Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Friday, 31 October 2025
Thursday, 31 October 2024
Magic Thursday: Halloween costumes!
Today as part of the Halloween festivities, we asked some of our DarkSiders: 'What would you dress up as for a Halloween party and why?'
Melanie Pickering
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| Edgey Red Riding Hood |
In no particular order, I've been to parties (coupled with my husband) as: Dracula and his bride, Dracula and Mina Harker, Red Riding Hood and the Woodcutter. And for Halloween Trick or Treating at my house, I've been: a swamp witch, the witch from Hansel and Gretel, a zombie bookstore owner, an asylum patient, an evil carnival clown, a pirate, and most recently the grim reaper.
I've also participated in a "haunted house" at my kids' primary school fete, where I was an undead screaming banshee rising from a real coffin. Bags of fun - the tweens loved it; the littlies, not so much 😂.
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| The Grim Reaper |
HM Hodgson
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| source: AliExpress |
I always bite off wayyy more than I can chew when it comes to costumes, and while I have no idea how to actually make the costume, I’d love to come as Yggdrasil, the world tree from Norse mythology. That was the idea that kicked off my debut book series, so it’d be cool to celebrate that, plus I’m also a bit of a tree hugger, so that would be sweet – maybe someone would come and hug me (cue meet cute idea!)
Dakota Harrison / (one half of) Angelica Grymm
I went to a Halloween party a couple of years ago and went as an evil ghost. Hubby was Dracula 😁.
I went to the REA cocktail party two years ago as a bloody and vengeful Red Riding Hood. I had that wolf’s head in a basket (pic below).
If I was to go this year, I’d love to go as Kai-125 from Halo. She’s a total bad-ass and I love her character. (Pic below) Or Starbuck from BSG. For the same reason. I loved Starbuck so much that I based my character in my new book that’s releasing in November on her.
Katrina Coll / Kat Chant
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| source: WikiFans |
As for me, I love the idea of taking vamp in all meaning of the word so who better to dress as than Morticia Addams? She is the queen of comebacks, always unruffled, supportive of her family, adored by her husband and never without something stabby. Like her, I own a carnivorous plant (although mine is a pitcher plant). Black is also one of my best colours!
Danni Line
I went to one such party recently at the dance hall where I’ve been learning ballroom dancing. Once a month, they hold a social dance night, and October’s theme was all things spooky. With dance parties, it seems costumes have some wiggle room. We don’t have to wear the traditional monster garb, ghostly sheets, or commercially available ghoulture. (I know. I went there. Sorry, not sorry.)
While guests adorned in these costumes delighted us in enacting their chosen character, other partygoers dressed up in different ways. My friends and I chose a less traditional option. We chose our outfits and added spooky accessories. I can’t say for sure ‘who’ we’re meant to be, but we all danced up a storm in our ’costumes’ just the same.
To match our various costumes, even the dance hall had transformed into a dwelling of gothic delights. Severed heads, mutated pumpkins, skeletons, pictures where the portraits’ eyes followed you around the room, creepy mannequins and questionable creatures filled the room. I’m just grateful there weren’t any giant spiders in the toilets.
Of course, we spent the night dancing, laughing, trying to guess each other’s spooky attire and who hid under any masks. Our dance teachers created a special dance to the Monster Mash, with a bit of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ thrown in, to which everyone danced. Some of us even themed our food, and I tasted a delicious pumpkin spice mudcake. Yum!
While Halloween’s origins involve celebrating the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (Sow-in), and some people still follow this blessing and traditional season change, and should be respected, there’s room for a little spooky fun, too.
Whether you’re attending a dance party, going trick-or-treating, respecting the old traditions, or simply enjoying the decorations, Halloween in Australia can offer a blend some amazing opportunities for creativity, and who knows? Maybe you’ll come up with your own ‘chilling’ dance. 😊
Eleni Konstantine
And what about me?
As a child of the 1970s and 1980s, I grew up with five strong women characters that I always wanted to be - Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Jamie (Bionic Woman), Wilma (from Buck Rodgers in the 21st Century), and Princess Leia (Star Wars). I remember grabbing a show bag of Batgirl that had the utility belt, a mask and cape and wore it around proudly.
So you'd think I'd want to dress up as one of these characters. Yes and no - first of all, I'm a plus sized girl so I don't feel comfortable in those tight fitting costumes. Jamie has a jumpsuit costume available but not really inspiring, and Princess Leia - hated that hairstyle. Maybe Wilma?
