Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter
Welcome to "Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter," a heartwarming and insightful podcast celebrating the unique bond between a stepfather Davey, and his stepdaughter Hannah.
Join them as they explore the joys, challenges, and everyday moments that make this relationship special.
Each episode they take a topic and discuss the differences, similarities and the effect each one had one them
Featuring candid conversations, personal stories, and many laughs
Whether you're a step-parent, stepchild, or simply interested in family dynamics, "Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter" offers a fresh perspective on love, family, and the bonds that unite us.
Bonus Dad Bonus Daughter
Tracing Halloween's Roots: From Ancient Rituals to Modern Festivities
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Ever wondered how Halloween's spooky spirit evolved over the centuries? On this special episode of the Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter podcast, we navigate the eerie origins of Halloween, tracing its journey from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain to the vibrant holiday we celebrate today. Despite a croaky voice from a recent illness, our enthusiasm for the season shines as we share personal stories and humor, including a memorable trip to Europa Park and a humorous anecdote about a Halloween injury that still makes us laugh.
As Halloween approaches, we're buzzing with excitement about our festive plans. We swap tales of navigating the challenges of traveling with family versus friends and colleagues, sparking lively discussions about favorite destinations and past adventures. From autumn decorations to ghostly photo shoots and potential visits to Thorpe Park's Fright Nights, our conversation is rich with laughter and anticipation for the spooky celebrations ahead.
Join us as we journey through the fascinating evolution of Halloween traditions, from the mystical beginnings of jack-o'-lanterns to the influence of Mexican customs like the Day of the Dead. We reflect on how European immigrants transformed Halloween into the festive spectacle it is today, while sharing our personal experiences with pumpkin artistry and Halloween decorations. Whether through traditional activities or simply embracing the beauty of autumn, we invite you to celebrate the magic of Halloween with us.
Hello and welcome to Bonus Dad. Bonus Daughter a special father-daughter podcast with me Hannah and me, davy, where we discuss our differences, similarities, share a few laughs and stories. Within our ever-changing and complex world, Each week we will discuss a topic from our own point of view and influences throughout the decades, or you could choose one by contacting us via email, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok Links in bio.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter. Apologising in advance, I have the crokiest throat in the world from an illness that I picked up two weeks ago, actually after our last podcast recording.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you sound very much like Mariella Frostrup.
Speaker 2:Who's that oh?
Speaker 1:no, she used to do a lot of. She was a TV presenter, probably back in the 80s, and she famously had that type of voice, that kind of croaky voice, sultry, sexy voice. Yeah, I wasn't going to say that, I know. I said it, it's fine.
Speaker 2:It's okay if I say it Today, our episode is on the history of Halloween, because it is spooky season.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to mix this episode, so it actually comes out on Halloween itself.
Speaker 2:So if you are listening on Thursday when we drop this, happy Halloween.
Speaker 1:I almost swore then, and do you know what? You actually bleeped yourself out then, which makes a change, because normally I have to do the bleeping out. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Happy freaking Halloween guys. It is our favourite time of year. We've spoken about this. We have another Halloween episode, If you just can't get enough of Halloween and us on Halloween. We have another Halloween episode that we did last year. Check that out as well, if you haven't already. But yeah, we're going to talk about the history of Halloween this time.
Speaker 1:We are, but originally we didn't know what we were going to do for Halloween because we wanted to go on a ghost walk. Remember, we said that we were going to go and see Black Shook as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were really going to prepare for this and then, basically, I went on holiday for two weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Then life happened, life happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so shall we do a quick life update before we go into the history of Halloween.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to do my life update because my life update has been incredibly boring, but Hannah, I've been, hannah's been all over the show I have so let's rewind to two weeks after so.
Speaker 2:So after we done the podcast recording, and if anyone doesn't know, we we record this podcast every two weeks every sorry.
Speaker 1:I've just realized as well, because we're going to be recording, because we record three episodes, so there's going to be three episodes now where you're going to have that type of voice and people are not going to know when I'm going to drop them. So that's true, that's gonna be weird, yeah but uh, but yeah, so, um.
Speaker 2:So a couple of weeks ago I went to another roller coaster park. Um surprise surprise yeah, I try and get roller coasters into pretty much every episode that we do. So, yeah, I uh was in europa park. It was amazing, went with just just me and my husband. We have a new like favourite coaster. Not because of frills, not because of height, not because of speed, it just brought the most amazing amount of joy. It was the Eurosat Can Can coaster, and if you're thinking of the Can Can dance, you are 100% correct really it was themed and it was the Can Can song.
Speaker 2:It was all indoors. It just had the most amazing like UV effects indoors. It just had the most amazing like uv effects and the amount of joy that was on my face throughout the whole ride.
Speaker 1:It's just um, we just like a little child oh, my god, I was.
Speaker 2:It was so like we were. We were discussing like one of our favorite coasters and we're thinking there's, there's one that's very similar to like hyperia that we've got in the uk called blue fire coaster, um, which we both really enjoyed. And there was another one that was like f1 inspired. So again, again, we like F1. That one was really good call as well. It's called Silver Star, but I don't know this Can Can coaster just seems to have another place in our hearts.
