Michele Storms Art From The Well
See you over at the challenge!
MANDY CHILVERS |
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MICHELE STORMS |
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VICKI ROMAINE |
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Heart Ornament by PETRA BERENDSEN: My second project is a little wooden heart which I altered with paint and lots of sanding and a wonderful image from your Red collage sheet. |
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Lotus Lady Tag by MICHELE STORMS |
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Two ATCs by MANDY CHILVERS using "Red" images. |
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MICHELE STORMS: Happy New Year! |
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MANDY CHILVERS: What a sweet bunch! |
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Don your sweater set and pearls and get cookin'! |
The celebration of Halloween was not widespread in the United States until the 1840s, when great waves of Irish immigrants arrived... ![]() bringing the ancient Halloween traditions with them. |
Everyone knows that Halloween is the night when ghosts and skeletons and all sorts of mischievous spirits and terrifying creatures come out to roam freely for a night in the world of humans! The ancient Celts, and probably some of our not-so-ancient Victorian ancestors, believed that on Halloween the spirits of the dead roamed the land of the living. The prehistoric burial mounds, the sidhs in Ireland, opened up and their inhabitants tried to lure the living to join them. According to some accounts, the spirits came out of the Cave of Cruachan in Connaught, called the gate of hell, accompanied by copper-colored birds who killed farm animals and stole babies and brides. | The Little Folk |
This was also the night on which the faeries were most powerful. In Irish folktales Halloween seems to be by far the most popular time for the abduction and bewitching of humans by these "little people." Those who had been taken away to fairyland could be rescued on the next Halloween by reciting a special spell or prayer as the fairies made their procession. Sir Walter Scott reported the belief that if a person circles a fairy hill nine times, counterclockwise, alone on Halloween, a door will open by which he can enter the fairy's abode. The Victorian vision of fairies was a bit darker than ours tends to be, and they were often associated with Halloween. In addition to sweet flower fairies, the Victorian Faeries or Fae included mischievous, impish creatures as well. |
The most popular way of celebrating Halloween in the United States seems to be playing the part of the supernatural beings supposed to walk the earth on this night -- by dressing as spooks who go from house to house demanding sacrificial treats, and by playing pranks! There are numerous explanations as to how "trick-or-treating" originated. The Druids (priests of the Celts) wore masks at their Samhain rituals to represent the spirits of the dead. Masks and costumes today are sometimes interpreted as a means of avoiding recognition by the spirits rather than a means of imitating them. In Scotland, some "guisers," as they were called, blackened their faces instead of wearing masks. This recalls the customs of blackening one's face with the ashes of the All Hallow's fires for protection and good fortune. |
Perhaps wearing costumes serves the purpose of letting us defy temporarily the boundaries of our everyday lives and "be someone else," perhaps act out parts of ourselves that we normally keep hidden. And so normally mild-mannered moms dress as exotic gypsy girls and ethereal mermaids and sexy witches -- or scary ones -- and children for a night are princesses and superheroes. Why then do some of us dress as werewolves and vampires and big scary monsters? One wonders what Freud would say.......... but it's probably all in fun! |
"Mumming" was a seasonal tradition in England and other parts of Europe, in which men donned masks and went from house to house demanding or begging for food. Although often fun and humorous, it was surrounded by a mystical and magical air, and performed a seasonal holidays such as Yuletide. | Yule | Yule, the Winter Solstice and longest night of the year, is the new year festival of another seasonal calendar, based on the solar equinoxes and solstices. The two calendars were eventually combined, and it is easy to see how some Yule customs could have become associated also with Halloween. |