Halloween History
October 7th, 2009 by John WolfeI’m featuring two history of Halloween videos in today’s entry. Though the information is quick and pretty basic, I never get tired of hearing about Halloween’s historical progression over the last two-thousand years.
While there are hundreds of similar videos available, I felt a kinship with both of these, as they include a little more emphasis on the spiritual/paranormal motivation (via Samhain) for the origins of October 31st.
A special thanks to Goldie for turning me onto several other historical Halloween videos in the process of working on this entry.
“Halloween History” video source: YouTube user NationalGeographic
“What is Halloween? Haunting History” video source: billsiem
October 7th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Your welcome dear friend. I know your so busy right now but I also could feel that these videos were something you could appreciate and quick enough you could watch a few of them. I ended up watching the entire playlist they have which were witches videos and the history there of. I was not aware of the witch hunt that took place in Germany which actually just about killed off of the women and children of the town. Something like over 300,000 people were killed because they were thought to be witches. Makes Salem look like a walk in the park, not like it was though.
I also loved a series of videos they have in their playlist regarding FEAR and why it is that humans actually crave to be scared and why haunted houses are so popular, even for people who don’t like to go to them…..they usually cave in and go anyhow. The scientist used an interesting word, or sister word, to fear and that is arousal. That there is a certain level of arousal we feel when we get all excited about being scared. Hmmm……I understand what she was saying but can’t say that’s the case with me
Oh and I don’t mean sexual arousal, just arousal in general because we do have a variety of arousals that are not sexual in nature.
I ended up watching the videos about the legend of vampires and the attraction some have towards them, again I could relate–long story. And last but not least they have a section of videos about Halloween treats, CANDY!!! I saw some classic candy I used to enjoy back in the 70′s. Oh and they show a great segment on candy apples…….yummmm! Anyhow, I’m really glad you liked the videos and that I could contribute once more to your amazing Halloween website
Also thank you for your previously recorded section on Justin.tv. It’s a great way for me to catch up on what I missed if I had to get to bed early that night. Awesome idea!
October 7th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I like those films. It drives me nuts when people say “celebrating Halloween is like devil worship. “Sheesh!” I guess that would mean celebrating Easter is celebrating that Jesus was killed. Hmm…
October 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Goldie,
I would have embedded the history channel’s programming, but they don’t have that feature enabled. I definitely enjoyed the vids, though, so thanks again. I didn’t know about Germany’s witch hunt either, but it doesn’t surprise me as persecution for beliefs was and still is (in a different manner) a common and disgusting “trend.”
I didn’t see the candy video. You know what I used to love as a kid? Candy cigarettes. I would pretend I was puffing on those things all the way home after we’d buy them at a convenience store.
autumnforest,
I never thought of it in that way about Easter. That’s a great point!