Speaker 1:Did it actually have the music?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all the way through. It was like going it's almost like you start in the sky and then you're going through the streets of Paris and it's just like if you've ever been on the walking dead ride in at Thorpe Park with kind of like the effects of the indoor nurse, and it was also X no way out and then X prior to that. If you've ever been on something like that, it's very similar coaster to that, except the lift hill is a twist up.
Speaker 1:And then you just dropped and it's.
Speaker 2:It was an incredible coaster. I actually emailed Europa because I saw a poster in there that I really liked and wondered if it was available for sale, and it's not, so I might have to try and recreate the poster.
Speaker 1:Well, what you can do. You could Google the poster get it, screenshot it which I did and then take it to one of those print places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because of the angle of the poster I can't get a good enough decent image of it.
Speaker 1:That's what happened with me, remember, yeah?
Speaker 2:So I think I'm going to actually draw it and recreate it, which will be a fun project for me. But yeah, Europa Park was incredible. We went on the Eurostar so we went from our hometown Norwich to London, London to Paris, Paris to Europa. So it was quite a trip. So I saw two capital cities. I saw London and Paris, and then last week I was in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1:But what happened on the way back? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll rewind slightly.
Speaker 2:That was quite funny, so on the way back, just like public transport has never really been the best in the UK and apparently not the best in Paris either, because on the way back our Eurostar train got delayed by an entire hour, which meant that our train from London to Norwich was, we were, we were, yeah, we were gonna miss it.
Speaker 2:We allocated an hour a half anyway, but unfortunately we couldn't get across in time and we had to get the next train, so we were only delayed by a half an hour. In the end. It was a quick call to you. Well, quick text to you, saying um might be stuck in London now. Um and uh. You were on call just to uh, come pick us up from Epping if we got into a bit of a problem.
Speaker 1:What was really funny is because, of course, we were having this conversation, just me and you.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And you were keeping me updated on where you were and I was watching you on like find my friends coming. Actually, at one point you were actually travelling across the channel.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was trying to work out what time to leave Norwich to get down to London to pick you up, and then you put a random message on the family chat and it was just, and your mum basically then said oh, I'm pleased you're home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't know why she thought we were home, and then she also claimed that I'd sent the same message twice. But, I don't think I had. The emojis were different.
Speaker 1:She was.
Speaker 2:I don't think she'd only briefly seen it on her phone, on her watch maybe that's it.
Speaker 1:She'd only briefly seen them, she hadn't really kind of digested what there was. So I thought, oh, she actually doesn't know that there's a problem.
Speaker 2:Well, there wasn't a problem, To be fair, like it wasn't a panic. No, no, it wasn't a panicostar was the thing that was delayed. Most trains apparently just let you on the next train free of charge. Because we got on there and we went to the ticket booth first and we were like you know, Eurostar's just gone, We've missed our London to Norwich train. You know what can we do? He was like oh, go to the ticket office, they should let you on. Went to the ticket office and they were like yeah, yeah, we'll just let you on. Got to the ticket barrier, they're like, yeah, yeah, we'll just let you on, no problem, Eurostar. Yeah, no problem. Got on the train. She was about to give us some lip. She was just about to. She was like oh, it looks like your train was half an hour ago. And we're like, yeah, we were on the Eurostar.
Speaker 1:She was like, oh, Turned into Dick Van Dyke as well at the same time and turned into Vic Dang Dick. Van Dyke.
Speaker 2:Van Dyke yeah that's the one. So yeah, and then you went to the dam Amsterdam.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Damn, what an experience that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a work trip, so it was quite full on. There was an event there that I was involved in from a media point of view which was very, very cool. I had a great time with my colleagues and, yeah, I don't think I will ever fully recover from the tiredness that I feel. I slept so much. Yesterday I slept for like 12 hours, but yeah, it was a good old time. So I saw three capital cities in the space of two weeks, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That is pretty cool. Pretty good going, pretty good going. I mean, I love, as you know, I love Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a great place. I've been there a few times, so it's the first time that you've ever been. Yeah, and I told you about, you know, try Bittenball. You know, do this go, dam Square. You know Ripley's Believe it or Not, there's, you know, places to go to, and it was quite funny when you actually got there. I can't remember what the message was, but just something along the lines of this is a culture shock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a culture shock. The things that are on offer in Amsterdam are a little different to the UK, so it took me by surprise how, in your face, it was actually how public it was. I guess there's no shame, there's no hiding. Yeah, very, very actually how public it was. I guess there's no shame, there's no hiding.
Speaker 1:so, um yeah, very, very public city with things that you you think are naughty what got me as well was that message when you said do you want me to bring something back from Amsterdam?
Speaker 2:and I said, yes, but customs might be an issue yeah, um, I didn't bring anything of that nature back um, but yeah, I got a few few, few uh trinkets, but but nothing of that nature. But you enjoyed it, I did.
Speaker 1:It was the best time with my team. Yeah, I can say, enjoy is probably the wrong word, because it was a works trip. It was a work trip. You were there to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was there to work and it was really full on work. But yeah, we were treated heavily by the company that I'm with as well. So I had a lovely steak and lovely meals actually in general Amsterdam by the company that I'm with as well. So I had a lovely steak and lovely meals actually in general Amsterdam's lovely food. There's no sort of language barrier and I hope I can say that as much as I can, because sometimes it can be quite intimidating to go to a country where you don't understand the language or know the language enough to speak it back. But everyone spoke English so that was kind of less of a worry, I guess for situations. Know a little bit more talking.