Still, if I were to go to a Halloween party today, as much as these heroines helped shaped my childhood, I would like a costume that looked okay on me and more 'Halloweeny'.
I checked out this store - Halloweencostumes.com.au and had fun looking at all the costumes. The great thing is they have a plus size section as well.
It was hard to narrow down the choices but here it goes:
Theodora Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz
Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street
Medusa from Greek mythology
Hmmmm.... I've picked villains. It looks like I want to go for something less goody goody and something more spooky. 🤣 Then again Theodora and Medusa have had adaptations where they are more likable and less villainous. Freddy, well he's just a bad dude and scary as hell.
How about you? What would you dress up as?
Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Monday, 31 October 2022
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Magic Thursday: Who Started Halloween? with Kat Chant!
Who Started Halloween?
Every year I see someone on social media complain “Ugh. I hate how we’ve all gone so American in celebrating Halloween.” And every year I find myself typing, “Well, actually, Ireland is the home of Halloween…”
That’s the TL;DR version.
To be fair, the origins of Halloween are under some debate. Plastic pumpkins, fake spiders, and door-to-door house calls for ‘candy’ are all the result of US commercialism and cultural influence, to be sure. Over the last fifty years, Halloween has grown into a big business.
It didn’t start out that way though. Before it became a store-stocking exercise before the lead in to Christmas, it was All Hallow’s Eve to most Catholics or Hallowe’en when contracted from Hallowed Evening. Pope Gregory IV is credited with decreeing the universal observance of All Hallow’s Day or All Saints Day in 837AD. The holy gloss applied nearly 1200 years ago, however, has worn so thin that the pagan elements no longer peek through but are to the fore.
The chief culprit behind Halloween are the Celts. But let's get specific here, because we’re not talking all Celts here (and even the term ‘Celts’ has its own origin issues). A super quick history lesson is needed.
Super Quick History Lesson
Ireland was nominally Christian around 500AD (St Patrick is generally held to have died around 460-493AD). A century later, Irish monks founded monasteries in the Hebrides off the Scottish coast. Soon after, Irish war chiefs established what became the kingdom of the Dalriada. Although this declined, by the mid-9th Century, the combination of a Viking invasion and dynastic ties of the ruling Pictish elites to Ireland brought about the dominance of the Gaelic language and culture. English mapmakers no longer referred to Pictland but Scotland.
Also about this time, what we now call Old Irish would have been the common tongue across Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man (with dialectal differences). Today, Irish is the native language of Ireland. Gaelic (GAL-ick) is the native language of the Highlands and islands of Scotland. (For those interested, Scots originated in the lowlands from a mix of Old English and Norse.)
Back to How Halloween Traditions Shifted from Europe to the New World
The roots of modern Halloween come from the Scots and Irish displaced by the Highland Clearances and the Great Famine to the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries. They took their traditions with them and adapted them to their new home. Carving turnips into jack’o’lanterns became a lot easier when using pumpkins. Trick or Treating used to be for apples and nuts and money. Tricks could include stealing a farmer’s gate, switching animals, or moving objects to/from someone’s property. Guisers went from house to house ‘in disguise’ with smeared faces, masks or by merely dressing in clothes of the opposite gender. In County Cork, like in Wales, dressing up as a White Mare using a horse’s head and a sheet happened until the late 1800s.
It’s easy to see how these traditions evolved to what we see and do today.
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| A plaster cast of an early 1900s jack-o’-lantern, known as a “ghost turnip.” |
There are many more we’ve lost.
Fortune-telling used to be a major part of the Halloween celebrations. To this day, in modern Ireland, you can buy Barm Brack. This is a round fruit bread sold with a novelty ring inside. Within living memory, this use to be home-baked and contain: a twig or matchstick, a dried bean or pea, a bit of rag, a coin and a brass ring. Find the ring and you’ll be the first to marry, but win the pea and you’ll stay single this year. The cloth? Well, you’re either for the church or the poorhouse. The coin meant wealth. The stick meant either a year of disputes or an unhappy marriage.
