Deep Conversations

A little Halloween history/meta written for the Spooky Season and lands_of_magic.

Halloween comes from the Celtic New Year's Festival,Samhain (pronounced `Soo-when', `So-ween' or `Saw-wen'). The name itself is from the All Saints celebration - which the Catholic Church celebrated on May 13 originally. In the 8th century, the date was moved to 1 November by Pope Gregory III, most likely as an attempt to Christianize the Celtic holiday. The night before, Christians would pray and fast in preparation for All Saints Day, and that time became known as All Hallow's Eve. ( The rest under here )

I'm sad we won't really be celebrating outside the house this year. Our neighbors actually had a huge party which made me super uncomfortable just b/c I could see all the cars and people mingling close together - and the kids even tried trick or treating at our place. I didn't even buy any candy, given that Trick or Treating had been cancelled. But at least there has been plenty of time for spooky movies.

The Addams Family (1991): I can't believe I haven't watched this film until now! SO wonderful. I loved everyone, I loved the aesthetic, I loved how much Gomez and Morticia love each other. No wonder this is a classic.

Hereditary (2018): This movie was a LOT. The first 3/4 of it was a study in severe trauma, which made it super hard to watch. There's one graphic scene that was absolutely horrifying and will stay with me, but not in a good way. I thought the ending was very weird and didn't fit with the beginning of the film, but I thought about this one for awhile after. I would not watch it again, that's for sure.

Beetlejuice (1988): Another classic that I'd never seen, but very fun. I laughed a bunch of times, especially with the office scenes and Juno. The pacing was great, and it was so imaginative! Beetlejuice was actually creepy as hell, which was a good thing by the end. Lydia was my favorite, even though she was over the top. I adored the feel-good ending.

Fortune Cookie (2016): This movie seemed like a rip off of final destination? And it also had some racist parts :/ I did laugh at a bunch of the characters though, and the campiness of it was fun at first but then I had to fast-forward a bit. Definitely a low-quality film, but the simple plot gave me some fic ideas.

I've also been really enjoying the spooky horror-ish podcast Lore. I already devoured the Prime show, but I just found out there's also a podcast! Some of the tales the narrator explores are familiar ones, but I appreciate the way the narrator speaks and I also appreciate the length at ~20 minutes each.