Wordplay Wednesday™ October 14, 2015 – Jack-o-Who?

Jack-o’-Who? What?

You may think my choice for the fourth week of Weird Halloween Words is rather banal and too commonplace to be weird. Au contraire my little chickadees (a French tribute to relatives heading to Paris* this week!).

All About Pumpkins

JACK-O’-LANTERN (jakʹɘ lantʹɘrn): n. a hollow pumpkin cut to look like a face and usually illuminated inside as by a candle, used as a decoration at Halloween.

Few call it a Jack-o’-lantern anymore. That’s really a shame, because Jack-o’-lantern is way more creative and interesting than “Halloween pumpkin” – which we have come to assume is carved.

Using the name, Jack, probably stepped on someone’s politically correct toes, so the term fell out of favor. But what is a Jack-o’-lantern, really?

Wordplay Wednesday™ September 23, 2015 – HALLOWMAS Saints-Spirits

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #1

“Christmas” is preceded by “Hallowmas”?

HALLOWMAS (halʹō mɘs, -masʹ) n. former name for All Saints’ Day. [Think celebrating sainted spirits …if you lived through the night before hell.]

Painting by Guido di Pietro, 15^th century.

How former, you ask? It reaches back to somewhere between 731-741. And of course, All Saints’ Day is November 1, to honor … well … all saints. [Clever.]

Want to get in the mood? Melanie Rigney’s new book, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from the Stories of the Women Saints is especially appropriate; religious or not, Catholic or not, there is excellent life advice to be gleaned from it.

How does Hallowmas make the Weird Halloween Words list? It’s preceded by All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) on October 31, a night on which the veil between us and the afterlife is particularly thin.

 

Of course, we don masks so the menacing souls on “the other side,” won’t recognize us, as we feast in preparation for the next two celebratory days. Seriously – they won’t know it’s you under that Star Wars: the Force Awakens Kylo Ren helmet-head, or traditionally sexy Bat Girl mask. And then what happens ...?   

There is a Season ... turn, turn, turn ...

Mmmmm, I can almost smell the pumpkin drifting on a light summer breeze. 

Oh ... wait ... of course I can – they're already moldering at the store!

Yes, once again, commercialism jumps the gun – or rather points it at us and says, “Buy! Buy now! Before it’s too late!” Sigh. (And I mean "points it at us" in the most benign way – that I even need to explain it provokes another heavy sigh.)

So the stores roll the pumpkins into the aisles halfway through summer, when absolutely NO ONE wants to think about Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Some retailers barely acknowledge those two esteemed holidays, throwing us directly into Santa’s path for Christmas. Agh!!

Well, now, we finally hit the “Sacred first day of Consumerism” – the Fall Equinox. I say, let’s stop to smell the sweet, sticky scent of pumpkin pies and enjoy the short season of Fall, before fall-ing prey to visions of candy canes dancing in our heads.

What are PenQuips?