Images: Modern day Barm Brack in Ireland
Bonfires were held at crossroads across rural Ireland right up until the early 2000s. In Britain, this tradition was shifted out by five days and rebranded to become Bonfire Night (but that’s another story). The very first bonfire for Halloween is reputed to have been held at what is now the Hill of Ward, known as Tlachtga in Irish. The archaeological evidence for intense burning at this site dates back to 500AD. Geoffrey Keating's describes the fierce fire on a hill in Meath in his History of Ireland, written in the 17th Century. He tells how all household fires across the land must be extinguished that night, then renewed from the great fire from Tlachtga.
Games of skill such as bobbing for apples (in water or tied to a string) remain common, as is feasting—though the meals have changed. Mixed and mashed foods were especially popular: champ and colcannon in Ireland, mash o’ nine sorts in Wales, and champit tatties in Scotland. Oatcakes, griddle cakes and apple dumplings also featured.
What’s really behind these Halloween celebrations?
The pre-Christian festival underneath Halloween has roots going back to the festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-in in Irish and SAH-ven in Gaelic) or Summer’s End. NB. In Irish, the entire month of November is Samhain and Halloween is specifically Oíche Samhna (the eve of Summer’s End). In Welsh, Halloween is Nos Galan Gaeaf, or Winter’s Eve.
Regardless of the language, this event was the Celtic New Year’s Eve. Unlike our celebrations, however, the key time was not midnight but sunset, and not midwinter but the end of harvest and the year’s farming work. This is because the Celts believed darkness precedes light, therefore night preceded day and winter precedes summer.
Liminal times and spaces were important in the prehistoric era in a way our clock-run lives can’t fully appreciate.
Sunrise and sunset dictated the working day. The end of one year and the beginning of the next was an especially important time, hence the emphasis on predicting the fortunes for the new year. The dying of the light also meant the walls between the world of the living and the dead was at its thinnest, requiring the protection of disguises for safety and to scare away ghosts and the creatures of myth. Building a bonfire can be seen as an active threat to the darkness. This is the time of year when animals are slaughtered or brought in to shelters and passing them through or near fire was an act of purification.
Likewise, places that are neither water nor land—bogs and fens—were sacred. Trees, the bridge between earth and sky were also worshipped. But, most relevant to Samhain, are caves. These may be natural such as Oweynagat (pronounced Oen-na-gat and meaning 'cave of the cats’)—the legendary entrance to hell in local Irish folklore. Or man-mound hollow hills such as Maes Howe in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, and Newgrange, Loughcrew and Dowth in Ireland. The latter are not associated with Samhain but are the homes of ancient gods (diminished to fairies) in place-lore. Travellers are warned to be wary of going near any such fairy forts or caves at Halloween, lest they be lost forever in the Otherworld or Tír na nÓg (Teer-na-nohg).
Today in Ireland, bonfires again light the Hill of Ward where there is a major festival celebrating the Irish origins of Halloween, The Púca Festival. The ancient links to Samhain at Oweynagat are emphasised in a Halloween tour of the cave.
God of Summer
Angus McCraggan sacrificed his life to break the Celtic curse laid upon his people in the Bronze Age. He failed. Millennia later, he returns to modern Ireland to find his people have become feral, vengeful shadows. With his hollow hill now a tourist attraction, he uses his power to keep his past hidden.
Until an American calls him out…
Since a banshee attacked her as a teen, Erin De Santos has been tormented by dreams of a boy she's never met. Armed with a new identity, she returns to the Emerald Isle determined to face her nightmare. But her discovery turns fatal.
When the banshee strikes again, Angus surrenders his heart—and his hope of freeing his people—to save her. With his life now hers and his curse descending, Erin must make a terrible choice: kill her savior or share his doom.
Kat Chant
She and her family live in the heart of Ireland, surrounded by fields in forty shades of green.
Kat is a keen cook and often experiments with traditional farmhouse foods such as making bread, cheese, jam and liqueurs. She also decorates the occasional cake.
You can find Kat at her website: katchant.com
Sunday, 31 October 2021
Happy Halloween 2021!
Thanks to all of you who follow the DarkSide DownUnder blog and follow our authors. Hope you have a spookily fangtastic Halloween and remember even though we love the DarkSide, we have a light side too!
Thursday, 14 October 2021
Magic Thursday: Spooktacular Halloween Giveaway!
It's Spooktacular Halloween and few of our DarkSiders answered what they loved about Halloween or what their favourite Halloween read/movie/story was.
