It’s my favorite time of the year, SPOOKY SEASON! 

Have you ever thought about the origins of Halloween, why we dress up in costume, beg for candy, carve jack-o-lanterns and bob for apples?

Listen in for a short history of the origins of Halloween, where it is celebrated and where it is ignored. 

Drink of the week….Blood and Smoke

Link to the recipe

If you liked what you heard today, please leave a review and subscribe to the podcast. Also, please remember to share the podcast to help it reach a larger audience.

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If you've listened to this podcast for any period of time, then you know

that I absolutely love spooky season.

Horror stories, things that go bump in the night.

And all things Halloween.

For the past two years, I've shared listener, ghost and paranormal stories

from ice special spooky Halloween episode.

And this year, I'm changing things up a bit.

If you know me, you also know that I love history and uncovering the

origins of traditions and practices.

Welcome to episode one 16 of this shit works a podcast dedicated to

all things, networking, relationship building and business development.

I'm your host, Julie Brown professional speaker.

Author and networking coach.

And today I am digging into the history of Halloween.

Last month at the monthly neighborhoods, solo stove, cocktail and dinner partying.

Th this is a tradition that started in the beginning of COVID as a way for us all to

stay connected and spend time together.

We all bought solo stoves.

Cause we were all doing the shit outside.

We talk about a lot of things at these gatherings and yes, we even

have traded a ghost story or two.

If you can believe it.

My neighbor's eight year old daughter, Ellie has a knack for coming up

with scary stories that girl could spin a fucking weird yarn of horror

stories together with almost no prep.

It's like she's the next Stephen King or something?

One of our neighborhood crew is from Australia and she and her husband and kids

are moving back to Australia for a couple of years to spend time with her family.

As we were talking about the differences between living in

Australia and the United States.

She mentioned that what she was really going to miss is Halloween.

What I said you don't celebrate Halloween in Australia.

I guess with October being their springtime Halloween, isn't really

a her family in Australia actually thinks it's weird that here in America,

her kids dress up and then walk around the neighborhood begging for candy.

A little side note here.

I love Halloween so much that we are the hosts that gives

out the full-size candy bars.

Not bragging or anything, but we're kind of a big deal in the neighborhood.

At least on that night.

Anyway.

That conversation got me thinking about Halloween and

why some countries celebrate.

Halloween and some don't.

So I did a little bit of research.

And I thought I would share some of its origin stories with you.

Halloween traditions in the west date back thousands of years to the festival

When the Celtic new year's festival.

The name means summer's end.

And the festival marked the close of the harvest season

and then the coming of winter.

The Celts believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and

the dead were thinnest at this time.

And so the dead could return and walk where they had before.

Further, those were died in the past year and who for one reason or another

had not yet moved on would do so at this time, but could interact with the living.

People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off the ghosts

that were walking among the living.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory the third designated November

1st as a time to honor all saints soon, all saints day incorporated.

Some of the traditions of Sao By 43 Ady the Romans had conquered most

of the Celtic territory and brought their own fall festivals with them.

There October celebration called for Raleigh.

Leah also.

So commemorated the passing of the dead.

Another holiday Pomona.

I honored the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

This could be one reason.

People often bobbed for apples during Halloween festivities.

So how do we get from religious festivals to dressing up as buzz

light year and begging for candy?

Well, It began when many people were said to dress up as saints and recite songs

or verses door to door, children would also go door to Asking for sole cakes.

Uh, treat similar to biscuits.

Technical note, soul cakes originated as part of the all

souls day holiday on November 2nd.

Yes.

Uh, third holiday for the Halloween.

But eventually that all became part of Halloween night as the

concept evolved into trick.

We're treating.

The candy.

Grabbing concept also

Came mainstream in the United States in the early to mid 19.

Hundreds during.

Which families would provide treats to children in hopes that they would

be immune to any holiday pranks that the little fuckers might pull on

As for the costumes they evolved to while they began his earnest tributes to the

saints and all saints day, that tradition.

