Vietnamese Folklore' Nguoi Rung The Wild Man

Nguoi Rung, The Rock Ape of Vietnam 👣

 During the Vietnam war many soldiers stationed there had sightings or encounters with strange humanoid creatures that appeared human like at a glance but we're far more beast then man.

Locals called them Nguoi Rung," or  "wild man of the forest,"  the US soldiers called them Rock Apes because of there propensity for hurling rocks at them(often in retaliation for being shot at.)  There throws were said to be very strong and accurate even throwing back grenades sometimes.

No specimen was ever officially captured but there were several stories about sightings and attacks by these odd Cryptids. In some stores solders claimed to have killed one or more only for a he others to drage they're fallen comrade back into the forest.

Both American and North Vietnamese forces, claimed to have had encounters with these creatures,  most involving patrols encountering them on trails. 

One place ightings have seemed to have a lot of sightings was the mountainous jungles of the Central Highlands, especially around  (Dong Den Mountain) near Da Nang , also known as Monkey Mountain.

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The Battle of Dong Den..

A battle allegedly took place between the US Marines and a large group of Rock apes in the Quang Nam Province in 1966, at a place called  Hill 866 , In this account, a Marine unit was reporting to their captain that they had spotted movement in the jungle assuming it was the   Viet Cong. The captain told his unit over the radio hold there fire. Not long after, the unit reported back that, rather than Viet Cong, they were being surrounded by hairy, bipedal humanoid creatures.

The captain told the unit not to waste ammo by firing on the creatures, they should instead throw rocks. This however backfired, as the creatures began throwing the rocks right back at them. At this point, the Marines guessed there were hundreds of these creatures, far too many  to drive off by simply throwing rocks .

The Marines were told to change tactics and use their bayonets to fight the creatures. Soon after the order was given, the captain heard over the radio what sounded to him like an epic battle. Afterwards, men were sent out to investigate. The location was covered with injured—but not dead—Marines and allegedly the bodies of several Rock Apes. This became known as the Battle of Dong Den, though the only evidence of the event and the dead Rock Ape bodies littering the battlefield seems to be eyewitness accounts. What actually happened to the dead apes is unknown. In some accounts the other's would carry there dead back into the woods.

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The Rock Apes are basically a smaller jungle version of Bigfoot/ Sasquatch eyewitness accounts claim they were bipedal standing anywhere from four to six feet tall (smaller ones may have been younger member's of the group) with long brown or reddish fur and a stocky/ muscular build .

Some skeptic's claim people were seeing things because of extreme stress(and drugs) others claim what maller as witnessed was a small local monkeys like a gibbon which is nowhere near the size of what the rock apes are supposed to be.

But who really knows, most countries seem to have similar stories regarding Wild Men or human like apes that stalk the forest or mountains they can't all be simply seeing things ...

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Korean Folklore, Daltokki, the Moon Rabbit.

 

The origins of the Moon Rabbit myth can be traced back to ancient China, know as the Jade Rabbit. However Japan and Korea have similar talis of this immortal bunny. ( will have a post on the Japanese and Chinese version up  soon)

The Korean version of the Moon Rabbit starts with three animals—a rabbit, a fox, and a monkey they all share a similar goal to become the  embody of the virtues of Buddhism. To test their commitment, the Emperor of the Heavens  comes down  to earth and disguises himself as a  beggar, seeking food. The fox gives him a fish,  the monkey gives him some  fruit. But the rabbit, unable to find food, decides offer up himself as a meal and  to sacrifice himself by jumping into a fire. Moved by his act of selflessness, the Emperor appointed the rabbit as the guardian of the moon, immortalizing its noble act  among the stars and placing an image of the rabbit on the moon for All to see.

In Korean folklore, the Moon Rabbit, known as “daltokki” (달토끼), is often depicted standing beneath a gyesu tree (Korean laurel or cinnamon tree).

diligently pounding rice in a mortar to make rice cakes. 

The image of  Moon Rabbit’s Making rice cakes is heavily association with rice cakes with the Korean autumn festival called Chuseok. 

This holiday emphasizes family unity, gratitude, and the sharing of food, mirroring the rabbit’s virtues of selflessness and communal harmony. Families gather to prepare and enjoy songpyeon (half-moon-shaped rice cakes), reflecting the rabbit’s celestial activities and reinforcing the cultural importance of togetherness.There is also a  children’s song inspired by this hard working bunny  called “Half Moon” (“반달”), written in 1924 by Yoon Geuk-young.

