Author Archives: Angelique

Set An Extra Plate at the Thanksgiving Table. Company May be Coming.

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Set An Extra Plate at the Thanksgiving Table. Company May be Coming.-By Debbi Decker

Halloween has come and gone, and for many it is a time to put away the decorations, and begin thinking about the next big celebration, that of Thanksgiving. No more spooks, no more worries of black cats, hobgoblins, witches and monsters. The door to the other side has closed.

But has it really? While there are two times of the year where the other side bleeds more readily into our everyday world (Halloween and Walpurgisnacht), the fact is that spirits can visit us readily at any time of the year. Especially when it’s a big family event such as Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today is a far cry from what it originally was. In far older times, it was a harvest festival celebrated by many cultures during all times of the year, depending on the growing season. A “last meal” was created using what was left over from the harvest, and everyone gathered to eat and share memories and stories from days past. In some regions, it was believed that the spirit of life remained in the last ear of corn harvested. Corn dollys or corn mothers were created using the husks from the last of the harvest, put in a place of honor at the table and kept until the next year’s harvest. Because so much depended upon nature, weather, and the will of the gods involved, harvest celebrations were a way to thank the forces for a good harvest, or in the case of a bad harvest, to propitiate the spirits in the hopes that they would look favorably on the next growing cycle and therefore bring about a good harvest.

Many of these celebrations were also a time to honor the ancestors. Food was given to effigies or placed on altars as a tribute to the ancestor or spirit. As western man and western civilizations grew, and different religious groups came together, other celebrations and rituals would spin off the harvest festival, giving birth to what we now know as Halloween, Day of the Dead, and All Saint’s Day, just to name a few. If you think about it, the holidays just mentioned are in reality a celebration of the dead and the harvest is simply the end or death of the growing season.

Honoring the dead is not uncommon in our culture today and Thanksgiving is another time where we can do so. Because we gather together and talk of times past, or events of the prior year, we bring an energy to the table that is easily tapped into by the spirit world. Simply telling our stories and the stories of our ancestors calls out to the dead and invites them in. How many of us have felt the presence of a long gone family member when sitting around the table and sharing memories?

So, set an extra plate that the table at this year’s Thanksgiving feast. Put a picture of a loved one on the plate and honor them by telling their stories. You never know. They might just stop in for a visit.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

The Giving of Thanks

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The Giving of Thanks-By Angelique Duncan

Most of us have been told since elementary school the Thanksgiving story. That in November 1631 the early migrants from Europe to North America celebrated the “first” Thanksgiving feast after surviving the perils of arriving to their new home on the Mayflower. The story is told that the pilgrims were grateful for their first successful corn crop and for the help of the Wampanoag Indians for their generosity. William Bradford called for a grand feast of celebration and thanks. This story stuck and was passed on for generations and is the commonly held legend today.

However this story although some what based in factual events is highly disputed by historians for it’s complete accuracy of how we have arrived at the annual November holiday feast. A commonly accepted theory among historians is that the story of Thanksgiving is an amalgamation of many first feast that celebrated migrations to North America combined with varied religious and cultural influences.

Fasting followed by feast days had long been a practice of Puritans in Europe as part of Reformation that eliminated many more elaborate festive church holidays that had Pagan roots. The legend of the Thanksgiving feasts celebrated in North America of the 1600’s combined elements of the religious observances of the church to give gratitude to God for deliverance while incorporating the elements of ancient harvest festivals celebrating bountiful crops. Through out the colonies there had been many First feasts or Thanksgiving celebrations in honor of a multitude of hardships over come. giving debate to the accuracy that Mayflower pilgrims were indeed the first to hold a Thanksgiving feast in North America. Given the similarities of Thanksgiving feast and that of Harvest festivals many historians believe that these feasts were most likely held in the months of August and September. Thus, coinciding traditional celebration dates of Lammas and the Autumn Equinox, a more likely time to finish reaping crops for the season in New England.

