Upcoming Halloween

It’ll be October on Sunday donkeyfan… maybe October will put you in a more halloweeny mood.

It’s ok to hold off for a bit and take your time to set it up bit by bit as you find some time and inspiration. I like making a Halloween corner, too, but I don’t like to look at it for a month—it tires me out by the 31st, lol.

Last week I took all (or most of) my fall things out of storage and just plunked it anywhere. A couple of days ago I put things where they almost make sense, and realized I still have spring items out, so started putting them away. I got a couple of the mooncake items but I don’t quite know what to do to set it up in a cute way and whether any of the lunar new year things work with it?

In any case, I just don’t have an afternoon to spend a good chunk of time decorating the farm.

Hopefully in the next week or two I will. 😊

I came to the conclusion recently, I don’t like pumpkins.

But there are many nicely decorated Fall or Halloween themed farms out there already.

Hi @all,

hugs back from me. Your sympathy is really helpful. ❤️😘

Well, I think I need some days and after that I will go on. I can't ignore Halloween 🎃 for me, it's not possible. You're right, though. Sometimes a break is necessary to preserve the own health, mental and in general.

I find the subtle shifts and absorption/combining/evolution of cultures, language etc throught history to be interesting

Like the fact that blue used to be considered feminine and pink masculine

Or like the word Awe used to mean fear or dread but now means wonder and awesome is good whilst awful is bad

Our holidays are no exeption and Halloween as we know it now borrows aspects from a few different time periods

The celts way back in 1000bc marked the end of summer/harvest and start of winter/dark half of the year with the festival of Samhain (Sow-in) around Nov 1st making Oct 31st their new years eve

They believed that night before new year the lines between the worlds of the living and dead where blurred

They would extinguish their home fires and build huge communal sacred bonfires

It was customary to dress in animal skins and heads and attempt to read fourtunes

When the celebrations where over they would re-light their home fires using embers from that communal bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter

A thousand years later and there was 400 years of Roman rule, during that time the Roman day commemorating the passing of the dead and a day honoring the roman goddess of fruit who's symbol was an apple (likely where apples and apple bobbing started) where incorporated into the mix

After the Roman empire fell the Christians moved in and established All Martyrs Day, which became the feast of All Saints when it was moved from March to November which then became All Souls Day to honor the dead a couple hundred years later to better coincide with the existing Celtic celebrations and was similarly celebrated with bonfires and dressing up as saints, angels and devils

All Hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day)

The night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween

Apologies for the length 😆 and there are probably a thousand more nuances I've neglected to mention but knowing something of the origin, (of the why) piques my interest so may help yours 😁

Donkeyfan~
Maybe right now hanging with the Donkeys is enough
Don't rush it...sometime we need to just be.
💖 🫏 ❤️ 🫏 💙 🫏 💜
Know you are loved by us🚜

Dear member,

Kindly to your encouragement I tried to put me slowly in a Halloween mode. And...of course....I changed eventually my Avatar.

Happy 🎃!