In Chinese myths he is called the Jade Rabbit and is a friend) companion to Chang's the moon goddess, is job on the moon is to create the elixir of life. In the Japanese version he makes sticky rice cakes ( mochi).

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The  first version of this tail comes the second century. The earliest version was included in a Chinese  collection of poems  called  the Chu Ci. The poem in question suggested that during the Warring States Period (475 BCE–221 BCE), there was a mythical hare living on the moon and pounding herbs for celestial beings. In the 10th century, Chinese scholars compiled the Taiping Yulan, an ancient encyclopedia that also mentioned the hare on the moon. However there were no rabbits in China at the time, the original moon animal was the hare, and it was called “Jade Hare” or “Gold Hare.”

The earliest known version of the story in Japan appeared in the Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of ivery 1,000 poems written  into the Heian period (794–1185)

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The rabbit symbolizes  immortality, self-sacrifice, and the eternal cycle of life.

The Green Children of Woolpit

 

In old British Folklore there's a tale of two strange or even otherworldly children that suddenly appeared one day near the  village of Woolpit in Suffolk England.  

The kids wore odd cloths and  spoke an unknown language however the most noticable difference was there green skin.

As the story goes, One day   two children, a boy and a girl, were found near a pit, possibly a wolf pit/den, in the village of Woolpit in 12th century ..1135-1154 .

The sister seemed to be in better health then the brother.

At first they both refused to eat any food  offered to them besides broad beans , though they eventually,  learned to eat other foods, and soon after their skin became normal.

Not long after there discovery, the boy passed away. 

The girl later named Agnes adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be "very wanton and impudent". After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from a land where the sun never shone, and the light was like twilight. According to one version of the story, she said that everything there was green; according to another, she said it was called Saint Martin's Land.

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Full story, or at least the only two near contemporary accounts come from   William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum and Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicum Anglicanum, written in about 1189 and 1220, respectively.

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At harvest time one day during the reign of King Stephen (r. 1135–1154), according to William of Newburgh, the villagers of Woolpit discovered two children, a brother and sister, beside one of the wolf pits that gave the village its name.

Their skin was green, they spoke an unknown language, and their clothing was unfamiliar. Ralph of Coggeshall reports that the children were taken to the home of Richard de Calne. Ralph and William agree that the pair refused all food for several days until they came across some raw broad beans, which they consumed eagerly. 

The children gradually adapted to normal food and in time lost their green colour.

 It was decided to Baptis the children, but the boy, who appeared to be the younger of the two, was sickly and died before or soon after baptism.

After learning to speak English, the children—Ralph says just the surviving girl—explained that they came from a land where the sun never shone and the light was like twilight. William says the girl called their home St Martin's Land; Ralph adds that everything there was green. According to William, the children were unable to account for their arrival in Woolpit; they had been herding their father's cattle when they heard a loud noise (according to William, it was like the sound of the bells of Bury St Edmunds abbey and suddenly found themselves by the wolf pit where they were found. Ralph says that they had become lost when they followed the cattle into a cave and, after being guided by the sound of bells, eventually emerged into our land.

According to Ralph, the girl was employed for many years as a servant in Richard de Calne's household, where she was considered to be "very wanton and impudent". William says that she eventually married a man from King's Lynn, about 40 miles (64 km) from Woolpit, where she was still living shortly before he wrote.

Based on his research into Richard de Calne's family history, the astronomer and writer Duncan Lunan has concluded that the girl was given the name 'Agnes' and that she married a royal official named Richard Barre.

To this day nobody really know where he kids actually came from, one theory is that they were Flemish immigrants and the green skin could be due to chlorosis, a condition caused by iron deficiency, which would clear with a healthier diet. As it later did 

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The Hopkinsville Goblin's

 

Just over 70 years ago,a strange possibly extraterrestrial encounter took place on a rural farm in Kentucky.

On the night of August 21, 1955, five adults and seven children arrived at the Hopkinsville police station claiming that small goblin like alien creatures from a spaceship had been attacking their farmhouse and that they had been holding them off with gunfire "for nearly four hours". Two of the adults, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor, claimed they had been shooting at a few short, dark figures who repeatedly popped up at the doorway or peered into windows.

 The Kentucky New Era, the first paper to report the incident, increased the number of creatures to "12 to 15," and this continues to be the number most often reported.