Speaker 1:What I find strange, what I actually like about Amsterdam as well, because it is such a different culture. I mean, the architecture, everything about the city is so not everything, but a lot of it is so different to the culture we've got here and where we actually live in Norfolk, amsterdam is literally a 20 minute flight.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It is literally. You know you could drive there if there was land within the space of a couple of hours.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. We're an hour apart, which meant that on the way back home, I was minus 10 minutes of the journey because of the hour difference. I'd landed before I'd taken off in the other country, which was very cool. I time travelled and it was amazing.
Speaker 1:You spend longer on the runway in Schiphol taxiing to the runway than you do in the air to fly back to Norwich Airport. Yeah, it's nuts.
Speaker 2:They provide an in-flight service which is like a bottle of water, but it's like, literally, they do the safety briefing, then your mini cheddars come out and they come back with your water, and then you land it and you're like, well, I didn't get to enjoy my mini cheddars and my water, no, it was good fun. It was very, very good fun. Never been on a city plane before either, so it's only two rows. Yeah, Rather than sorry, rather than having a row of three seats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:It's two and two, it's.
Speaker 1:Do you see the first class cabin at the front, which was literally just a?
Speaker 2:curtain. I think they may have more leg room.
Speaker 1:It was really funny because last time I went and somebody had got priority boarding I have no idea, because there was only about seven of us on the flight. Anyway, it was quite a full flight actually. Let Bill go first and then the other five of us will then get on the plane.
Speaker 2:I bet they feel a bit silly paying for priority priority warning. But I guess if it's like a company one and they pay for it, then I guess, why not yeah?
Speaker 1:But it does make me laugh because I say it's a curtain. So we get into the plane and by the time they close the curtain he opened it again for us all to get off. Yeah, it was brilliant.
Speaker 2:It was good, it was brilliant, it was good, it was a good flight. I'm not massively keen on flying, but I can get behind a 20-minute flight. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'd like to go again, I think this time with family and friends as opposed to work colleagues. It made it, I don't know, a slightly different trip, I guess. Yeah no, I'd say there's some really lovely places.
Speaker 1:I'd like to take you to the places like Anne Frank's Museum the.
Speaker 2:Heineken Brewery all those types of places, but I did go to Tony's Chocolate Shop.
Speaker 1:Ripley's, believe it On. There's a beautiful bakery as well that sells these amazing chocolate and churro things oh okay, I thought you were going to say space cakes, then no, no, no this amazing cafe that has really nice edibles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can we say that on there?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure if we can. Yeah, I think we can. We can, not sure if we can, but anyway it's cool.
Speaker 2:So that's me and my travels, and that's why my voice sounds like this. Yeah, Because I have been talking busy running around. I did get over it.
Speaker 1:It's been a busy couple of weeks for you, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has so anyway. So let's talk about Halloween. Let's talk about Halloween. It is spooky season. I started off my spooky season with a photo shoot of me in a ghost costume.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 2:So I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but I'll make sure my photographer is happy to put it on the bdbd podcast yeah, yeah, good little show our listeners. That it's quite cute.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed it so have you decorated your house yet?
Speaker 2:I decorated my house for autumn or fall, depending where you are in the world, but no official halloween as in, no scary decorations.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:It's all pumpkin related. I haven't really been at home for two weeks, that's true. So yeah, my spooky season has started off. A little bit, a little bit less.
Speaker 1:So have you got anything planned?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You haven't seen I'm going to go to Primeval or we are going to have to do this ghost walk. Should we go on a ghost walk?
Speaker 2:yes, we'll do it, let's do it, we'll do it, we'll just do it yeah, we'll do that yeah, I've just been really busy so I haven't really planned anything. Normally I have a little get together with the squad as such, but I know you hate that word yeah so we've learnt from the slang episode, but is that out yet?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah, we've done that about four weeks ago.
Speaker 2:You've done the last couple of weeks for me, so.
Speaker 1:I have, but there's still quite a few episodes that I need to mix. There's, like the History of Norwich, one that I need to do Although saying that might now be out before I get this one out, but there's about five episodes in the bank.
Speaker 2:There's five episodes in the bank.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, we've banked a few.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Because we do have a little break over Christmas.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:We, we do not did, we did Well, we did last year we had Christmas early. That was fun. Let's not talk about Christmas.
Speaker 1:No, it's Halloween. It's Halloween, so do you fancy Primeval actually?
Speaker 2:Do I fancy it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you fancy going?
Speaker 2:I'm doing? Oh, do you know what I actually completely, wholeheartedly lied to you a minute ago? I do have a Halloween thing that's coming up.
Speaker 1:I'm going to Thorpe.
Speaker 2:Park for Fright Nights but, only for the night rides of the coasters, not really. For the Fright side of it there's normally actors walking around and stuff, but I'm more interested in riding my favourite rollercoaster at night Swarm.
