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Halloween is the Best-Damn Holiday EVER!!!

dingogirl said:
wore a sponge around his neck and stuck his driver's license in it.
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alfaniner said:
I don't understand this part?
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It sounds like a creative reference to this part of the crucifixion used as a method of carrying ID.
From the Gospel of Matthew 27:48
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
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EeneyMinnieMoe said:
Do your students know you talk like this, Mr. High School Teacher? :p
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Yes, I actually said both "ass" and "bulls hit" today in front of students. I feel no remorse, because they're teenagers of 17 or 18 years of age, and if they haven't heard such language yet then dammit it's about time they did! :D

Halloween is a magical holiday for adults and children alike- when it is done right. What a great and timeless holiday- when it's done right.
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Oh yes. And the more dark & gruesome the better :)
 
Mark A. Siefert said:
Oh! I agree, Halloween rules! :D

Each year my friends (yes, I have them, despite what others may claim) get together for a massive classic horror movie binge. This year the plan is a night of Vincent Price flicks; mainly his Roger Corman and William Castle stuff.

Of course, this doesn't top the all-night Call Of Cthulhu game--starting from 3 pm Halloween afternoon to 5 am the next morning--we ran about 10 years ago. Man, that was awesome! The party was stuck in a ghoul-infested island town and we had to fight our way out of a mansion full of the corpse suckers! The dice were with us that night, because only or party's priest (who was related to the degenerate ghoul family who's mansion we were trapped in) lost enough Sanity to have any permanent psychosis.

I'd love to try something like that again!
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Call of Cthulhu for the WIN!!! :D

I run a regular CoC campaign right now. Let me know if you're ever south of the border into IL and maybe we can hook up.
 
noblecaboose said:
You were born, sadly, in a country that doesn't celebrate it, in a hemisphere where it doesn't make any sense.

I miss Halloweeen.
Living in Australia means I get great public health care, a wonderful husband and as much 'roo meat as I can eat, but I have had to give up Halloween, the best holiday ever.

The thing that makes Halloween work is that it marks the time of year when the days start to get dramatically shorter.
Night comes early, shadows get longer in the afternoons as All Hallows Eve approaches. The shadows creep in and it seems you get home just in time to avoid getting caught by the dark. You light Jack o' lanterns to drive away these shadows and the neighborhood embraces the spirit by decorating their leaf strewn yards with scarecrows, skeletons, black cats and phony spiderwebs. You dress up in scary or clever or (as you get closer to adulthood) sexy costumes, revealing your "true self" or who you wish you could be. Children go from door to door harassing their neighbors for sweets. Every year you hope you don't run out of candy before the trick or treaters go to bed, lest your house be pelted with eggs or festooned with cascading rolls of toilet paper. The sweets are autumn themed treats like candy corn and miniature pumpkins, or else miniature packs of lollies or chocolates with special themed wrappers. Kids remember the houses with "good" candy and go home to sort out their loot while telling ghost stories, sipping hot apple cider or cocoa to warm their cold faces.
I love Halloween.

In Australia, October 31 is in the Spring, when the days are getting longer. There's no point in trick or treating when it doesn't get dark until after 7 and when the weather is starting to warm up rather than cool down. Sure, you can dress up, throw up a few plastic pumpkins in a half-hearted attempt to re-create a Northern Hemisphere tradition, but it doesn't make it Halloween.
This year, I'll be too busy giving birth to care. But if I do have my baby before Halloween, my mother is bringing a little pumpkin costume for the little bundle to wear for the occasion. I'll be sure to post a picture.
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Nominated, for one of the most beautiful written descriptions of the spirit of Halloween ever.

Thanks, NC :)
 
maddog said:
Well, it's not a "holiday" (meaning: a paid day off work); more of a "festival" (regular day, but one that has all sorts of feasts / parties / traditions / etc.)

But it's still kind of awesome. Noblecaboose nailed it, totally.