George Washington declaring November 26, 1789 as a public day of gratitude issued the first official proclamation of a unified national holiday for Thanksgiving. However for decades after each state celebrated Thanksgivings on different dates with out unified celebration. Later President Lincoln issued a proclamation that a national day of Thanksgiving would be recognized on the last Thursday of November in an effort to foster the union of North and South during the civil war. It would not be until 1941 that Franklin D Roosevelt would declare the fourth Thursday in November to be the official national holiday of Thanksgiving that we celebrate today. The measure was an effort to bolster the economy and give an earlier start to what we now recognize as the winter holiday season proceeding the Christmas Holiday.

The traditional meal and foods associated with our modern celebration are closer to the Victorians Thanksgiving celebrations with interpretations of what the Pilgrims meal might have been. Our current Thanksgiving practice with emphasis on family, neighbors and unity surrounding a traditional family meal arose from a 30-year letter writing campaign by Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale. It is widely believed that her pleas for a national day observing family and unity is what encouraged Abraham Lincoln to proclaim the national holiday on a uniform day for the country. It is from the writings of Victorian women to periodicals and newspapers of the their time that the recipes we now know became a mainstay to the celebratory meal. As well, the traditional potted mums, brightly colored centerpieces and horn o plenty marking the Thanksgiving season were the creation of the Victorians rather than the décor of pilgrims. What had once been a day celebrating the harvest that transformed to a somber day of deliverance and prayer, had become a festive day to unify family and celebrate home.

The Thanksgiving holiday as a day to celebrate family was further reinforced in importance in American culture after World War Two ended and soldiers returned home from war. The holiday took greater importance to emphasize family and a unified feast after so many had been separated from family shipped over seas, and was welcomed after the rationing of goods encouraged by the war effort. The nation collectively celebrated the greatness of the nation in gratitude of winning the noble cause of a World War.

Whether you are celebrating the bountiful harvest, acknowledging hardships over come or celebrating the gathering of family and friends, be grateful. During the day-to-day monotony and frustrations of life it is easy to forget how much we have to be grateful for. Count your blessings and all that you have to be thankful for.

Angelique Duncan is proprietor of Twilight Faerie Nostalgic and Capricious Objects. Check out her artist page to find links to her shops and vintage inspired traditional holiday art. Visit again next month for more traditions and folklore.

Special Thank You to Janis Logsdon

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Jan's Beads

Featured Artist:

Jan’s Beads: A special thank you to Janis Logsdon of Jan’s Beads for her diligence and dedication to the Halloween Artist Bazaar Perpetual BNS celebrating Halloween. See more her handcrafted Day of the Dead jewelry in her shops on Etsy and Zibbet.

Spirit of Halloween

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Spirit of Halloween-By Angelique Duncan

Growing up in the 1970’s Halloween was a big deal. Before the “Candy Man” poisoning and alleged unconfirmed reports of razor blades in apples. Before the fears of devil worshiping cults stealing children and the belief ones neighbor must be a psychopathic killer, Halloween was huge. The urban legends of Halloween horrors hadn’t taken grip. The October holiday’s reputation had not been tarnished by the cultural fascination with fear that had arisen in the late seventies and early eighties. October 31st was an enchanting street party spanning one evening as communities came together, watched out for each other and owned their neighborhoods and ironically were not ruled by fear.

Halloween was the greatest spectacle in one night that a kid could dream of. In the neighborhood where I grew up, Halloween night was an occasion when the entire neighborhood was engaged and the community of neighbors came together. As the sun went down the streets began to fill with all manner of monsters, superheroes, and witches. Pirates and up right cats ruled the night. The build up to Halloween began promptly on the first day of October.

Over the weeks building up to October 31st the houses transformed from normal suburban homes to haunted vignettes. Pumpkins would start to show up on porches, sheet ghosts hung from trees. Orange and black streamers appeared and rattle-ly plastic skeletons were hung from beams and steeples. Home made scarecrows and monsters made from old work clothes and stuffed with newspaper would prop in lawn chairs and benches. The retail world had not yet caught on to the phenomenon of Halloween, so most of the visual spectacle of yard decorations and costumes were home made. There was a sense of sincerity and creativity shrouding the Holiday.