Speaker 1:But do you fancy Primeval? Fancy it Shall we have a look.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know, I've done it. I have already done it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, but they do change it each year.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, but I don't know, I don't know. It scared me last time.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe I can't sleep at night, you know, yeah, the only thing that scared me in Primeval last year was me, but I also I told everyone that you broke your ankle running away from ghosts, which is like my favourite story to tell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, my dad, yeah, I took him to the hospital. I remember you wouldn't go to the hospital and then I took you, didn't I, and made you go that was a bit of a bone of contention, because your mum was trying to get me to go to the hospital. Bone of contention to true your.
Speaker 1:It's fine, it's just bruised, it'll be absolutely fine. And then I think she rang you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was literally like, can you just get in my car please? Like just humour me, like I actually remember saying that. Like humour me, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll spend a day and a night, but that was really quick, wasn't?
Speaker 1:it? Yeah, but I broke it in two places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, poor me. That was so funny, I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was a year ago. I've still got a slight twinge in my foot.
Speaker 2:Oh, do you? Oh, I thought you might yeah.
Speaker 1:Poor me, poor you. So I thought we would talk about because I designed this episode, because I haven't seen you for two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I haven't had a chance to design any episodes talk about?
Speaker 1:what could we talk about to do with?
Speaker 2:history channel Davey, once again it is occurred it is.
Speaker 1:I thought we would look at Halloween's history all the way from the very beginning to how it's evolved into what the festival. Shall we call it a festival? It is a festival to what the festival is now. So the earliest kind of recollect or the earliest kind of recorded part of halloween halloween wasn't originally called halloween all hallows eve all not called so in.
Speaker 1:Oh and I've jumped, you've, you've jumped, you've jumped quite a lot, hannah, actually I apologize, you carry on yes, you're the history buff, so it's um, it's pronounced so in and it's uh, it's spelt sam hayne but pronounced so in, and it's Celtic. It's a Celtic festival. It's celebrated from the 31st of October to November the 1st, and what it kind of marked was the end of the harvest and the onset of winter, a period that the Celts associated with death. So you can kind of see, I know, but you can kind of see that, isn't it? It's like the death of the food, because you're harvesting the food and then you're going into like the really cold winter where nothing grows and nothing does that. So it's kind of it's almost like a kind of farming, farming death. Did you not used to have harvest festivals at school?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that was why I just sang that song.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's probably what the original kind of Samhain festival probably would have been more like, yeah, like the harvest festivals.
Speaker 2:Celebrating the end of the harvest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Death.
Speaker 1:But they also believed. The Celts also believed that that was the time that the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest and that would allow spirits, supernatural beings and entities to cross into the world of the living.
Speaker 2:Let's get the ouija board out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what we're talking. We're talking the thin veil, and then things come through the hell mouth at sunny side but everybody immediately goes horrible, don't they? Do you think we're preconditioned to think of ghosts and entities as being, you know something that's there to hurt us because, like, because it could be?
Speaker 2:if that's the case, then you know, your great, great aunt mabel could be coming through to say hello yeah, I mean, people believe in different things and often when, when we die, people believe that that might be it and that's it for all of us. And there are some people that are a bit more spiritual and believe that we come back as ghosts or we go to heaven. Is another going down the religious view. Other religions are available, but let's just say, in a Christian manner, that's what we are most prominently in this part of the UK Reincarnation.
Speaker 1:There's lots ofation. Yeah, there's loads. There's lots of theories, Lots of theories.
Speaker 2:There's loads, so I think everyone has a different view. I like to think that there is something after death, because that brings me comfort in when a loved one dies. I like to think that they're still watching over us or they're still around. That's just me. Do I believe in ghosts? I Ghosts. I think there are some things in our world that are hard to explain, and there is probably some science that will explain it at some point, but I think our minds do also play tricks on us.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I've been in situations that I've been, oh that was weird. I don't know if I've ever said any ghost stories on air yet, but there was one that comes to mind that I'm thinking of, which I will come to later, but it's yeah. Spirits are often depicted as evil but, I, like to think that you know Art Nabel was. You're good and bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like anything, you're good and bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if they were good in their life, why would they come back as a bad ghost? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, in Supernatural, if they stay around too long, they go mad, don't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe it's that they can't I mean we're heavily influenced by the media around us, which is fictional, but some people will take it. You know someone's thought of that idea and therefore there is maybe some truth behind it. Who knows? We never know. We will never know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it doesn't have to be horrible ghosts, and I think we're conditioned to a lot of that because of the films and stories and things like that. You know the fact that, although it did say that the Celts would actually often build large bonfires to ward off the evil spirits, so to let the good ones in, but to ward off the evil spirits, and there'd be sacrifices of crops and animals as well, now, people often wore costumes, often made from animal heads and skins, to disguise themselves from harmful spirits.
Speaker 2:I'm going to pretend to be a goat. Don't attack me.
Speaker 1:Well, do you know, when I read this, what this kind of got me thinking about was, first of all, the Wicker man. The wicker man, not the, not the ridiculous remake with um, with nicholas cage oh my god, the bees. Like what was that about um? But the original one with edward woodward and also brit ecklund uh, they actually did have e while we were. If you take the d's out, sorry, sorry, edward woodward, if you take the d's out is eewa, wooa is it woodwood?