And darn right! kids keep track of which houses have the "good candy"!!! I always knew that I would have one of those houses!!! For a few years at each of two previous homes, I went out of my way to not only have the good candy, but to give multiple candy to kids with good costumes, and to tell them to remember to come back every year. :D

Now, I live a bit more rural, with a LONG UPHILL driveway. Not even one trick-or-treater in six years so far. :(
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Mega-bummer :(

I live in the suburbs, and we can get anywhere from 100-200 kids on Halloween trick-or-treating. I also make my decorations... interactive... which both kids and their parents love. The groups of teenage girls are my favorite - they just jump and squeal soooo nicely :D

But I have had to de-freak myself on numerous occasions, step out of the crypt, and come down to the sidewalk to give candy to the little kids who are too scared to come up to the house. I want to give them a good clean scare, not traumatize them - much :)
 
skullerello said:
And, next year, I promised the girls a sleep-over for their little friends where-in I wanted to stage a "real" seance. So, I want to do a Houdini-style, no light seance to confound these jaded teen-agers and pre-teen girls that'll make them question everything they've been force-fed by the local churches. I want to so completely shock them, shake them up and then reveal to them that it was all a gag perpatrated by me, that they all go away questioning their very beliefs. And maybe they'll think twice before swallowing any B.S. dogma promulgated by any church or any other institution, for that matter.
So, I need an outline. I want authentic Houdini techniques, and, if anyone else here has tried this, I want their reviews and methods.
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You sound like you need to talk to Mark Edward. PM me and we can talk.
 
I'm so big about Halloween that I actually take over one of the physics labs at my school for three days with The Haunted Physics Lab.

Me and the other two physics teachers take turns - each gets one day - to have all of our classes cycle through the lab, where they explore a variety of creepy & weird demonstrations that go through some of the more esoteric physics concepts we'll be covering in the course of the year. The students are encouraged to play around with the equipment, take notes, ask/answer questions, solve puzzles, and generally play while exploring different areas of physics. I also take the opportunity to put together some demos debunking various woo, such as Ouija boards, pareidolia, and (new this year) "ghost detectors".

The Haunted Lab is a huge hit every year, hundreds of physics students go through it and many more non-physics kids drop by during free periods, lunch, or with other teachers who want to give their kids a little treat. It's not uncommon for some staff members, including the senior administration (principle and even superintendent) to come by for a visit.

The downside: it is a HUGE pain in the ass to set up and maintain. It's not uncommon for me to easily put in about 8 hours worth of work in setting it all up, even though the vast majority of the material & equipment is already in my room somewhere. So, to make my life a bit more sane, the day before I take my class to the Lab, I show them Randi's "Secrets of the Psychics" video (with a notesheet) so that I can gather equipment, quietly check things in the back of the room, and generally get prepped. I don't usually like to show hour-long videos in class, but that one is a must see, and what better time of the year to do it?

I LOVE Halloween :D
 
noblecaboose said:
What mean you by this? Thanks Australia? Have you mistaken me for A? Confused. :confused:
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I think he was signing his name at the end. Thanks, jasonpatterson, for instance. Except his screen name is Aurelian, and he felt an inexplicable need to abbreviate it. :)

Arthwollipot:
My daughters, who are only 2 and 3 years old, were both completely jazzed about picking out costumes. It's fairly cold here (supposed to snow tomorrow) and so they are going to be well insulated pink butterflies. Since we got their costumes (I didn't feel like making one this year) they have wanted to wear them every single day. I let them wear them to the market and they got treats from random strangers at the checkout just by looking cute. (Great lesson for kids everywhere, "Take the candy, you can probably run faster than the strangers can!") That's what a kid sees in Halloween. A fantastic costume, tons of candy, walking around at night, meeting strange people and having fun. It's kind of like caroling at Christmas, except that you get something decent instead of stanky punch, and you get to wear a costume.

A tip for kids everywhere:
Early in the evening, look for a block at the end of a street where there are only one or two lights. Most parents won't want to walk their kids down an extra block for a single house, so they get skipped. If you show up near the end of the night, about half the time they'll give you a HUGE load of candy. It doesn't always work, but they've got extra candy that they don't want sitting around tempting them, and it's a fair bet (even odds or better) that you'll get the payoff if you're polite.
 
Arus808 said:
Quite awesome. Post pics when you can


Do you have a 501st Legion group that you belong to?



Also this may tickle you a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfiEi_ywj8 (starts around 3:10)

Last years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkTQwP2gFxU
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Pic of Full Outfit:
vader2.jpg


And yes, I am indeed a member of the 501'st.
 
Shalamar said:
Pic of Full Outfit:
[qimg]http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh180/Shalamar01/vader2.jpg[/qimg]

And yes, I am indeed a member of the 501'st.
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sweet....I still have my many year old plastic darth vader costume that I got when I was 6 years old...first costume to ever wear. im a pack rat.


though, not as nice as the one I have now...too bad that I dont have a boyfriend to wear it...:(
 
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