The report of gunfire and unknown creatures triggered a large police response that included local city police officers,  state troopers, deputy sheriffs, and even four military police officers from the nearby United States Army Fort Campbell  to the Sutton farmhouse located near the town of Kelly in Christian County.

There were dozens of eyewitnesses to the incidents, which included two families present at the farmhouse and others in the area; other civilians, some of whom had no connection to the families and even one in another state. the witnesses also included several local policemen and a state trooper who saw and heard strange phenomena including unexplained lights in the night sky and noises the same night.

The family present in the farmhouse all claimed that they were terrorized by several creatures similar to gremlins, which have since often been referred to as the "Hopkinsville Goblins" in popular culture. 

The possibly otherworldly creatures were described as about three feet tall, with upright pointed ears, thin limbs (the beings' legs were said to be almost non functional or devolved, even in a state of atrophy), long arms and claw-like hands or talons. The creatures were either silvery in color, or wearing something metallic. ( Skeptics claim the witnesses were seeing large owls and simply mistook them for something else)

Their movements on occasion seemed to defy gravity with them floating above the ground and appearing in high up places, and they "walked" with a swaying motion as though wading through water. Although the creatures never entered the house, they would pop up at windows and at the doorway, waking the children in the house up to a hysterical frenzy. The families fled the farmhouse in the middle of the night to the local police station and sheriff Russell Greenwell noted that they were visibly shaken. 

The families returned to the farmhouse with Sheriff Greenwell and several officers, yet the occurrences continued. Police saw evidence of the struggle and damage to the house, as well as seeing strange lights and hearing noises themselves. The witnesses additionally claimed to have used firearms to shoot at the creatures, with little or no effect, and the house and surrounding grounds were extensively damaged during the incident. There are no known photographs of a Hopkinsville Goblin.

Fornax, Roman Goddess of baking

 

Ancient Rome is full of Gods and Goddesses for nearly every occasion or occupation.

Fornax is the patron goddess of baker's.

She is the goddess of ovens and baking, responsible for bread, buns, toast, muffins, and bagels. She was also essential for preventing burnt offerings and house fires. 

Originally, Roman ovens were used for toasting grain, while the  hearth was used for  baked bread. Though as ovens became more commonly used for baking instead of a Traditional Hearth , Fornax myth was eventually merged with the goddess Vesta. 

Fornacalia is a festival held in honor of Fornax, where grain is toasted for the salted meal mola salsa. 

Originally she was the patroness of bakers, and a goddess of baking. She ensured that the heat of ovens did not get hot enough to burn the corn or bread.

People would pray to for help whilst baking.

 Her festival, the Fornacalia, is  celebrated on February 17.

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 Vesta  is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion, most often depicted as a flame and on rare occasions in a human form.

More on her in a later post.

Japanese Folklore: Tamamo no Mae: The Nine tailed fox

 

 

 Tamamo no Mae, One of the strongest and most feared Yokai.




Tamamo  is one of the most famous kitsune (Fox Spirits) in Japanese mythology.

A nine-tailed magical fox, she is also one of the most powerful yokai that has ever lived.

Her magical abilities were matched only by her sharp mind  and lust for power.

Tamamo lived during the Heian period, and though she may not have succeeded in her plan to kill the emperor and take his place, her actions destabilized the country and lead it towards one of the most important civil wars in Japanese history.

 For that reason, she is considered one of the Nihon San Dai Aku Yokai—the Three Terrible Yokai of Japan.

She  is mentioned in various old texts and has been a popular subject throughout Japanese history. Her story is portrayed in literature, 

Noh, Kabuki, bunraku, and other forms of art including modern mang, anime and evenK Dramas. 

There have been  several variations on her story throughout history.

According to Legends: Tamamo no Mae was born around 3,500 years ago in what is now China. Her early life is a mystery, but she eventually became a powerful sorceress.

 

A few hundred years later she became a white faced, golden furred kyubi no kitsune—a nine-tailed fox with the highest level of  magic powers.

She was also a very skilled liar and master  manipulator. She used her charms and intelligence to advance her standing and influence politics of the time .

During the Shang Dynasty she was known as Daji. She disguised herself as a beautiful woman and became the favorite concubine of King Zhou of Shang.

 

 
Daji was a model of human depravity. She held orgies in the palace gardens. Her fondness for watching and inventing new forms of torture are legendary.

Daji eventually brought about the fall of the entire Shang Dynasty. She managed to escape execution, and fled to the Magadha kingdom in India in 1046 BCE.