Speaker 2:yeah, edward, woodwood woodwood, as in wood wood ward.
Speaker 1:Oh, wood ward, wood ward, uh, woodwood, yeah, and he goes up to the isle of summer isle, which is the northwest of scotland, goes to see christopher lee, and they're still very kind of celtic and kind of pagan and they do actually wear at. At the end, in the end final festival they've all got goat's heads on and it's very much like this this type of festival ends up with like bob at alton towers, yeah yeah, yeah, I mean it obviously ends up with edward woodward inside, a big old wicker man with chickens and getting burnt while everyone's chanting.
Speaker 1:But it also got me thinking of, you know, when people say about devil worship right satanic rituals satanic rituals. What's the first thing that people wearing that pops into your head? Cloak, cloak and a head and a head like horns and things whereas this would have been an actual, just a nice festival yeah but over time it's got perverted saying it's satanic rituals.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not saying it looks, you know, friendly like having goat horns on your head doesn't look, it's not like a friendly image. That comes to my mind. No, so I can understand why variations have happened and it's made it a bit more spooky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is saying here that they did it to disguise themselves from harmful spirits. So they were doing it to protect themselves from the nastiness.
Speaker 2:But that's the same as you making yourself look big if you see a bear themselves from.
Speaker 1:but that's the same as you making yourself look big.
Speaker 2:If you see a bear like, you're making yourself look scary.
Speaker 1:So it is still supposed to be scary? Yeah, so why would you know? But over time it's been um, kind of not to say perverted, but the idea has been yeah, the idea has been perverted to become a satanic ritual when in fact it was actually just a harvest festival. Yeah, at the end of the day, where we bring our food and vegetables.
Speaker 2:Actually just a harvest festival, yeah, at the end of the day, where we bring our food and vegetables.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's kind of where it originated from. And then of course, we had the druids so part of, who were also kind of part of the celtic city. They were kind of like the priests, uh, and they would perform divinations, prophecies, and they would would actually offer predictions as well for the coming winter and guidance on how to survive it.
Speaker 2:Oh, so they were basically the weatherman.
Speaker 1:They were basically the weatherman. Yeah Well, there were a lot of seers, things like that back then, you know, with Celts I mean that actually goes into Norse religion as well you had a lot of seers within the Norse religion or within the Norse culture, A seer, a seer who tried to predict the future. So that was all done around, kind of sewing.
Speaker 2:That's basically scientists now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think, to be honest, I know we, I suppose, jumped back to the Amsterdam thing a little while ago. I think they ate a lot of mushrooms. I think these guys ate a lot of mushrooms and maybe some, you know, peyote type things might have been involved here and a few little hallucinations and then coming up with a few predictions. They were like the early day Simpsons.
Speaker 2:Okay, the early day Simpsons. The early day Simpsons Minus the yellow skin. Unless they were jaundice, I suppose.
Speaker 1:But then, of course, after the Romans invaded the UK.
Speaker 2:Welcome Romans.
Speaker 1:Welcome Romans. They built all the roads and the aqueducts, things like that, and they brought their own festivals and traditions and that kind of then started to merge, merge, yeah, merge. And again, we've said this before. How Christians did this a lot, didn't they? They would merge their festivals with other festivals.
Speaker 2:They would steal, I think might be a better word. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean things like Yuletide and Christmas. I mean Halloween and Sowing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh.
Speaker 1:I've seen Halloween Sowing. Okay, I've never really. Yeah, okay, but because, yeah, when the Romans came over they brought their own festivals and traditions and kind of gradually merged in. So there was one festival called Feralia and this late October Roman festival commemorated the dead.
Speaker 2:Well, there we go then.
Speaker 1:There you go. So it kind of oh, hang on a minute.
Speaker 2:So you guys have got, don't you find it weird, though, that there are very similar festivals all over the world dealing with the same things, but with cultures that possibly have never really met. That is very interesting yeah, yeah but I guess the seasons work the same way, so there's it's not coincidence, it's more it's almost like parallel thinking, isn't?
Speaker 1:it yes, parallel thinking parallel thinking all over the world, such as the south american pyramids and the oh, let's not go down a pyramid rabbit hole conspiracies. Sorry, that was ridiculous. So yeah, they had their festival of foralia, and then there is another festival called pomona, and pomona was the roman goddess of the fruit and trees ah, may I, may I slip in here. You can slide in.
Speaker 2:I'm going to slide into the DM slightly, because Pomona, I think, is the equivalent and please don't quote me on this, please do your own research. But Pomona is probably the equivalent of Persephone in Greek mythology.
Speaker 1:Possibly.
Speaker 2:Because she was the one that was knocking it out with Hades in the underworld. Well, the story goes two ways she either did fall in love with him, like you know Stockholm syndrome situation, or she was trying to get away with away from him because she was stuck in the underworld for however many four seasons, I think yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:She's very, and Pomona and Persephone. They both begin with P, so I'm kind of just thinking that maybe they're very similar. But yeah, she, her symbol is like um popping granite seeds. So when it says fruit trees, fruits and trees kind of makes me think of makes sense yeah, um so sorry, that was just me, me chapping in there yeah for the greek equivalent, but I think don't hold me to it but I think she might be the, the equivalent, god but it's interesting that uh, the pomona festival introduced the apple, the symbol of the apple bobbing, the apple bobbing and that's where apple bobbing comes from.
