Monday, October 31, 2011

The Noon of Night - The Shock and The Fright!


Aside from the Occupy Wall Street Kids, Halloween is celebrated one the Eve of All Saints Day - that's tomorrow a Holy Day - November 1st. The celebration of All Hallows E'en began in Ireland about 1,000 A.D as an amalgamation of the Celtic Samuin ( Sow-en)a harvest celebration with Pagan Druidic Rites absorbed by the Christian Faith.

Apples, pumpkins, bonfires, blessings, maledictions and especially dressing up and begging became associated with the night of the faeries, spooks, hags, goblins and zombies. Tales of the supernatural were spun by the imaginative and pranks were played upon cheap-skates and cranks.


Tonight, troops of kids and their parents will flood my streets from about 4- 7PM. They will be decked out as Captain America, Princesses, Glee Cheerleaders, Pumpkins, Vampires and Batman.

I have bowls of Kit-Kats, Three Musketeers, M & Ms, Milky Ways, and Tootsie Rolls ready for the throng.

From my front porch, I will with throaty theatricality give out with hoary verse, as well as dispense Dentist Ammo.

Here is my favorite from the Cavalier/Metaphysical poets

The Hag

Robert Herrick (1648)



The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.



Spooky? Wait til the neighbors see me in my Mark Spitz 1970 rig out!

Hickey in a Speedo . . . shudder, quake and howl!

2 comments:

Marianne said...

I'll be looking for your Milky Ways. And keeping my eyes diverted of your Speedo. Happy Halloween!

pathickey said...

The bowl shall brim with Milkey Ways.

This year, I eschewed Snickers, as I learned that many young 'uns in the Hood are allergic to peanuts.

I bogarted a bag of Three Musketeers and they will not make an appearance short of a shortage.