In Magadha, she was known as Lady Kayo, and became a consort of King Kalmashapada, known in Japan as Hanzoku.

She used her beauty and charms to dominate the king, she devoured children, murder priests, and commit other unspeakable horrors.

Eventually—whether because she ran out of  children to eat or because Kalmashapada began to turn away from her and towards Buddhism—she fled back to China.
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During the Zhou Dynasty she called herself Bao Si, and was known as one of the most desirable women in all of China.

In 779 BCE she became a concubine of King You. Not satisfied as just a mistress, she manipulated the king into deposing his wife Queen Shen and making Bao Si his new queen. 

Though she was beautiful, Bao Si rarely ever smiled. In order to please his beautiful new wife, King You committed acts of such
evil and atrocity that eventually all of his nobles abandoned and betrayed him. Eventually, King You was killed and Bao Si captured and the Western Zhou Dynasty was brought to an end in 771 BCE. Somehow Bao Si managed to escape again, she went into hiding for many years.

Little is known of her activities until the 700s, when she resurfaced disguised as a 16-year old girl named Wakamo. She tricked the leaders of the 10th Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty—Kibi no Makibi, Abe no Nakamaro, and Ganjin—as they were preparing to return home to Japan.

Wakamo joined their crew and took the ship to Japan, where she hid herself away for over 300 years.

In the 1090s, she resurfaced once again. This time she transformed herself into a human baby and hid by the side of the road.

A married couple found the baby and rescued it, taking her in as their daughter and naming her Mikuzume.

She proved to be an exceedingly intelligent and talented young girl, and was so beautiful that she attracted to attention of everyone around her.

When she was 7 years old, Mikuzume recited poetry before the emperor. His imperial majesty immediately took a liking to her and employed her as a servant
in his court.

Mikuzume excelled at court, absorbing knowledge like a sponge. There was no question she could not answer, whether it was about music, history, astronomy,
religion, or Chinese classics. Her clothes were always clean and unwrinkled. She always smelled pleasant. Mikuzume had the most beautiful face in all of Japan, and everyone who saw her loved her.

During the summer of her 18th year, a poetry and instrument recital was held in Mikuzume’s honor. During the recital, an unexpected storm fell upon the palace. 

All of the candles in the recital room were snuffed, leaving the participants in the dark. Suddenly, a bright light emanated from Mikuzume’s body, illuminating the room.

 Everybody at court was so impressed by her genius and declared that she must have had an exceedingly good and holy previous life. 

She was given the name Tamamo no Mae. Emperor Toba, already exceedingly fond of her, made her his consort.

Almost immediately after she became the emperor’s consort, the emperor fell deathly ill. None of the court physicians could determine the cause, and so the onmyoji (Exorcist) Abe no Yasunari was called in. ( Not be confused with Abe no Yasuna, who is the father of the famous onmyōji Abe no Seimei , Similar title, Different people.)

Abe no Yasunari read the emperor’s fortune and divined that he was marked by a bad omen. After that, the highest priests and monks were summoned to the palace to pray for the emperor’s health.

The best prayers of the highest priests had no effect, however. The emperor continued to grow worse. Abe no Yasunari was summoned again to read the emperor’s fortune. 

This time, to his horror the onmyoji discovered that the emperor’s beloved Tamamo no Mae was the cause of his illness. She was a
kitsune in disguise, and was shortening the emperor’s life span in order to take over as ruler of Japan. Emperor Toba was reluctant to believe the diviner’s words, but agreed to test Tamamo no Mae just to be sure.

To save the emperor’s life, Abe no Yasunari prepared the Taizan Fukun no Sai, the most secret and most powerful spell known to onmyodo.

Tamamo  was ordered to perform part of the ritual. They reasoned that an evil spirit would not be able to participate in such a holy ritual.

Though she was reluctant to participate, the emperor’s ministers persuaded her. They told her that it would increase her standing an admiration among the court. She had little choice but to accept.

When the ritual was performed, Tamamo was dressed even more beautifully than normal. She recited the holy worlds as expected and played her part extremely well. But just as she prepared to wave the ceremonial staff, she vanished. Abe no Yasunari’s divination was confirmed. The court flew into an uproar.

Soon after, word arrived that women and children were disappearing near Nasuno in Shimotsuke Province.

The court sorcerers determined that Tamamo  was the cause, and it was decided that she must be destroyed once and for all.

