It is officially Halloween month and I look forward to all of the Halloween-themed activities and energy that the holiday brings.
To start off the month, I thought it would be fun to answer some Halloween-related questions a.k.a participate in a Halloween Tag.
I found these questions from Anne with a Book’s website.
A Bit of Halloween History
About 2,000 years ago, in areas that are now known as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, there was a group of people known as the Celts who believed that on the night of October 31, the day before their new year (November 1), the border between the living and the dead became blurred and that the spirits of the dead roamed the earth.
As part of their beliefs, the Celts celebrated an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain on October 31, the day known as All Hallows Eve. To commemorate the event, the Celts would light huge sacred bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic gods. They also wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins. They would extinguish their fire sometime during the festival, and by the end of the festival, they would re-light it as it was believed to help protect them during the coming winter.
Halloween in the Americas was initially common in Maryland and the southern colonies. Eventually, as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The early celebrations of Halloween were to honor harvest season, and were known as “play parties,” and neighbors shared stories of the dead, told each other’s fortunes, danced, and sang.
In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with millions of Irish immigrants, which helped popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. By the late 1800s, there was a move to make Halloween into a holiday that focused more on community and neighborly get-togethers than on ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween became a household festivity that focused on games, foods, and costumes. Many themes of horror and grotesque were soon removed, thus Halloween began to lose most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1920 and 1950, the practice of trick-or-treating was revived as it was a relatively inexpensive way for a community to celebrate Halloween.
Today, the day of the Samhain Festival is popularly known as Halloween and is celebrated annually on October 31. It is a day when people commonly go trick-or-treating, carve jack-o-lanterns, have festive gatherings, wear costumes, and eat treats. It is estimated that Americans spend about $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second-largest commercial holiday after Christmas.
SOURCE: HISTORY CHANNEL
The Halloween Tag
1. Favourite horror or Halloween-themed song?
As obvious as this is, my favorite has always been Michael Jackson’s Thriller. (Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters comes in close second.) Check out my Spooky playlist full of Halloween-themed tracks.
2. Name something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark forest or in an abandoned building.
I would not want to run into a graveyard (or a murderer’s burial grounds), some sort of cult gathering, a wild carnivorous animal, and someone who is not mentally sane.
3. Have you ever played with a Ouija Board?
Nope, and I never will. This is one thing that, even if I was a skeptic, would not want to mess with.
4. Favourite horror monster or villain?
If we’re talking about a monster/villain I would love to be friends with, I am going for Frankenstein. If it’s a monster/villain who is a favorite because they were able to give me nightmares, the award goes to Annabelle the doll.
5. The creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?
Oh boy, I will never forget this experience. This encounter happened at my single-story house when I was a pre-teen. This house was right next to a Taotaomona tree, a tree that is believed to be the spirits of ancestors of the people from the Mariana Islands.
One afternoon, while my parents and our other neighbors were at work, I was at home folding clothes. All of the windows were open, including the one facing the Taotaomona tree. While I was folding, I took a glance towards the side window where I saw a guy walking by it. I hurriedly put what I was folding down and looked outside the side window. I didn’t see anyone.
I rushed to look out the window facing our front yard and saw no one either. There was no way that someone could disappear that fast especially when our front yard was pretty big, and I would have had a chance to see him still walking through it when I looked. And we were also in a gated property, so he couldn’t have easily slipped away to the sides.
He had tanned skin, had black hair, was built, clean-shaven, and…shirtless. I do not know if he was in his birthday suit because my window only caught down to his waist. When he passed by, he was only looking forward, so I didn’t get a chance to see his full facial features as well.
I kept my side window open every now and then while we still lived there, but whoever he was, that day was the first and last time I ever saw him.
6. If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?
I pretty much have spent the night in a “haunted house.” Living on a small island where a massive world war occurred leaves no question that hundreds of lost souls are still wandering the island. Some houses may show more supernatural activities, and one of these houses belongs to a close friend of mine. Their house was a home for the supernatural. Though my friend and members of her family experienced dozens of bizarre activities in that house, I do not remember being a target for any of those activities. I do remember constantly feeling like someone was watching me whenever I was in that house.
7. Are you superstitious?
Yes, but not to the extent that I allow superstitious beliefs to run my life. Some beliefs I often follow are “knocking on wood,” and “not walking under ladders.”
8. Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?
Quite often, but I like to tell myself that it’s my brain messing with me, especially when I take a closer look and find it to be something like a plant.
9. Which urban legend scares you the most?
Nowadays, I enjoy reading about urban legends and learning about the various beliefs around the world. But if I had to choose one urban legend that has kind of stuck with me since I first heard about it, it is the legend of the Tiktik, a creature from Philippine folklore. The Tiktik is said to be attracted to pregnant individuals as its scent resembles a ripe jackfruit. The Tiktik finds a small opening through the roof, sticks its extremely long tongue to the pregnant belly, and feasts on the fetus.
10. Do you prefer gore or thrillers?
Thrillers. I prefer having my mind and heart racing and working to figure out what’s going to happen next. Gory storylines are more stale, and repetitive, and often make me lose my appetite the more I watch them.
