Ladies, today is the day!

2016 is a leap year.  Leap year happens every four years.  This means that February has 29 days instead of the normal 28 days.  Check out my previous leap year blog for some other fun facts (has it been four years already).

According to old Irish tradition, on February 29th, a woman can propose marriage to a man.  All you ladies out there swooning over men like Norman Reedus, now have the chance to ask him to marry you ... it's legit today!

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This tradition is said to have started in 5th century Ireland.  Saint Patrick declared that women could propose marriage on this one day in February each leap year.

The tradition even made it's way to Scotland.  Around 1288 there was a law passed that would allow a woman to propose marriage to a man on February 29th.  If the man however turned down said proposal he would have to pay a fine.

It's fun to read about legends and folklore from the past.  We've come a long way since then.  In 2016 marriage is not just a man and woman coming together ... now a man can marry another man and a woman can marry another woman.

Ladies, if you feel the need to partake in an age-old tradition, get yourselves out there and pop that question!  

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I hope this blog finds each of you happy and healthy!  Happy Leap Day!

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Ghostly lights or just gas?

In Latin, ignis fatuus means "foolish fire."

Ignis fatuus

Ignis fatuus (also known as Friar's Lantern) is a phosphorescent light that hovers over swampy ground at night.  It's said to be caused by spontaneous combustion of gases that are emitted by rotting organic matter.

Other names for this are will-o'-the-wisp, jack-o'-lantern and friar lantern.

Will-o'-the-wisp

A will-o'-the-wisp is an incandescent flame often seen hovering over marshy ground at night.  These lights are often times explained away as ignited marsh gas.  There are a lot of different cultures out there that have accounts to contradict these theories.

Some cultures believe that these flames are marking locations of treasure.  While other cultures believe the phenomenon is intricately linked with a mischievous spirit carrying a lantern or a torch leading weary travelers astray into a marsh.

Jack-o'-lantern

A jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin most commonly associated with Halloween.   The top of the pumpkin is cut to form a lid.  While the inside flesh of the pumpkin is scooped out.  After this a spooky or silly image is carved into it to expose the hollowed out pumpkin.  Once you have the pumpkin hollowed out and carved, you place a candle or flickering-type light source inside the pumpkin to illuminate the carved image.

In English Folklore, the jack-o'-lantern is said to be associated with the term foolish light also known as will-o'-the-wisp. There are, however, endless folklore that surround the origin of the jack-o'-lantern.  They tell a story of a man named Jack and the Devil himself.  (A story for another blog . . .)

Another type of "ghost light" that is often talked about is a corpse candle.

Corpse Candle

A corpse candle is said to be a ball of light most often seen in cemeteries or churchyards and are thought to be an omen of death.  They are usually red, white or blue in color.

These balls of light are said to appear the night before a death.  The lights mark the route of the future funeral, from the victim’s house to the graveyard where it would then disappear into the ground at the burial site.

Corpse candles were not feared during Medieval times, they were welcomed.  It gave the dying person a chance to get their affairs in order, so to speak.  It gave them the chance to make peace with God.  If a dying person was to ignore the corpse candle, it was said they would have a bad death and their souls would end up in Purgatory for eternity.

So the next time you are out for a nighttime walk and/or drive and you see a mysterious light hovering somewhere, will you be curious enough to venture in its direction?!

Trick or Treat!

"Trick or treat . . . smell my feet . . . give me something good to eat . . . if you don't . . . I don't care  . . . I'll pull down your underwear."

Halloween is my all-time favorite Holiday.  I love everything about it; the candy, dressing up, decorations and decorating, carving pumpkins AND scary movies. 

Did you know that Halloween is fairly new to America?   It actually became popular in America in the early 1900s.  Originally called Samhain (which means summer’s end in Gaelic) it is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31st - November 1st.  This date was associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day from as early as the 8th Century.  And the secular customs that are now connected with Halloween have been influenced by both the Gaelic and the Catholic liturgical festival. 

It’s said, that during Samhain, the veil between our world and the spirit world is at its thinnest.  And the ghosts of the deceased can mingle with the living. 

Today’s Halloween traditions evolved from the ancient symbols of Samhain.  One example of that is Celtics carved turnips into skulls.  They placed these carved turnips in their windows to ward off evil.  This tradition evolved into today’s jack-o-lanterns.

Below are a few Halloween superstitions, folklore and a phobia:

• If you hear footsteps behind you while you’re walking on Halloween, DO NOT turn around . . .  if you do, you may be staring Death in the face.
• If you want to run into a witch on Halloween, a sure-fire way to do this is by wearing your clothes inside out and walk backwards.
• If you are born on Halloween, you will have the gift of communicating with the dead.
• If you feel a chill up your spine, someone is walking on your future grave.
• A medieval superstition that is still around today; doorbells, chimes or any type of bells ringing are supposed to chase away evil spirits.
• Walk around your home three times counterclockwise and backwards before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
• For the Ladies, if you carry a lamp to a spring of water on Halloween night, you can see your future husband in the reflection.
• Place a burning candle inside a jack-o-lantern on Halloween to keep evil spirits and demons at bay.
• Cucurbitophobia is the fear of pumpkins.

And here are some neat U.S. Halloween facts:

• Halloween is the Holiday when the most candy is sold.
• Halloween is the second most commercially successful Holiday; Christmas being the first.
• Halloween is the third-largest party occasion next to Christmas and New Year's Eve.
• There are approximately 25 million Halloween cards sold annually.
• The top four states for pumpkin production are Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California.

I'll end my blog with a short (but cute) Halloween poem:

"We mask our faces
and wear strange hats,
and moan like witches
and screech like cats,
and jump like goblins
and thump like elves,
and almost manage
to scare ourselves!"
~Author Unknown

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!