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It's the most wonderful time of the year, and we're talking about why we like it so much! Plus, Lackey throws down the history of the holiday!

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Anonymous

Hey guys, good show but I have to chime in on one pet peeve. Samhain is pronounced something like "sowin" with sow pronounced to rhyme with "wow." Other than that...carry on. :-D

Anonymous

Thanks guys, really enjoyed this episode. As a child in Scotland in the 1980s, I remember doing Halloween the old way: my dad carved a lantern from a turnip, we bobbed for apples in a basin and then went 'guising' around the town, performing for people who would then give us sweets. I think mine was the last generation to do this, however: Scottish children now mark Halloween the American way, with pumpkins instead of turnips and implied threats of vandalism instead of performances. It makes me a wee bit sad that these customs have now gone, probably forever, in the place that originally gave birth to them.

Jeff C. Carter

Saint Dracula is the name of my ska band. Let me just register that domain name...

Anonymous

Many of the people I've known who are into horror definitely tend to be kind, sensitive, empathetic people who generally want to make the world a little less awful any way they can. I am definitely too soft for this world myself and I think I use horror as a little inoculation against my own real fears (because there are a lot of them). We used to get those sugar skulls at school for Dia de los Muertos and it was almost better than Halloween candy. Each one is just like 4 tablespoons of pure sugar. We got them at the end of the day so our parents were the ones who dealt with the fallout. I could listen to people talk about Halloween forever because it is the most wonderful time of year - really enjoyed this episode! PS - thanks for the shout out! I'm happy to give you guys money and make jokes based on your jokes :) Additional PS - We should bring turnip jack-o'-lanterns back, they look scary af: <a href="https://goo.gl/images/S7RsAS" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://goo.gl/images/S7RsAS</a>

Anonymous

I was the biggest chicken as a kid and went catatonic at the door to more than one haunted house. Now I can't get enough of horror! Chad, two things: 1. Samhain is a great Danzig band! (ymmv) 2. It's not a conspiracy to say that scaring people sells papers :)

Anonymous

I'll be spending this Halloween at a Danzig show and in my experience any Danzig band is pretty good :)

Anonymous

Oh, the Aos Si, Sidhe, or what-have-you are the fairies, yes, but modern folk tend to have a warped, soft idea of what a fairy is. Sometimes they are like unto Gods--like the Tuatha de Danann, or Children of Danu. Other times they're wee folk, or changelings, or giants, or monsters. Depends on the fairy, I suppose. My favorite comes from Orkney, though: there may be found the fairy known as the Knoggelvi. Towering high, this creature is like a great centaur with one burning red eye and sickle-like talons that lives in the sea and breathes poison. Oh, and it has no skin, so turgid arteries and dripping muscle fibers are visible all over it.

Anonymous

What are the odds? (Apparently 100%?) I was researching this today. I saw a monster drawing I didn't recognize and couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be. Searching for skinless monsters, came across the Knoggelvi. Yikes! I eventually decided the drawing was supposed to be "Rawhead and Bloody Bones" but still just guessing.

Anonymous

I was rushing here to see how many people tried to post the correct pronunciation of Samhain.

Anonymous

Beltaine, at least, is pronounced as an American would expect, yes?

Steve

I did wonder about the haunted houses. I've seen them advertised in the US but never been to one. We have a few of them in the UK. Paula went to one in Fort Amhurst over ten years ago: <a href="https://www.halloweenhorrors.co.uk/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.halloweenhorrors.co.uk/</a>

Steve

The only time I went trick or treating was when I lived in France. It must have been in about 1978 when I was 13, my brother 12 and my sister 7. Some Americans had moved in up the road, Alan and Susan Shean. Al worked on Charlie Brown, along with another guy I met, Dean Spille. We'd seen trick or treat in Peanuts and decided to trick Susan who was on her own at that time. We dressed up as ghosts and went up the hill to her house. It was below the road so we climbed on her roof and made a load of noise, and when she came out, she was pretty scared. But she invited us in and gave us, I think, some fruit. I don't think she was expecting it.