One essential component to every home was the carved lit Jack o lantern, no matter what motif one haunted their yard with; it was not complete with out the iconic glow from the face of a hand carved pumpkin guard. On Halloween night the assembled masterpieces formed from kitchen knives and powered by tea light and votives would smile their candle lit grins in unison.

The entire month of October was spent building ones costume. Once one decided what persona they would be for the night, it was time to assemble the costume. Back then it was deemed cooler to have created your own costume than to have bought one at the few stores that retailed them. Before the marketing of blockbuster movies and commercially licensed cartoon characters became a booming industry, the store bought sort of costumes were prefab plastic mask and tie back costume made from that odd sort of woven plastic nylon “fabric” that seemed to only appear at Halloween. Planning ones costume and getting it just right was essential. Weeks were spent in preparation; collecting bits, sewing and gluing this and that until all the pieces came together.

Finally, after much anticipation, October 31st had arrived. As tradition held from years before, the festivities would commence at dusk. The scramble would begin to get the pumpkin lit, the candy bowl by the door and costume on. Once the sun had sufficiently fallen on the horizon, with bag, pillowcase or bright orange plastic jack o lantern bucket in hand Trick or Treat would begin. Halloween night had arrived.

The little ones came first, accompanied by their elders who had taken on their own costumed personas. The next wave was the school age Trick or Treaters taking to the streets in packs. Later as the moon had ascended high in the October sky, the big kids came, these were the ones who put the trick in Trick or Treat. Halloween night would go on and wasn’t over until midnight. Today one is fortunate if masked visitors knock after 9:30. Back then the knocks would last well in to the night not fading until 11:00p.m. or midnight, even if the magical eve fell on a school night.

Through out the night neighbors flooded the streets in costume, the small children and the oldest of adults. Folks would decorate their baby’s strollers in black and orange or pull their small children in wagons that had been spooked up in Halloween flair. Through out the Autumn air the sounds of collective shouts of TRICK OR TREAT!” laughter and random screams drifted as if on a constant loop.

Nearly every house kept their porch light on. Most folks would answer the Trick or Treat knock in full scary garb or at least in a minimum witches hat or animal ears and drawn whiskers. If a resident had gone out for the night their neighbors would hand out candy in their stead and let the Trick or Treaters know not to trick their house. Folks would usually stand on their porches or driveways waiting for the costumers to come.

In our neighborhood the haunted garage was a common attraction. At least 3 to 4 houses would be decked out in mazes and stations where Trick or Treaters would dare to earn their treats. Friendly competitions would arise as to who would have the scariest garage for that year and bring in the most visitors. Word would spread like wildfire on the streets where the best candy or baked goods were being given and where the best-haunted garage could be found. At the end of the night one was sure to find popcorn balls, candied apples on sticks, rice krispie treats and printed Halloween bags filled with cookies assorted among all stripes of chocolate bars and packaged cadies. Ones bucket or bag would be so full that one might even have to work their way home to empty it so that one could go out and fill it again.

Once tired feet and aching legs had won over the excitement of the evening, and every last house visited, one would make the journey from the other side of the neighborhood back home. The sounds would have quieted some, lest the occasional Trick Or Treat holler heard in the distance. The streets would be littered with wrappers and plastics left from eaten treats and the occasional split skin from a smashed pumpkin that had suffered an untimely, and gruesome fate. Back home one would spread their bounty across the floor to revel in another year’s well-earned Halloween bounty. With sticky hands and sweet filled bellies one drifted to sleep with dreams of the big questions for next October…”What face to give the pumpkin? How to make the yard more scary? What do I want to be for Halloween”?

Reflecting on Halloweens gone by, one hopes that folks will keep the cultural experience of this historical celebration running and children today could have the same fond memories in their own neighborhoods. It is up to us who carry our own happy reflections to keep the spirit of Halloween alive for the following generations. Reclaim the holiday. Hang a ghost from your tree. Find the biggest bowl you can and fill it with candy. Put on a pointed hat and talk to your neighbors, know whom they are. Gather your kid’s friends and plan a Halloween Trick or Treat extravaganza. If you don’t have kids, gather your own friends and haunt up your yard, hand out treats and make Halloween great again in your neighborhood. Keep your porch light on and keep a Jack o lantern lit in the spirit of Halloween.