Speaker 1:It was a roman thing, so bobbing for apples, uh so we know halloween festivals was a roman influence it's surprisingly difficult what to bob for I've never done it you've never bobbed, for I've never bought for apples. We're doing it tonight.
Speaker 2:Basically, have you got apples at home? Yeah, I've got some pink ladies I think. Yeah, what a fit. I'm interested to know your method.
Speaker 1:What to bob? Well, I've got quite a nose on me, so I'm not going to get. My mouth is not going to get anywhere near it, because the nose is just going to keep knocking the the apple down into the water.
Speaker 2:Nigel Thornberry over there. Do you know who I mean? No, I love how you love. It's a cartoon Meet the Thornberrys or Wild Thornberrys. Oh sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know who you mean. Now, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Should we move on? Should we lasso in Christianity a little?
Speaker 1:bit Conan here. Then Then Christianity comes around and starts, you know, it's a very young religion, Christianity. It is. But it starts kind of waving itself around and, like a lot of Christian festivals, they kind of move in on the festivals that are already there, and a lot of the church leaders sought to replace those pagan festivals with Christian holidays. So then we had All Saints.
Speaker 1:Day which is All Hallows Day Now, that originally celebrated in May, but Pope Gregory III moved it to November the 1st to align and absorb sowing. So there you go. There is a prime example of the Christian church replacing an old festival with one of theirs their own and making it their own. They moved a festival by a number of months, oh so they just pick and choose what they want to do, and it's divine intervention. Sorry, fun, I've got a real thing about religion, as you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, please don't go off on one of your random targets.
Speaker 1:I really, really won't, I really won't, we'll touch on it. But that then, all Hallows' Day absorbed Samhain and it honoured all the Christian saints and martyrs. So it's even going against, it's forcing it down your throat, isn't?
Speaker 2:it. Yeah, a little Proper forcing it down your throat, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little Proper forcing it down your throat. And then, of course, we had All Hallows' Eve, which was October 31st.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And eventually All Hallows' Eve got shortened to Halloween.
Speaker 2:Halloween.
Speaker 1:So in the Middle Ages, Halloween traditions had evolved even further. So there was a thing called souling, which was a practice where the poor, they would go around door to door offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food.
Speaker 2:Lovely.
Speaker 1:What do we do now?
Speaker 2:We.
Speaker 1:What do the kids do on Halloween?
Speaker 2:Well, we trick or treat.
Speaker 1:We trick or treat. This is the earliest kind of thing for trick or treating, so it's done in the middle ages. So you can see all these different things all kind of coming together to build up this one big picture, our modern day halloween, which actually I'm going to go back on my word a little bit. You know, as we are now, it's actually quite nice to see all these cultures come together to create a new festival which, with all these different elements of kind of Maybe stealing was the wrong word I used earlier.
Speaker 1:No, it was stealing. I mean, let's be honest, it was definitely stealing.
Speaker 2:Definitely stealing.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, it's nice to see all these cultures coming together to celebrate this similar thing, Even if it was done roundabout the wrong way. Could you argue that the end justified the means? No, but we are where we are. We are where we are, we are where we are, in Scotland and Ireland, in the Middle Ages, children were dressing costumes and go house to house reciting songs, poems or jokes in exchange for fruits, nuts or coins.
Speaker 2:How, how, what a lame Halloween, like if someone gave me an apple.
Speaker 1:Well, they didn't have a lot back then.
Speaker 2:Well, I know Just imagine going to someone's door and getting a solitary peanut. Would anyone like a peanut? Um, I knew we'd get Sean and the Den in here somewhere. Yeah, how annoying.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like what sort of nuts?
Speaker 1:Are you going to get some sweets for the kids this year?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Because the thing is.
Speaker 2:I do. Most years I am on an estate.
Speaker 1:I'm not feeling it this year. If you decorate the house, you've kind of really got to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just haven't got around to the decorating part yet. I might decorate my back garden rather than my front so I don't get bamboozled. We're on an estate but we're right at their back, so we don't get that many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it does say that Halloween customs were influenced by various local superstitions and folklore. So then you had the belief of fairies, come into it witches, and then the other this is where Stevie Wonder came in. This is Stevie, yeah, and then other supernatural creatures, and of course that added those layers of mystery and fear to the celebrations. There's building blocks, and building blocks to what modern day Halloween is today. Yeah, and then, of course, we then move, and then America, then America, then America, america.
Speaker 2:Halloween new level. I love what they do yeah.
Speaker 1:Halloween new level. I love what they do. Yeah, yeah, they do so. European immigrants, especially Irish and Scottish. They took their Halloween traditions to North America in the 19th century.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:So it's quite late, because obviously, well, america is young, america is well, it's not, it's just modern America is young.
Speaker 2:I feel like America is young.
