Some Halloween Related Deepdives
No One Knows How Big Pumpkins Can Get — The Atlanic
Want to grow a pumpkin that weighs more than some cars? A pumpkin in the wild can grow up to 200 pounds. Competitive pumpkin cultivators produce massive pumpkins weighing nearly 3,000 pounds.
How Our Ancestors Inspire our Hallowe’en Celebrations Today — The National Museum of Ireland
So we all know that many Hallowe’en customs are inspired by the old Irish ways of celebrating Samhain. Find out all about those old customs, many of which you might recognise.
Aren’t those turnips terrifying though? Can you imagine walking down a bóithrín, on a misty Hallowe’en night, in a time before electrical light, and you see one of those lit-up turnip heads, which must have looked like it was floating in air when held by someone dressed in dark clothes on a pitch black dark night… Can you imagine?
The History Of Hallowe’en, From Mysticism To Mayhem — British Vogue
This explores the evolution of Halloween, tracing its origins from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain to Christian traditions, to the American celebration which was at some points more chaotic and mischevious than today’s more sanitised and commercialised holiday.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
When I first came across the The Grass Snake of the House, I had this idea of retelling folktales from each European country. I thought of unusual tales I’d heard in my childhood. And immediately I thought of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
As I remember it, a strange travelling Piper rids the town of Hamelin of a plague of rats by making them follow his music out of the town to their doom. The town then neglects to pay for this service. The Pied Piper returns and makes the children dance their way out of the town to the tune he plays them. It’s a really odd story.
What’s even odder is that it relates to a real tragedy that befell Hamelin many centuries ago. And rats likely had nothing to do with it. Children (or perhaps townsfolk) were lost or died, it seems, but the details of exactly how have been lost to history.
I find it a really haunting mystery. Because I think the tragedy must have been so painful that people didn’t speak of it. So the details were lost but the ghost of the tragedy remained.
I’ve unfortunately lost original deepdive I read about this. That article wasn’t sure about the number of people lost, whether they were adults or children (it said German towns often referred to their townsfolk as the town’s children), or when exactly the tragedy occurred. But I think it was certain that a dancing plague was to blame. And that sent me off looking into dancing plagues — which is why I completely forgot about fairytales.
I don’t have the link to that article. But I found two articles for those who are interested in hearing about this very real and obviously tragic … mystery.