The emperor summoned the best warriors in all of the land and then charged the most superb of them, Kazusanosuke and Miuranosuke, to find Tamamo no Mae.

The warriors gladly accepted the honor. They purified themselves and set out with an army of 80,000 men to slay the nine-tailed kitsune.

Upon reaching Nasuno the army quickly found the kitsune. 

The warriors chased her for days and days, but the fox used her magical powers and outsmarted them time and time again, easily escaping. The army grew weary, and frustration set in. It seemed that nothing they did was working. However, Kazusanosuke and Miuranosuke would not accept the shame of defeat and vowed to press on. They practiced harder, honing their tactics, and eventually picked up the kitsune’s trail.

One night, Miuranosuke had a prophetic dream. A beautiful young girl appeared before him, crying. She begged: “Tomorrow I will lose my life to you. Please save me.” Miuranosuke adamantly refused, and upon waking the warriors set out again to find Tamamo no Mae. 

Sure enough, the next day they caught
her. Miuranosuke fired two arrows, one through the fox’s flank and one through its neck. Kazusanosuke swung his blade. It was over, just as the dream had said.

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However, her evil did not end with her death. One year after she died, Emperor Konoe died, heirless. The following year, her lover
and former Emperor Toba died as well. A succession crisis ignited between forces loyal to Emperor Go-Shirakawa and forces loyal to former Emperor Sutoku.

 This crisis started the Fujiwara-Minamoto rivalry that led to the Genpei War, the end of the Heian period, and the rise of the first shoguns.

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As if that were not enough, Tamamo’s spirit haunted a massive boulder which killed every living thing that touched it.

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This boulder is know as the killing stone or  Sessho-seki.

 On march 5 2022, the boulder split in half. Presumably freeing the evil fox once more.

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Also, Happy Valentines Day.

💗🦊

Sol-mōnaþ / Solmonath.. Month of Cake.

February 1st marks the beginning of Sol-mōnaþ (or Solmonath) 

In the old Angelo Saxon calendar Sol is the month between Gēola (January) and Hreð-monaþ (March). 

This is the Anglo-Saxon name for what we call February, translating to "month of the hearthcakes". While "sol" sometimes refers to mud, or even melting snow, in this context it signifies "hearthcake," these are cakes baked on a traditional hearth. 

This practice was recorded by the scholar Bede, it comes from a time when theses cakes where offered to the gods as thanks and to honor them 

 

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Sol also translates to Sun and could be considered Sun Month.

Not to be confused with Sol Month from the proposed  13 month international calendar 

A 13-month calendar, like the proposed International Fixed Calendar (Cotsworth Plan) by Moses B Cotsworth.

This plan divides the year into 13 months of exactly 28 days (four 7-day weeks), totaling 364 days, with an extra "year day" added annually and a leap day every four years, offering perpetual consistency where dates always fall on the same day of the week, though it requires adjustment for the solar year and faces challenges with the current 12-month system.

 It was heavily pushed by George Eastman in the 1920's in the United States, put never gained international attention.

It was used by Kodak from 1924 until 1989.

History of Halloween 🎃

Every year millions of people celebrate Halloween , party's, parades, costumes, candy pumpkins and more . But have you ever wondered were this celebration came from?

Today, Americans spend over $11 billion per year on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest holiday after Christmas 

Our modern Halloween traditions are  a combination of many different elements crafted together over the years , but it's primary origins can be traced back to the Celtic Pagan harvest festival called Samhain..

Early Halloween celebrations ware very  limited in the colony's because of the strict Protestant belief systems of the time. Halloween was more commonly recognized in Maryland and the southern colonies.

The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing

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Samhain.

Samhain (sow-in is an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of  the harvest season  and the beginning of winter, it's also the time of the year when the Vail between the living and the dead becomes weaker and spirits and monsters can roam free among the living.

This festival can be traced back at least two thousand years, thought the way its celebrated has changed a bit over time.

To ward off evil spirits, the Celts would built large bonfires, put on masks and costumes (often animal skins and wooden carved masks), to scare off or blend in with the spirit's. They would also offer food to appease the spirits. 

👹💀😈This was the the original trick or treating

 🍫🍬🍭

Early Colonial Halloween celebrations  often included telling ghost stories and family gatherings and even pranks.

Near the mid 1800s, the yearly fall festivities were becoming more common in America, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country just yet.

Original jack'o lantern..