Anonymous

Re people who are into horror having a turning point, I gotta say I still can't watch horror movies and wouldn't go anywhere near a haunted house. I'm fine with *literary* horror but I can't handle visuals. Also that bit about why haunted houses are so common in the US was interesting. I always see threads about them on Reddit and they're really not that common outside the US.

Anonymous

As for Halloween like celebrations in other cultures, in Chinese and many Chinese-influenced cultures, the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the month of hungry ghosts. It's basically a synthesis of Chinese folk belief with Buddhism. In Buddhism you can be reborn as a preta, a spirit which eternally hungers but cannot eat and in this existence you basically burn off part of your karmic debt. Meanwhile in Chinese folk religon the spirits of your ancestors are meant to be honoured. Putting two and two together, this logically means that you'd better do your best to feed the spirits in case they're your ancestors (if not, as per Mulan- dishonour on you, your family, and your cow). So during the 7th Month the gates of Hell (not really Hell in the Christian sense but basically the netherworld) are opened and the spirits are released. There are huge feasts and song and dance performances put on for the hungry ghosts and lots of superstitions about not staying out after dark if possible and so forth. In addition they burn offerings, some of which are elaborate paper replicas of houses, cars, iPhones etc

Anonymous

I got all excited yesterday about talking about the weird differences in the visual appearance of Samhain vs its pronunciation that I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the episode. And kudos to both of the hosts for their endearing self-deprecating humor.

Anonymous

You forgot to mention the greatest Halloween game of all time: Snap Apple. The person running the game would take a long stick and dangle from it a smaller stick by a string. On one side of the small stick was stuck an apple, on the other a lit candle. This was then spun around and the player, who was blindfolded, needed to try to bite the spinning apple and not get a face full of lit candle and hot wax.

Anonymous

Here's a period painting of it: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG</a>

Anonymous

There was a 'Hell House' outside Philly in the late 80's that incorporated the 'Satanic Panic' and had a human sacrifice being conducted by Dungeons &amp; Dragons players, with the Players Handbook and Monster Manual being used as grimories. As a long time D&amp;D player, I laughed my ass off.

Anonymous

Preta also have stomachs the size of mountains and mouths like pinholes, if I remember correctly.

Anonymous

Thank you for the shout out! I failed my sanity check and yelled across the office I work at!

Anonymous

Hey! My first ever comment on an episode! I just can't deny the Halloween temptation! Halloween is, of course, my favourite holiday so this was a fun episode to listen to! I agree with the sentiment about horror-lovers. I was scared of the dark and what scary stuff might be hiding there for a very long time and now I would self-describe myself as a bonafide horror movie buff. This doesn't happen with a lot of people though and I wonder why some people stay scared! On a side note, I turn 19 this Thursday, which reminds me that I've been listening to this show for about... 6 years? On and off at least. How crazy is it that 1. this show is a big part of my youth and now my young adulthood and 2. I didn't even know who Lovecraft was before this. Haha! Sorry if that makes y'all feel old! Thanks for 6ish years of exposure to weird fiction and good times!

Anonymous

This show makes up for Chad’s Vincent Price scit in the last episode.

Anonymous

Fun, gents. Brought back many memories. Haunted houses are not common but are quite popular in Japan at the height of summer. The idea is that the fear will help cool you. Don't know if that really works for anyone, but the idea of your blood running cold seems to be universal.

Anonymous

I worked at a Haunted Hayride one season where I wore a skull mask and was an undead gas station attendant, or something. I would jump on the back of the hayride and yell "FRIENDS! COME PLAY WITH ME!" and then hang off the back and let it drag me for a few feet calling "DON'T LEAVE ME!" the next day I would be sore and barely able to talk.

Anonymous

My father grew up in rural farmland and told me that one year his friends and him for a Halloween prank disassembled a farmers tractor and reassembled it on top of his barn.

