'm really excited about it. For now, I can show you a rough draft of the cover I'm working on. What do you think?

I'm keeping the title a secret for now, ready for a big reveal next October. It was odd working on a paranormal, switching from aliens and spaceships to magic and fae. I'm a scifi girl at heart, although I have written fantasy in the past. Back in 2010 when I did a creative writing course through the Open University, my tutor made it clear from the start she wasn't a fan of speculative fiction. But even then, I managed to slip in a couple of ghost stories, magic realism and time travel. I just can't help myself!

And it was a lot of fun researching pagan traditions and sprites after a month on theoretical anti-gravity systems and what happens to a body in vacuum (did you know if you don't hold your breath, you can survive 90 seconds exposed in space without a spacesuit, and without any long lasting effects? Don't fancy trying it though...). But I couldn't completely escape my  scientific leanings. Chemistry became alchemy as I looked up the chemical composition of the body for a spell, and calculated what household equivalents could be used (I was an analytical chemist before I became a stay at home mum). Google Translate helped me put a roughly worded incantation into Latin.

And now I'm thinking about the other holidays. Did you know every Christian holiday we celebrate is actually set on the dates of pagan ones? It may well be that any further ideas for holiday themed stories will have to be paranormal for me, but I do know some scifi based ones. Why don't you try these three out?

Do androids dream of electric sugar plums?

A detective who refuses to modify her body teams up with her cyborg rival to track down a burglar who is putting toys into homes. A solitary ice miner finds love and friendship while stranded on the surface of Galileo. And two hardheaded negotiators put their differences aside to evade an assassin and save their planets. Enjoy these visions of Christmases yet to come with three science-fiction novellas from Carina Press.

Halloween, or Who doesn't love a fate worse than death?

All Hallows Eve: when the worlds of the living and the dead collide.  These days, Halloween is more about candy and costumes than communing with the dead. But the real reason we wear scary masks and carve faces into pumpkins? To keep angry ghosts at bay. It's a ritual designed to keep the dead where they belong. We're quick, they're dead, and they want what we've got.

The old Irish tale of Jack of the Lantern – as in, Jack o' Lantern, the face in the pumpkin? – tells that cunning Jack, a thief and a conman, tricked the Devil into promising not to take Jack's soul at his death. But then Jack dies, and he's too sinful to go to Heaven. So Jack has nowhere to go. And now he's endlessly wandering the earth, looking for the place where lost souls go, lighting his way with an ember from the flames of Hell that will never, ever go out. A gift from the Devil, who thinks Jack's fate a fine joke, thanks very much, and that'll teach you to mess with me.

It's the old cautionary tale of the curse of immortality. Plucky Jack learned the oldest lesson in the book: cheat death at your peril. Walking the earth forever, finding no resting place, denied not only life, but the peace of dying… it's a fate worse than death.

In paranormal romance, we LOVE this :) We can't resist a lost soul. Our immortal vampires are outsiders, stuck forever in time while the world rushes on by. Fallen angels, too, cast out from heaven, cursed to walk the earth in that eternal in-between place, neither damned nor saved. Demons, who can never be good, no matter how hard they want to.

It's a heartbreaking, desperately romantic notion. But what I love most about cursed-to-walk-the-earth stories? The cursee has a choice. You can give up, and wallow in your own misery for eternity. Or you can get up, find a purpose, and get on with it, even if it seems hopeless.

That's what's cool about Jack of the Lantern – he doesn't give up. He doesn't curl up in a beanbag and cry into his beer. He picks up his lantern, and walks on, looking for the place where lost souls go. Because one day, just maybe, he'll find it.

Because raging against the darkness is better than flickering out. You'll never cheat fate if you don't try—and isn't that what the Devil's counting on?

So this year, when Halloween comes and we’re celebrating another year in the land of the living, light a pumpkin for plucky Jack, who walks on, no matter what. And pick up a nice juicy lost-soul, cursed-to-walk-the-earth, fate-worse-than-death paranormal romance to celebrate!

Favorite Costume?

It's October and for Americans that means Halloween is just around the corner. Halloween is the celebration of All Hallow's Eve, the night the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead are thinned. To be honest, it's my absolutely my favorite holiday.
For one thing we get to decorate in spooky or glittery ways that most people would think is completely weird. Secondly, you get to dress up and party with family and friends. My family loves cosplay, costume play, and Halloween is just one more day we get to dress anyway we want.
My favorite cosplay I've created so far was for last year's Halloween. I had a pair of green fairy wings and a dress so I decided to reuse those to become a wind-up fairy doll. It worked out gorgeously, except for one small thing I didn't factor into. The key didn't spin. At first.
In costume, my family went to the elementary school Halloween dance and I spent the whole evening explaining to the kids that the key on my back didn't actually turn. They all kept trying to turn it. So of course we had to evolve the key to actually turn. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that model, but you'll see above what it evolved into.
This year? The Queen of Hearts. Next year... Queen Esther from an anime called Trinity Blood. Very elaborate and very sparkly.

What was one of your favorite costumes? Did you make it or buy it?