In the second half of the 19th century Irish immigration helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nation wide 

Irish immigrants brought traditional Celtic customs to America including the jack'o lantern , originally carved  turnips or gourd's, but thanks to the abundance of  pumpkin found  in America it later became the vegetables of choice and is now one of the most recognizable Halloween symbol's.

 🎃

................🎃 Original Jack'o Lantern 🎃...........

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As part of the christianization of Europe in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints' Day (also known as All Hallows' Day) to honor all Christian saints. The evening before, October 31, became known as All Hallows' Eve, or the eve of All Saints' Day. 

It also been called Devil's night, Hell night or mischief night but everyone knows it as Simply Halloween now..

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

in 1879, about 200 boys in Kentucky stopped a train by laying a fake stuffed 'body' across the railroad tracks. In 1900, medical students at the University of Michigan stole a headless corpse from the anatomy lab and propped it up against the building’s front doors.

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In 1933, so many people were outraged when hundreds of teenage boys flipped over cars, sawed-off telephone poles and engaged in other acts of vandalism across the country. People began to refer to that year’s holiday as “Black Halloween,” similarly to the way they referred to the stock market crash four years earlier as “Black Tuesday.”

Some cities considered banning Halloween altogether. Although others responded by  organizing Halloween activities for young people so that they wouldn't turn to vandalism. They started to organize trick-or-treating, parties, costume parades and haunted house attractions to keep them busy.

Hanging old fur and strips of raw meat or liver on walls, where one feels his way through the dark  were instructed in a 1937 party pamphlet on how to create a “trail of terror.” “Weird moans and howls come from dark corners, damp sponges and hair nets hung from the ceiling to brush your  face as you pass by… Doorways are blockaded so that guests must crawl through a long dark tunnel.”

Haunted house attractions began to grow in popularity, one of the most we'll know is the 1969 haunted mansion at Disney land. Still very popular today.

Haunted or spooky public attractions already had some precedent in Europe. Starting in the 1800s, Marie Tussaud’s wax museum in London featured a “Chamber of Horrors” with decapitated figures from the French Revolution. In 1915, a British amusement ride manufacturer created an early haunted house, complete with dim lights, shaking floors and demonic screams.

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1915 Halloween celebrations.

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By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the 1950s baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodate

Despite vandalism a depression and a world war..between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with treats.

Halloween's pagan origins and association with ghost's, monsters, witchcraft and other spooky stuff has always been loosely tolerated by the more self proclaimed religious people especially during the 1980s "satanic panic"   claiming the holiday celebrates evil and glorified witchcraft and the occult. Church group's and know  it alls once again trid to ban the holiday and started pushing hell nights ( leading kids through a church version of a haunted house showing your afterlife burning in hell for celebrating "evil")

Large scale arson and destruction in the 1980s also had a very negative effect on the holiday.

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A few more common and less destructive   pranks and mischief during the early 1900-1930s included cow tipping, moving farm equipment, uprooting vegetables or even moving wagon's to a different location or putting them on top of roofs.

Another common prank is TPing a house, throwing roles of toilet paper all over the house and trees,though this is now considered littering and trespassing and may get you arrested if cought.

 

Souling is an ancient Irish and English tradition of going door to door and praying in exchange for food or sweet's, it's the early origins of trick or treating, Norway also has a version of this that takes place during Christmas instead of autumn called Julebukk it takes place on the days between Christmas and New Year's Day, Norwegians dress up in trolls witch's gnomes ect and go door-to-door to sing and perform for friends, neighbors, and family in exchange for food and drinks. It's a christmas-themed version of trick-or-treating..

Halloween is also when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits

They would also leave food outside by the door to keep ghosts from entering their homes (very early trick or treating).

Halloween Matchmaking - Fortune telling games 🔮🐈‍⬛

There are several old traditions and superstitious practice's done on Halloween that were mainly meant as a form of divination to help young women find their future husbands and reassuring them that they would some day be married. (It was also a party game for fun )

During the 1700's in Ireland, a matchmaking cook might hide a ring in the mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding would be her match. (In some versions, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale claims that if a young woman ate a sugary treat made of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Young women would also tosse apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first settle down.

She could also light a small candle and star into a mirror to see if the face of her future husband would appear over her shoulder 

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🎃🐈‍⬛🧛‍♀️🐺🌕🧟‍♂️👻🕷️🍁🕸️🦇🎃

👻Happy 🦇Halloween 🎃