11. Do you believe in multiple dimensions or worlds?
It is always exciting to believe in multiple worlds and hope that they are hiding somewhere. If there are worlds that I do believe more than others, they are Heaven and Hell.
12. Ever made a potion of any sort?
I actually do not think that I have. Nothing is coming to mind at the moment at least.
13. Do you get scared easily?
It depends on my emotional state. Often when I am stressed or anxious or just have a lot going on, I jump at just the slightest movement around me.
14. Have you ever played Bloody Mary?
No, and this is something I also would not dare to try. I have seen many supernatural movies to trust that there are just some things to not mess with though they may seem pointless and harmless, could actually be dangerous and deadly.
15. Do you believe in demons/the devil?
I believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Mama Mary, so I do believe the devil exists as well.
16. You’re home alone but you hear footsteps in your house, what do you do?
I’d lock the door to the room I’m in, call the police and quickly whisper that someone is in my house and have someone come over, find whatever weapon I can find in the room I’m in, think about escape options/routes, and see where to go from there.
17. If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
The Haunted Mansion (2003). The first time I watched it, I actually wanted to be in that world. I think I even got one of the singing heads toys from McDonald’s Happy Meal. Plus, it’s a scary movie I think I have a pretty good chance of surviving.
18. If you could only wear one Halloween costume for the rest of your life, what would you be?
Oh, a witch. I was always fascinated by witches and dressed up as a witch for a couple of Halloweens when I was a kid.
19. Would you ever go to a graveyard at night?
I think I would try it at least one time. I would just walk around the graveyard, and nothing more.
20. In a zombie apocalypse what is your weapon of choice?
Oh, can it be a pair? I would like to use a bow and arrow. It is a silent killer from a distance.
21. Would you rather go to a Halloween party or go trick or treating?
I do not mind going to either, especially if the Halloween party would be more like a small get-together of 10 people or less and we would eat delicious foods and treats, play some Halloween-themed board games, and watch some Halloween-themed movies. And I am sure there will be places for adults to go trick-or-treating, and I do love my sweets.
22. You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final girl, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart one, or the killer?
I would be the observer. I would often be quiet, but I would also try to take note of everything, help whenever I could, put in my two cents whenever needed, and then be in at least the top three survivors (or at least the third to last to die).
23. Do you have to watch something happy after watching a horror movie so you can go to sleep?
It depends on the level of horror I watched. The more supernatural it is, the more I would opt to watch something light afterward.
24. Whilst watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with their eyes covered the whole time, or the person who falls asleep?
I used to be the person with their eyes covered the whole time, but when I got the courage, I became the person who yells at the characters.
25. Are you the one who gets scared, or the one who does the scaring?
I do get scared, and I also scare. My kind of scaring are just hiding behind something and jumping out when the person least expects it.
26. Favorite scary book?
I don’t think I have read many scary books to even remember one standing out as much to be my favorite.
27. How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?
I was probably around 9 years old when I saw my first horror movie. I am basing this off of what I think my first horror movie was – The Grudge, which came out in 2004.
28. What was your first Halloween costume?
As far as I can remember, my first Halloween costume was a witch, with green hair.
29. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?
I am not sure if I’ll be able to dress up for Halloween this year. I do know that the next time I dress up, I would want to be Hinata from Naruto, and hopefully, I will be with a partner who will dress up as Naruto and we can go as the couple from my favorite anime of all time.
30. If you could have a spooky Halloween pet (black cat, owl, bat, rat, wolf), what would you pick?
Oh definitely an owl. I find them to be beautiful, majestic creatures who have this aura of wisdom within them.
The Halloween Tag Questions
If you would like to participate in the tag, here are the questions!
- Favourite horror or Halloween-themed song?
- Name something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark forest or in an abandoned building.
- Have you ever played with a Ouija Board?
- Favourite horror monster or villain?
- The creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?
- If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?
- Are you superstitious?
- Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?
- Which urban legend scares you the most?
- Do you prefer gore or thrillers?
- Do you believe in multiple dimensions or worlds?
- Ever made a potion of any sort?
- Do you get scared easily?
- Have you ever played Bloody Mary?
- Do you believe in demons/the devil?
- You’re home alone but you hear footsteps in your house, what do you do?
- If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
- If you could only wear one Halloween costume for the rest of your life, what would you be?
- would you ever go to a graveyard at night?
- In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?
- Would you rather go to a Halloween party or go trick or treating?
- You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final girl, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart one, or the killer?
- Do you have to watch something happy after watching a horror movie so you can go to sleep?
- Whilst watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with their eyes covered the whole time, or the person who falls asleep?
- Are you the one who gets scared, or the one who does the scaring?
- Favorite scary book?
- How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?
- What was your first Halloween costume?
- What are you going to be for Halloween this year?
- If you could have a spooky Halloween pet (black cat, owl, bat, rat, wolf), what would you pick?
Let's Chat!
Leave your answers to these questions below or comment a link to your Halloween Tag post!