Samantha Marshall
My favourite thing about Halloween is all the fun spooky stuff that is out and about on a daily basis. I adore little ghosts and bats and vampires and all that kind of thing!
Fave Halloween read - every Halloween I sit down and read ‘The Bearenstein Bears and the Very Spooky Tree’ with my kids, because I used to love it when I was a kid!
Fave Halloween movie - The Nightmare Before Christmas
Fave Halloween game - Luigi’s Mansion (haunted house goodness!)
The thing I love most about Halloween is that this is a time when black cats reign supreme. Black cats get a bad rap, blamed for ill fortune by superstitious folk. I have been privileged to be slave to a number of house panthers over the years and have seen others shy away from them simply due to the colour of their fur. But instead of being harbingers of bad luck, my black cats have been a source of love and companionship, as have my non black cats. My current house panther/mistress, Justice, is the inspiration for Sadie in Spell Struck, and I love that at this time of year there are images of black cats everywhere so that people can see just how magnificent they truly are.
Efthalia
I don’t really like Horror on its own. It has to have a side of something like fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, comedy. Underworld is Fantasy Horror and is definitely my sort of thing. I have a lot of favourites that pop up around Halloween on the subscription services. Some that I have enjoyed are listed below. As I said, I can’t do just horror.
Favourites from the 80’s
The Burbs
Vampires Kiss
Heathers
The Witches of Eastwick
Ghostbusters
Beetlejuice
Favourites from the 90’s
The Crow
Sleepy Hallow
The Mummy
Practical Magic
Cape Fear
Misery
The Sixth Sense
Seven
Casper (kid’s movie) Lol.
Favourites from the 00’s
Shaun of the Dead
Zombieland
Twilight
There are heaps more but I can’t think of them all. Feel free to chime in and tell what your favourites are.
As far as books go, I went through a horror phase in my twenties and Stephen King was popular at the time. IT scared me and I refuse to watch the movie. Misery is the book that stayed with me after reading it. Really does hit home the crazy stalker fan theme, but a hundred times worse. Koontz was another but some books were hit and some a miss. I must admit I haven’t read a horror book in ages. Funny how you go through phases and stages.
Anna Hackett
We recently started a tradition of having a big Hackett Halloween party every year. There are lots of decorations, spooky-themed food, and the only requirement for guests is that they MUST dress up.
Everyone has a blast--both the kids and the adults!
In regards to Halloween reads, we’ll I’d have to say two of my favourites are in the upcoming A Perfectly Paranormal Halloween - Samantha Marshall’s Headless and Marnie St Clair’s Good Riddance. They are both fun, emotional, sexy and slightly spooky reads with really engaging main characters and amazing world building.
Eleni Konstantine
However, I do love the fun side Halloween can bring - fun movies like Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland, and of course the classic TV shows The Addams Family and The Munsters.
As part of celebrating Halloween here on the DarkSide, the above DarkSiders have provided an ebook each to be part of our Spooktacular Halloween Giveaway!
Samantha Marshall
Prince of Storms.
Lady of Shadows.
God of Chaos.
Bound in eternal servitude by forbidden magics, dark fairy Liria Atlannon has no choice but to follow her mistress across the seas to Egypt, where Princess Ione of Atlantis will marry the great Pharoah Taos and become Queen. All seems well until Set the Anarchist, god of war and chaos, tries to steal the Princess Ione from her own welcome banquet, forcing Liria to reveal that she’s not just a handmaiden; she’s a weapon.
As Commander of the Pharoah’s honour guard, it is Prince Raiden Horushood’s duty to defend his brother at all costs – even if that means facing down a god he has no hope of defeating. Nobody is more surprised than he when Liria, the softly spoken handmaiden who spends most of her time staring at floor, not only turns Set away but injures him in the process.
As Commander of the Pharoah’s honour guard, it is Prince Raiden Horushood’s duty to defend his brother at all costs – even if that means facing down a god he has no hope of defeating. Nobody is more surprised than he when Liria, the softly spoken handmaiden who spends most of her time staring at floor, not only turns Set away but injures him in the process.
With the threat of an unpredictable god hanging overhead, Raiden begs Liria to join the Pharoah’s honour guard. Whilst he’s fascinated by glimpses of a woman who is as intelligent as she is powerful, there isn’t time for charm – if they are to have any hope of protecting the Pharoah and his Princess, then he and Liria must learn to work together.