Speaker 1:America now is young. I feel like america is young america. The america now is young, but obviously there was a whole time period before the european immigrants went oh yeah, where america had quite quite a history. Yes, yeah, some, some of which might be lost, like the roanoke. Oh, we'll come on to that, good lord. Yes, not in this episode. We'll come on to that in another episode okay then we've got. So, of course, the European immigrants 19th century went over to America. No, not woo, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I kind of like not woo, but there's also a part of me that's like, of course, we, you know, went over there. Colonised, I guess, is the word, isn't it? It's the word I don't want to use. Yeah, no, it's true, we did. It's the word that happened. Yeah, it's the way it happened. And yeah, I don't know how I feel about it.
Speaker 1:I don't know how I feel about it, but we went over there For many different reasons, for many different reasons, for many different reasons, and we took some stuff across.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then we'll leave it there.
Speaker 1:And then of course, they kind of started getting a little bit more popular. They started, you know, there's a lot more singing, dancing, they're telling the ghost stories, mischief making, such as pranks and tricks and that type of thing. So it's kind of raising its game. Yeah, as we go on, the game is being raised. Yeah, as we go on, the game is being raised. Now, if you know, I mean I know you know some of Irish history, a little A little Irish history, but there was the potato famine in Ireland and that was in 1845. That started and there was an influx of the Irish leaving Ireland and went to America.
Speaker 1:That's partly because there is a big Irish kind of community within America. Now when the Irish went over there they kind of started doing things like, traditionally, the carving of the pumpkins.
Speaker 2:Ah, because pumpkins were more abundant, because of the potatoes.
Speaker 1:Yes, and then Halloween kind of evolved into that community-centred holiday, so again evolving more and more and more.
Speaker 2:Good old Irish. They bring people together, don't they?
Speaker 1:They do they do indeed, they do indeed.
Speaker 2:They don't like to be together in Ireland as in like the Irish wars, but they're happy to bring people together in other ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, moving on, let's move on.
Speaker 2:It's a funny history. The world has funny history it does.
Speaker 1:It does, and Irish history is very complicated. It is very complex Moving on. In the 20th century, halloween was becoming more and more secular. Community leaders and the media promoted Halloween as a holiday focused on community and neighbourhood gatherings.
Speaker 2:Woo, big woo, bringing the community together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of focusing on that kind of that aspect of Halloween, which would you say that's kind of what it is now. Yeah, I'd say so. It is very much like that, yeah. And then, of course, trick or treating was evolved from souling and guising. Yeah, and then, of course, trick-or-treating was evolved from souling and guising, but actually during the 1920s and 30s it was interrupted by sugar rationing.
Speaker 2:Of course, World War II.
Speaker 1:Because of World War II, nobody had anything to give away. No, no one had anything to give away. I'll let them off. Yeah, and then in the 50s it became the central activity for children on Halloween night, and that's kind of where we are now. Yeah, it is. It is, you know often, and I must admit, it is cool.
Speaker 2:It is cool. I like seeing the different costumes that the parents come up with for their children and the effort that they go to. As well as the ages sometimes shock me how old children are when they go out as well. There's older children that I don't know would have thought maybe were a bit too young for it, but uh, too old for it, but they still come out. I don't know. That's quite cool. They've got normally the better costumes as well. Um, but yeah, it's. I remember last year there was, um, there were some parents that had made their child like a, like a spider costume cool they had the legs and everything you could tell it was homemade.
Speaker 2:Like you could tell they were tights and stuff like just super cool. Yeah, the effort gone to was um, yeah, I'm pretty pretty impressive yeah, yeah, I mean just talking about the costumes.
Speaker 1:I mean because costumes were, as as we know, or as we said earlier on in the episode, it started off with very much like the the goats, heads and things like that to disguise people from the ghosts, and it's kind of where we are now.
Speaker 2:You know, when I was, every girl's a witch yeah, or a cat yeah, there's a lot of cats there's a lot of cats. There's a sexy cat thing of course as well, which is like the adult version. Yeah, ghosts, skeletons ghouls vampires, werewolves, frankenstein that's kind of where all that came from I'll tell you, you've you've seen Modern Family.
Speaker 1:I have the Halloween episode.
Speaker 2:Oh, Claire goes all out.
Speaker 1:She goes proper all out. I absolutely love that episode.
Speaker 2:Because she's not seen as the fun parent. But for Halloween it's like the table's turned and yeah, she goes to town and apparently her house is too scary. You should watch Modern Family, it's very good.
Speaker 1:That absolutely yeah, because she wants everyone to play their part and everyone to do their role. And I can't remember Everyone kind of does, doesn't they? They kind of get, everyone gets involved.
Speaker 2:Pretty much yeah.
Speaker 1:And it is weird she has this whole kind of scene planned out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Doing their bit. She goes to town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very good so costumes yeah, but now it's kind of costumes have kind of evolved into it's not just ghosts and witches and no, it could be marvel characters.
Speaker 2:I think it's just fancy dress at this point it is yeah I think, that's kind of what it what it's kind of evolved.
Speaker 1:Did you see that picture of um Paul Rudd? Have you seen that one?
