Ghoul          There is a lot that can be researched when looking into the true meaning of the word “Ghoul”.  It seems every culture and hundreds of writers have their own interpretation of what a Ghoul is.  It turns out that the actual term is derived from an ancient Arabic belief in a creature given life by evil Jinn.  It is said to lure unwary travelers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them.   More modern...

         In Mexico they actually celebrate two creepy Fall holidays!  Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead began as an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. This festival predates Halloween by almost a thousand years.  Halloween has also been celebrated in Mexico for the past 40 years and gains popularity every year, especially among children. The Halloween celebration has, however, been Mexicanized...

     One of the annual fall traditions in our home is watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” together.  There’s something sadly reassuring about watching poor Charlie have the ball pulled out just as he’s about to kick it… and if he ever got anything other than rocks in his bag, I’d wonder where the world went wrong. Not that good ol’ Charles deserves to have a...

     The traditional carving of the jack-o-lantern has its roots in a very dark tale from Irish lore about a man named Stingy Jack, who dared to drink with the devil and gambled his soul on the sharpness of his wits.  Originally Turnips were hollowed out and used as talismans against the dark forces of evil. Immigrants from Ireland brought the jack o’lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon...

Ah, sweet October. Like so many folks October is my ALL TIME favorite month. In honor of October I wanted to gather some interesting and fun facts you might not have known about this delightful fall time of year. Here goes. As you might already have deduced October gets its name from the number eight. When the calendar was originally created by the Romans, the year began in March (in honor of the God of War, Mars) this meant that instead...