Anonymous

I'm reminded somehow of that Stephen King short about the guy with a beat up derelict truck (which he had crushed his business partner under) sitting in his hayfield. The truck comes a *bit* closer every year and in the end they find him mysteriously dead, choked on motor oil. Dun dun dunnnn

Anonymous

In Australia, Halloween is seen by many as an American tradition and therefore not something that is widely celebrated. At least not until recently. Now Halloween is becoming a growing concern, with many stores carrying Halloween merch. We have a fledgling Haunt industry, and Zombie Walks are also increasing in popularity. I started Trick or Treating as a child in the 80's after seeing E.T. (which didn't scare me, but the Vorpal Bunny and Love at First Bite did, lol). Because people didn't really know much about Trick or Treating back in the 80's, they'd madly scramble to find something to give us kids. The funniest thing I every got given was a Donkey statue that when you pulled it's tail, crapped out cigarettes. Great gift for a 10 year old!

Anonymous

Awwww, I did a Jaycees Haunted House several years in a row along with my High School Thespian Group. High point? We got to meet Dr. Demento! I'm from Indianapolis, IN. I didn't realize it was nation wide. Besides the whole "turn about is fair play" aspect; There is also a thrill to be had in gifting a scare to people. For instance, I told my brother that a house down the block that was sitting empty was haunted--not because it was--but because I thought it would be cool to give him a haunted house to grow up around.

Anonymous

Fun show! You might want to check on the pronunciation of Samhain, being Gaelic, it is definitely not pronounced as it is spelled in English letters. It is not pronounced "sam hane" it is pronounced "sow win" with the "sow" being the long "o" as in "Pow!" Chris as you now live in Britain you might have a go at pronouncing the name of Welsh towns like Ystradgynlais. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_Wales" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_Wales</a> Welsh band Super Furry Animals is in the Guiness book with the longest EP name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ... good luck!

Anonymous

Another excellent show. I agree with the idea that children who are susceptible to being frightened easily become horror fans when they grow up. When I was a kid the movie Casper with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman terrified the hell out of me for reasons even I'm not even sure of. The only way I cured my cowardice was sitting down and watching back to back horror movies until I desensitized myself. Probably not the proudest moment for my parents to walk in on their 10 year old at the time watching Leatherface in short spurts from behind the couch lol.

Anonymous

Describing your work in haunted houses sounds eerily like Leatherface’s autobiography ‘holding a chainsaw above my head for the first time, I felt powerful...’. Another good show.

Anonymous

Chad kills me. I love him. Red leather thriller jacket worn to school. Good teachable moment you would think. But no. I think a vampire short cape is the thing to wear now. HA!

Anonymous

Nah, I always liked horror and was never a chicken. TBH.

Anonymous

I encountered this particular welsh tradition on a wikitrek looking up mumming/mummery - it's called Mari Lwyd and is related to the roots of trick or treating/mumming and is really fascinating: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd</a> Welsh villages used to keep a special horse's skull buried during the year before digging it up around winter solstice, putting it on a pole and then a small group of men make the rounds to people's houses to terrorize/entertain them in exchange for hospitality. This would happen during Christmastime, but is related to trick or treating and to me equal parts disturbing, fascinating and awesome. Pictures of the skull pole contraption are a bit... terrifyingly goofy.

Wesley Vanroose

A friend of mine always scared me on Halloween,one day I was so fed up to getting scared by him on Halloween. So on that fateful day he tried to scare me, then I faked like I had a heart attack he thought he killed me and he was so scarred by this he never did again

Anonymous

For us older “Gen-X’rs” growing up in the New York metropolitan area, none can forget the tragic fire at the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1984. I had been through this attraction half a dozen times in the 3 years prior. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Castle_(Six_Flags_Great_Adventure)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Castle_(Six_Flags_Great_Adventure)</a>

Anonymous

Well, you can call me a curmudgeon but I detest halloween. Another load of unnecessary tat filling the shops, followed by screaming children knocking at doors in the dark. Usual approach for me is to wedge the wheelie bin behind the gate, turn down the lights and not answer the door for any reason. I'd be very happy to see it consigned to the dustbin of history (which would give me something else to block the gate with).