Speaker 2:Ant-Man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, paul Rudd is walking down the street with his I think it's with his daughter, and she's dressed as Wasp. Oh, okay, so of course you would think Paul Rudd was dressed as Ant-Man, because he is Ant-Man. Yeah, nope, dressed as Weirdp thinking. You know, I want to be like my dad, and he's just as weird as that, he didn't play along, didn't play along at all, didn't play along at all. And then, of course, we've got jack-o'-lanterns. So that is a. Do you know where that phrase comes from?
Speaker 2:Jack-o'-lanterns.
Speaker 1:Jack-o'-lanterns. We're carving the pumpkins.
Speaker 2:I don't know about the jack part, but the lantern part is obvious because they obviously put a light in there to guide the way, don't they?
Speaker 1:It's an old Irish folk story.
Speaker 2:Is it it?
Speaker 1:is who's Jack, then? So his name was Stingy Jack. What was he stingy about? Stingy Jack was a man who tricked the devil.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like him already yeah.
Speaker 1:And he was doomed to wander the earth with only a carved turnip to light his way.
Speaker 2:Oh, a turnip? Yeah, because originally it was turnips, not a pumpkin.
Speaker 1:Turnips are quite difficult to carve.
Speaker 2:I mean, a turnip is quite small, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, you just have a small, yeah, whereas a pumpkin is like big and you can actually hollow it out, although they are a bastard to actually do. I hate, actually hollow it out, although they are a bastard to actually do. Yeah, I hate, I, I love, hate cutting pumpkins like they're really difficult.
Speaker 1:I mean, I love it. I love those ones where you don't know what it is until the light's in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, some of them are. You know some of the artistry around, some of the pumpkins are amazing I did a day of the dead last year.
Speaker 2:I done a skeleton face, which was quite fun. I done Mike Mazowski the year before.
Speaker 1:I saw some people have got like the cookie cutters and they use them.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That seems like a good that's a good idea, Whereas mine not so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, that's where the whole pumpkin carving pumpkins come from. It was an Irish, irish the whole carving pumpkins come from. It was an Irish folk story about Stingy Jack, who cheated the devil and then was doomed to wander the earth with nothing but a carved turnip. There's a lot of stories and a lot of cultures about people cheating. The devil isn't there.
Speaker 2:And it never ends well.
Speaker 1:Well, the devil went down to Georgia, where it ended quite well he got a golden fiddle out of that.
Speaker 2:Oh did he? Yes, well, the Devil Went Down to Georgia ended quite well. He got a golden fiddle out of that. Oh did he? Yes, Harry Potter the guy with the cloak got to live. Yeah, the other two. Yeah, did not do well.
Speaker 1:No, and yeah, that's kind of, and then we're kind of up to date with where we are, where we are in the world now. Yeah, so you can kind of see that Halloween has kind of it's evolved, hasn't it with all these different cultures coming together to create kind of what it is today.
Speaker 2:I just mentioned Day of the Dead and of course that's more of a Mexican tradition honouring the deceased loved ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, day of the Dead, yeah, I've done Day of the Dead makeup before.
Speaker 2:actually, I think that's more my go-to. But yeah, what a cool festival to bring so many cultures together with so many influences, and that's what's built into what we have today.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love the light shows on people's houses, sometimes like the Thriller one. Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean that's really easy to find on YouTube, but that's so cool how they timed it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's one for System of a Down. Oh yeah, System of a Down one's good as well.
Speaker 2:I was thinking there's a thriller. One is the one that sticks in my brain. But yeah, the System of a Down one's quite good too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think Halloween is one of those festivals where, if you love it, you love it absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:I think I'm I love, I love autumn and I think I'm more of an autumn girl now than I am a halloween gal. I've evolved, I've matured and, um, I think I'm more of a fall, autumn, autumn galley now, but, um, I enjoy halloween I love halloween haven't dressed up for a long time, but I enjoy halloween.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love Halloween. It is my favourite Of all the days in the calendar year In the holiday calendar, in the holiday calendar year. Like Christmas, you hate Christmas. I absolutely detest Christmas.
Speaker 2:Easter's cool because you get chocolate.
Speaker 1:Still, but Easter's still a little bit kind of.
Speaker 2:Because you're anti-religion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Halloween, but yeah, you can see all these different, all those different things that we said about the dressing up, the apple bobbing, all of that, the clocks change yeah, all of that has all come from all these different cultures all merging together to create this one kind of Halloween.
Speaker 2:One Halloween, one Halloween Halloween. We've lost our Halloween jingle.
Speaker 1:We have. I pressed the buttons this morning and they're not there anymore. That's really sad. Yeah, oh well, that's a shame.
Speaker 2:Right, well, we hope you've enjoyed the history of Halloween with Davies History Channel this morning or this afternoon, depending on when you're listening to it. We hope you have a lovely Halloween. Halloween, stay safe, stay warm and, um, go trick or treat. A lovely Halloween Halloween. Stay safe, stay warm and Go trick or treating. Go eat some. Yeah, go trick or treating, go eat some candy Go to a local ghost walk. Go do, go do.
Speaker 1:If you've got something like Primeval nearby, go to that you know, with the scare actors and, you know, have an amazing Halloween.
Speaker 2:Have a lovely walk through the autumnal forest as well, if you're not into the spooky stuff. Bye-bye, we'll see you next time.