I fell Over at some point And then young, Scottish.

And Irish prankster has got the idea to dress up and scary looking garb as

a way to spook unsuspecting neighbors.

And just like that.

Thanks to local hooligans.

Halloween costumes became scary.

Spooky.

Funny creative.

All of the above.

Now.

There are lots of other things that we associate with Halloween that we

can trace back to Caltech rituals.

Like.

That's the Druids SALWAN bonfires attracted bugs, which in turn

tempted bats to come out and enjoy a tasty little night meal.

In later years, various folklore emerged citing bats as

Harbinger's of death or doom.

I Nova Scotia mythology, a bat settling in a house means the

man and the family will die.

If it flies around and tries to escape, a woman in the family will perish instead.

Listen.

I for one love bats, the eat up all the nasty critters

During our monthly soloist of gatherings.

I love to look up in the sky and see the bats.

Zooming are all around.

I'm cool with that.

As long as they stay out of my house.

What's more quintessential Halloween, then Shaq lanterns.

Well that traces its roots back to the celtic times Back when waves

of Irish immigrants left their country during the potato famine.

The newcomers brought their own superstitions and customs.

Comes to their new homes Here in the United States.

Including check lanterns, but back then they carved them out of turnips potatoes.

And beets.

Instead of pumpkin's.

Aye.

I'm glad that we do pumpkins and.

Not potatoes and It beats just saying.

So it's are derived from ancient festivals and religious rituals.

Halloween is still widely celebrated today in a number of countries around

the globe countries, such as Ireland, Canada, and the United States.

But not every country has adopted Halloween and mainland

China, the middle east, most of Africa, the Caribbean Russia.

And like I mentioned, at the top of this episode, Australia, it's generally just

Now.

Halloween doesn't hold a candle.

In my opinion, to El DIA de Los Muertos, the day of the dead.

A colorful fusion of traditional indigenous customs and European traditions

to DIA de Los Muertos is a two day celebration of ancestors and deceased.

Uh, tradition that honestly deserves its own episodes.

I'm not going to cover it too much in particular, in this

episode, other than to say.

That it is a way to honor the dead Mary j andrade a journalist and author

of eight books about the day of the dead says People are really dead when

you forget about them and if you think about Then they are alive in your mind

They're alive in your As someone who has experienced a tremendous amount of

loss in the past year and a half i love the tradition of the day of the dead and

remembering those we lost Claudio alumni.

It's an anthropologist at columbia university and author of death and the

idea of Mexico says that one reason why more and more people are taking part

in dia de los muertos celebrations Now.

Is that the holiday addresses a reality that is really acknowledged

by modern cultures The reality is our own mortality So Interesting Anyways i

just love halloween and i love sharing the histories of it with you No

episode would be complete without a drink of the week and this drink of the

week comes from a super fun cocktail book that was actually suggested to

me by a previous guest on The mayor.

Who was on way back at the beginning of this podcast talking about Intuition

The book is called taro of cocktails 45 divine drink recipes and the first

drink right out the gate first drink is blood and smoke yes sounds perfect for

halloween here's what you're going to need one and a half ounces of NES Cal.

One ounce of blood orange juice half ounce of dry for Muth and half ounce of

maraschino liquor what you're going to do is you're going to shake everything

together in a shaker with ice until chilled and needed you're going to strain

into a coupe glass now i was watching a program the other day and the guy

pronounced it a copay glass Any of you know if it's coop or copay let me know

i'm just going to call it a coupe glass What are you going to do is poured into

that glass and then garnish with a twist of blood orange so All right friends if

you want more julie brown you can connect with me on linkedin at Julie brown bd just

mention where you found me you can follow me on insta julie brown underscore bd or

you can contact me via the work with me page on my website julie brown bd.com as

always if you liked what you heard today please leave a review and subscribe to the

podcast also please remember to share the podcast with your friends to help it reach