A Halloween Potpourri: A Combination of Incongruous Things

Giveaway ~ $25 Amazon Gift Card
The winner is Ash Wolf!
Thanks for your comments, everyone.

http://intothemound.blogspot.com/

If you think Halloween can be scary now, step back in time about 2,500 years when Halloween first
started. People believed things like this:

"Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win"). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life ..." - http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

I'll be right there with a basket of candy for the little princesses and superheroes and preteens with fake knives embedded in their heads when the doorbell rings this coming Thursday night. I swear, one of these years I'm going to give those big groups of teenagers who come around before their parties some dental floss, but it would probably just get my house teepeed.

Relax, I can deal with it.

http://www.ivargault.com/kelterne/celts.html

It's those overlapping boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead that have me worried. With my luck, my house is probably built on a major fault line.

In keeping with the subtitle of this post, A Combination of Incongruous Things, here are some Celts doing something odd with a dead man and a dead pig. Plaid was popular then.

Bloody good!

Vampire Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
approx 1/2 cup red jam (raspberry/strawberry)

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and extracts.
2. Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix them into the butter-sugar mixture at low speed until dough is just combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 325F.
4. Divide dough in half and keep the portion you are not using in the refrigerator.
5. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds.
6. Place rounds on a baking sheet, put a teaspoon of jam on each of them and cover with another round of dough. Press edges down lightly, pinching the edges onto the cookie sheet. Use a toothpick and poke two small holes (like a vampire bite) in the top of each cookie.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set.
8. Cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Dip a toothpick in some extra red jam and re-insert in the “bite” holes you made before baking to emphasize them, if not already red. Draw a blood trickle down from one of the bites with the jam, if desired.

How about a virtual trip down Amazon's aisles with a $25 gift card clutched in your hand? Just leave a comment below letting me know your favorite paranormal character from a book, movie, TV program, or cartoon (didn't want to exclude Casper the Friendly Ghost). Please make sure I have some way to contact you if your comment is drawn as the random winner. I'll do the drawing on the opening of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Friday, November 1, 2013. Then this lovely card will belong to one of you!

Remember, demons are a ghoul's best friend! (groan ...) 

Hugs,
Dakota ♥

Bonus
Everybody knows the lines:
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Want to know all the icky ingredients in that cauldron? If so, click "more" to read the entire (long) passage from Macbeth.

Macbeth

ACT IV SCENE I	A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
[Thunder. Enter the three Witches]
First Witch	Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch	Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch	Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.
First Witch	Round about the cauldron go;
	In the poison'd entrails throw.
	Toad, that under cold stone
	Days and nights has thirty-one
	Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
	Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
ALL	Double, double toil and trouble;
	Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch	Fillet of a fenny snake,
	In the cauldron boil and bake;
	Eye of newt and toe of frog,
	Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
	Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
	Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
	For a charm of powerful trouble,
	Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL	Double, double toil and trouble;
	Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Third Witch	Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
	Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
	Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
	Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
	Liver of blaspheming Jew,
	Gall of goat, and slips of yew
	Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
	Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
	Finger of birth-strangled babe
	Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
	Make the gruel thick and slab:
	Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
	For the ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL	Double, double toil and trouble;
	Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch	Cool it with a baboon's blood,
	Then the charm is firm and good.
[Enter HECATE to the other three Witches]
HECATE	O well done! I commend your pains;
	And every one shall share i' the gains;
	And now about the cauldron sing,
	Live elves and fairies in a ring,
	Enchanting all that you put in.
[Music and a song: 'Black spirits,' &c]
[HECATE retires]
Second Witch	By the pricking of my thumbs,
	Something wicked this way comes.
	Open, locks,
	Whoever knocks!
[Enter MACBETH]
MACBETH	How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
	What is't you do?
ALL	A deed without a name.
MACBETH	I conjure you, by that which you profess,
	Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
	Though you untie the winds and let them fight
	Against the churches; though the yesty waves
	Confound and swallow navigation up;
	Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;
	Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
	Though palaces and pyramids do slope
	Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
	Of nature's germens tumble all together,
	Even till destruction sicken; answer me
	To what I ask you.
First Witch	Speak.
Second Witch	Demand.
Third Witch	We'll answer.
First Witch	Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,
	Or from our masters?
MACBETH	Call 'em; let me see 'em.
First Witch	Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
	Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
	From the murderer's gibbet throw
	Into the flame.
ALL	Come, high or low;
	Thyself and office deftly show!
[Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head]
MACBETH	Tell me, thou unknown power,--
First Witch	He knows thy thought:
	Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
First Apparition	Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;
	Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
[Descends]
MACBETH	Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;
	Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one
	word more,--
First Witch	He will not be commanded: here's another,
	More potent than the first.
[Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child]
Second Apparition	Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
MACBETH	Had I three ears, I'ld hear thee.
Second Apparition	Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
	The power of man, for none of woman born
	Shall harm Macbeth.
[Descends]
MACBETH	Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?
	But yet I'll make assurance double sure,
	And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;
	That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
	And sleep in spite of thunder.
[ Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand ]
	What is this
	That rises like the issue of a king,
	And wears upon his baby-brow the round
	And top of sovereignty?
ALL	Listen, but speak not to't.
Third Apparition	Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
	Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
	Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
	Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
	Shall come against him.
[Descends]
MACBETH	That will never be
	Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
	Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
	Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood
	Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
	Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
	To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart
	Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
	Can tell so much: shall Banquo's issue ever
	Reign in this kingdom?
ALL	Seek to know no more.
MACBETH	I will be satisfied: deny me this,
	And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.
	Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?
[Hautboys]
First Witch	Show!
Second Witch	Show!
Third Witch	Show!
ALL	Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;
	Come like shadows, so depart!
[ A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following ]
MACBETH	Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!
	Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair,
	Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.
	A third is like the former. Filthy hags!
	Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
	What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
	Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more:
	And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
	Which shows me many more; and some I see
	That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:
	Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true;
	For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,
	And points at them for his.
[Apparitions vanish]
	What, is this so?
First Witch	Ay, sir, all this is so: but why
	Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
	Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
	And show the best of our delights:
	I'll charm the air to give a sound,
	While you perform your antic round:
	That this great king may kindly say,
	Our duties did his welcome pay.
[ Music. The witches dance and then vanish, with HECATE ]
MACBETH	Where are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
	Stand aye accursed in the calendar!
	Come in, without there!
[Enter LENNOX]
LENNOX	What's your grace's will?
MACBETH	Saw you the weird sisters?
LENNOX	No, my lord.
MACBETH	Came they not by you?
LENNOX	No, indeed, my lord.
MACBETH	Infected be the air whereon they ride;
	And damn'd all those that trust them! I did hear
	The galloping of horse: who was't came by?
LENNOX	'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
	Macduff is fled to England.
MACBETH	Fled to England!
LENNOX	Ay, my good lord.
MACBETH	Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits:
	The flighty purpose never is o'ertook
	Unless the deed go with it; from this moment
	The very firstlings of my heart shall be
	The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
	To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
	The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
	Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
	His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
	That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
	This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.
	But no more sights!--Where are these gentlemen?
	Come, bring me where they are.
[Exeunt]

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Thomas Marc Parrott. New York: American Book Co., 1904. Shakespeare Online. 27 Oct. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_4_1.html >.