Angelique Duncan is proprietor of Twilight Faerie Nostalgic and Capricious Objects. Check out her artist page to find links to her shops and vintage inspired traditional holiday art. Visit again next month for more traditions and folklore.

Growing up with Halloween

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Growing up with Halloween-By Angelique Duncan

Angelique Duncan is proprietor of Twilight Faerie Nostalgic and Capricious Objects. Check out her artist page to find links to her shops and vintage inspired traditional holiday art. Visit again next month for more traditions and folklore.

May this Halloween bring you all good fortunes.

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May this Halloween bring you all good fortunes.-By Debbi Decker

Ever had your fortune told? No? Why not? Depending on who does it or how it is done, it can be illuminating and fun at the same time. Tarot and other types of card readings, tea leaves, crystals, and runes are some of the most popular ways of telling fortunes. Fortunetelling is related to divination, which has its roots in ancient civilizations. As an example, the ancient Greeks used oracles to “divine” the future and to predict for its followers. Divination is more aligned to ritualistic and religious practices, while fortunetelling has, over time, become more aligned to social and non-religious settings. Most of what we know today as fortunetelling has its roots in the European Renaissance era. It can be argued that present-day fortunetelling owes its arrival to the witchcraft persecutions. Those who practiced any form of fortunetelling or divination risked their life and the lives of their family and friends during this dark period of time. So, much like the early Christians appropriating pagan celebrations and cloaking them with Christian beliefs, the practice of fortunetelling and divination was given a “cover” of superstition, party games, and other social connotations. While still frowned upon by many during the burning times, it was still considered a pastime and not so much a religious practice.

The Victorians, with all their love of past pagan practices, brought another revival of the fortunetelling genre to family gatherings. Halloween parties and Yule gatherings saw a surge of such practices and the popularity is partly evidenced with all the different post cards created during this era that either reference a fortunetelling game or actually offer the reader a fortune right on the card.

One of my favorite fortunetelling games was taught to me by my Grandmother. She would give me an apple and a paring knife. The idea was to peel around the apple in a long strip, keeping as much of the strip as intact as possible. Once done or when the peel broke off, the peel was held gently in my cupped hand and thrown over my left shoulder, while wishing to know who my husband or next beau was to be. If I saw an initial in the way the peel lay on the floor, it was surely the initial of my next love! I must have done this every Halloween for years hoping to see the initial of the “one”!

Nuts were given the names of the persons of the opposite sex. Some would carve the initials onto the nuts, while others would choose a different type of nut for each person. The nuts would be then be thrown into the fire in a fireplace or bonfire, and the name of the first nut to pop would be the name of the nut owner’s bride or groom.

Victorian girls who were anxious to be married would walk down a flight of stairs at midnight, holding a candle in one hand and a mirror in the other, hoping to see the face of the man they would marry in the mirror!

A burning candle’s melted wax would be dripped into a basin of water and scrutinized for shapes of familiar objects and letters with the hope that a future would be revealed for the person looking.

These are only a sampling of the many games that were played throughout the Victorian age at Halloween. Why not try a few at your next Halloween gathering? And don’t forget to bob for apples. The first person who snags an apple from the tub will be the first person to marry. Already married? Well, I cannot help you there. Perhaps you will need to seek the services of a fortuneteller to get the answer to that one!

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

The Clairs. Consider Them a Little Lagniappe.

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The Clairs. Consider Them a Little Lagniappe.-By Debbi Decker

The five senses. Smell, sight, touch, hearing, taste. Those are all we get. Or, do we? You walked down the hallway, and smelled roses. But you have no roses in the house and no roses in the yard. You were quietly reading a book, when you heard your name called, but you were alone in the house. Or doing dishes at the kitchen sink, when suddenly you felt arms around you and your family were all in another room. That face you saw in the mirror? It was the face of no one you know, and again, there was no around but you. You experienced a sudden craving for a food you have never tasted, much less heard of.

What is happening here?