Though Liria aches to become part of something greater, self preservation dictates she stay far, far away from the vital, strong, and irritatingly handsome Prince Raiden. For if the warrior angel gets too close, he’ll discover that the biggest threat to Merged Egypt is not Set at all – it is Liria Atlannon, damned by the magic which shackles her soul, steals her free will and shapes her actions… until all that remains is a shadow.
Shelley Russell Nolan
Spell Struck (Book 1, Merry Magic)
Magic may be her undoing
When Merry inherits a bookshop from a grandmother she never knew existed, the last thing she expected was to be transported to another world. But while claiming her inheritance, she accidentally triggers a spell that takes her to Tirana; a world where magic is real, and where her grandmother left behind powerful enemies.
Now those enemies are after Merry, and she has to return home before they catch up with her. With the transportation spell broken, and mages and enforcers on her tail, she flees with her grandmother’s familiar, Sadie. But the black cat can’t save her when she draws the attention of the mage guild. On the run and searching for a way to remake the spell to take her home, Merry encounters dangers that may prove costly to both worlds.
Merry must learn to wield elemental powers of Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Spirit to have any hope of returning home. If she fails, she will be stuck in Tirana forever, while an ancient enemy may gain the foothold it needs to rid both worlds of magic for good.
Phantasia (Book 2, Phi Athanatoi)
Torn apart by separate missions, can their love survive an impending apocalypse?
Demigod ex-cop Carissa Alkippes is hellbent on clearing her father’s name. But when she’s sidetracked into saving Zeus’ life, she’s forced into a dangerous mission to locate missing deities. To find them, she must face a horde of bloodthirsty demons.
Xen Lyson shouldn’t dwell on Carissa when he’s supposed to be stopping demons from feasting on humanity. But the sexy vampire worries her solitary journey to Olympus will put her in grave danger. And with absent gods causing devastating natural disasters, he must trust her father, Ares, to keep her safe.
Anna Hackett
Edge of Eon (Book 1, Eon Warriors)
Framed for a crime she didn’t commit, a wrongly-imprisoned space captain’s only chance at freedom is to abduct a fearsome alien war commander.
Sub-Captain Eve Traynor knows a suicide mission when she sees one. With deadly insectoid aliens threatening to invade Earth, the planet’s only chance of survival is to get the attention of the fierce Eon Warriors. But the Eon want nothing to do with Earth, and Eve wants nothing to do with abducting War Commander Davion Thann-Eon off his warship. But when Earth’s Space Corps threaten her sisters, Eve will do anything to keep them safe, even if it means she might not make it back.
War Commander Davion Thann-Eon is taking his first vacation in years. Dedicated to keeping the Eon Empire safe, he’s been born and bred to protect. But when he’s attacked and snatched off his very own warship, he is shocked to find himself face-to-face with a bold, tough little Terran warrior. One who both infuriates and intrigues him.
When their shuttle is attacked by the ravenous insectoid Kantos, Eve and Davion crash land on the terrifying hunter planet known as Hunter7. A planet designed to test a warrior to his limits. Now, the pair must work together to survive, caught between the planet and its dangers, the Kantos hunting them down, and their own incendiary attraction.
Leisl Leighton
One pack, one coven, a destiny intertwined…
Five hundred years ago, facing extinction, a group of powerful witches united to create a pact with the Were to save witch-kind. The pact expelled an ancient evil, known only as The Darkness, that was blocking the Were from their wolves. With the Darkness destroyed, the Packs and their Covens grew strong as they thrived beside each other in their brand new world.
But the Darkness was not destroyed.
Skye Collins, has been brought up to fear her magic and shy away from Witch and Were alike. But when Jason McVale, the Alpha of Pack McVale, comes in search of her, she is intrigued and tempted. Her mistrust of magic and wariness of the intensity of passion she shares with Jason threatens her control – and if she loses control, she just might turn into the weapon The Darkness intended her to become all along.
Enchanted Dreams (speculative fiction short story collection)
Be transported to fantastical worlds in this collection of nineteen speculative fiction shorts of previously published works and new stories. From wizards to magic mirrors, dragons to ghosts, minions to goddesses, space ships to diamond slippers, there's an enchanting tale right for you.
For your chance to randomly win, please fill in our giveaway form by 31 October: https://forms.gle/zfs1dsGy59v4m9vr8
Happy Halloween!
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