Halloween Revisited

Double, Double, Toil & Trouble . . .  Shakespeare, Stonehenge and Miss Louise

She loved fall "wood walks," teaching literature, presiding as head librarian and polishing her antique school bell  . . .  an antique long before she was.

Mightily, Miss Louise quoted Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales in the Old English original, . . . and she would speak her favorite Shakespearean lines with pride, confidence and vigor. The Witches Spell from Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I:

Witch 1. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw . . .

Witch 2.  . . .Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adders' fork, and blind-worms sting,
Lizards's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All. Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire, burn; and, caldron bubble. . .

And then, she’d throw in the subsequent lines:

Witch 2. By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

@ No surprise, Miss Louise encouraged Mary and me to read Ray Bradbury’s book of the same title: Something Wicked This Way Comes, first published in 1963  . . .  just about in time for my pre-adolescence. She made sure we had plenty to read, the school library had multiple copies of top choices and that her students could order numerous books from the monthly Scholastic Press paperback flyer.  Remember those?

So, I went looking for Mr. Bradbury online and sure enough, found photos, including a 2003 one of him on a visit to the Playboy Mansion . . . with Hef at his side. No matter the setting, I was pleased to see him still alive.

@ Then, I set off on a late night trail, forging for a site with the history of All Hallow’s Eve, and found one called simply October. . .  Whereupon, on my screen came a Midwestern fellow and Acorn Press author, Mick Nichols (not the film director).

What led me to Mike is a page called simply October, with a list of links to pages with just about everything Halloween you’d ever want to know. Go there, by all means, and try a few. The link to Mike’s is first on the list, and this particular Mike Nichols, it turns out, has for decades taught courses on witchcraft in Missouri and Kansas. One knows they need it. He’s renown for both his expertise in witchcraft and his popular site, The Witches Sabbats. Worth the trip.  Mike’s "All Hallow’s Eve" brings an excellent overview, kicked off by a Bradbury quote from The Halloween Tree, another of Ray’s novels I favored in my youth.

@ The Celtic pagan elements co-opted by invading Christians upon reaching the British Isles have long been a fascination, accompanying an intuitive sense of ancestors dancing at Stonehenge. Those spirits welcomed Tonda and me on an early 90s visit to Salisbury and Avebury.  (I'd promised to take Miss Louise to England, but she got sick and we never did. So, that trip and one other, I made for her.)

Nichols explains All Hallow’s Eve as the great Celtic New Year’s festival, Samhain, signifying the end of summer, end of autumn, end of the old year and beginning of the new. Stonehenge, I think, would be the perfect setting. Check out the interactive ariel view using the preceding link.

@ Why’s October my favorite month and the Fall, my favorite season? Blasted heat finally breaks in the Mississippi Delta fields. Snow-like streams of cotton bolls, blown out of rolling bins pulled by tractors toward the gin, line the roadways. Turning leaves, like the startling golden maple at the intersection of Van Buren and University Avenue in Oxford, the new school year with it’s football and marching bands, and signals foreshadowing what we call the holiday season  . . .  inextricably bound with pagan elements. They are there, if one will pause and look.

October 31st conjures up memories of Halloween Carnivals in Culkin School’s gymnasium that would be documented if only the Vicksburg Post’s archives truly were online. Inside the gym, booths were set-up with what Mary and I thought were the largest sheets of paper (newsprint) we would ever see; and the long swirling magical orange and black crepe paper streamers, those we longed to touch and even smell. The old wooden gym, every inch painted blue and white for the Wildcats, came alive during Carnival evening, with chatter of children parading as witches, devils, scarecrows and skeletons (nothing about TV shows or movies); the buzz of hovering parents; the smiles and laughter of teachers and school volunteers exchanging coins in what would prove to be a significant fundraising event for the school. Mary and I discovered apples to bob, stuffed animals to buy, cupcakes and popcorn balls to munch, fortunes to be told, costume contests to win, cakewalks to walk, bingo to play and darts to throw.  (Cakewalk on YouTube)

Miss Louise and her senior class students operated the dart throw way back in the far corner of the basketball court. It was placed out of the heaviest stream of Carnival goers, and safer, should the throw of any juvenile dart expert go astray. It was my job to help her set up earlier in the afternoon before the actual fun began. She'd have me blow up balloons and separate the prizes into stacks. In her sweater pocket, she'd save one or two behind for my reward. 

What of my father, "Pop Sullivan," as he was known? During his years as a school district administrator, he made announcements and thanked the volunteers and patrons, as he called them. Well, I must admit . . . the truth is, he just totally ran the whole damn thing. The community loved him, no matter what I thought.

Those are the reasons I love October, and on that note, time to prepare for the annual show about to begin this evening, just down the street right here in San Francisco's Castro. I do wonder what Miss Lousie and Pop would have thought had they lived to see the carnival in my neighborhood . . .

                    (Three Witches Hard Cider Image)

                                                           (British National Heritage Trust Tourism Photo)

Posted by BettyS @ 6:00 AM, 10/31/05

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