Many paranormal experts believe strongly in what is called the sixth sense. It can manifest itself in many forms in connection with each of the five senses:

Clairvoyance = sight

Clairsentience = touch

Clairaudience = hearing

Clairalience = smell

Clairgustance = taste

All fall under the category of Extra Sensory Perception or ESP. Scientists agree that it exists but fall short of explaining the how or why of it. Studies of the subject have been going on for hundreds of years. And there remains strong opinions both for and against the subject at hand.

Personally, I believe that we all have this sixth sense and that it was an important and working sense that was a part of humans from the beginning of existence, but one that was slowly, over time, damped down in the human race through factors relating to civilization, social structures, and religious beliefs. You could liken this to our appendix, which is a part of our anatomical structure that at one time is considered to have had a specific function, but which has lost that function through evolution. Children still, to this day, exhibit many of the traits of having ESP, that is until they go to school, attend mainstream religious functions on a regular basis, and become socialized into the present day civilization. Which, to me, only argues in favor of my beliefs.

Those of us who exhibit any of the above “Clairs” (as I like to refer to them) have either maintained that connection from birth or we have managed to reconnect to a part of us, which, like the appendix, still exists in all of us. Some of us feel it is a gift, while others consider it a part of their makeup that they would rather be without and therefore block these connections.

So, how does any of this fit in with the paranormal? Remember that the word “paranormal” simply means above normal or outside of normal. The term paranormal could be applied to many subject matters, but for this instance, I use the term in connection with ghostly activities, hauntings, etc.

Paranormal investigators like to investigate in darkness. The darkness renders some of our senses useless (sight), and dampens down some senses while causing other senses to become stronger. This in and of itself is not a paranormal thing. It is an activation of the human sensors in a different manner. As an example, when the lights go out, we cannot see anything. Our brain is trying desperately to “see” something, anything. If we close our eyes in the darkness, a signal is sent to our brain that the eyes are not working. After a few minutes, other senses are heightened. Hearing and sense of touch are two that may report to become stronger in darkness.

Referring back to the idea that we all have a sixth sense, there would naturally be those who exhibit a certain “Clair” that is stronger than others. I might be able to feel the ghostly presence more strongly, while you may be able to see that presence, and another may hear it.

Those who exhibit any of the “Clairs” are able to activate our human sensors differently, and use those senses in conjunction with the normal use of sense to feel, see, taste, smell, and touch the other side. A ghostly presence can use those senses to make their presence known without having to battle through the mental and physical blocks that our cultural heritages have placed upon us. Used in conjunction with paranormal investigating, these senses are an excellent and integral tool and should be used and accepted without prejudice.

Case in point. As a paranormal investigator, I cannot use my hearing as I am hearing impaired. However, my sense of sight and touch are greatly enhanced. On an investigation last year, while climbing a rickety set of stairs in total darkness with a fellow investigator, I “saw” and “felt” an architectural feature that my hand immediately reached for so I could steady myself. My hand met with a wall. I commented on it at the time as I was rather puzzled. Later that evening, we listened in on a discussion of the building itself and how it had changed over the years. That wall I touched was a recent addition. There was at one time an opening like a window with a deep sill. That was exactly what I saw and felt and that was exactly what I was reaching for. You can imagine the look I got from the other investigator with me on those stairs!

The next time you find yourself in a position of seeing, smelling, sensing, tasting, or hearing something that is out of the normal realm for you, try letting that experience play out. You are perhaps receiving a communication from the other side and the message might be of great importance. If you are investigating, don’t discount the smells or sudden tastes that might overwhelm you. There could be a reason that the entity on the other side is communicating in this manner. Perhaps the roses were their favorite flower. Or they liked that food you are tasting. Or even further, that food contained the poison they died from and they want to tell others what happened to them. It goes without saying that when investigating the paranormal, you have to accept the good with the bad, so to speak. Even if we are not aware of the Clairs, we all have them, and at any moment they could reasonably manifest themselves us and to others. Just equate it with having a little extra something special, or being given a little present or Lagniappe. After all, who doesn’t love receiving gifts? Even from the Clairs.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.