Happy Halloween

Have Felt, Will Decorate

Delia and I decided this year to forgo the crepe paper streamers and instead make some decorations for her birthday that could be reused. These banners are the result of our first night's work. The big one is made from triangles we measured and cut out of a length of felt. Each is 5 inches wide at the top. They are machine stitched along with a piece of black ric-rac. Super simple, mega cute. I wanted to cut the felt triangles with pinking shears so they would have zig-zaggy edges to kind of echo the ric-rac, but alas, my Grandma's pinkers are plenty old and not as sharp as they used to be (much like me). They wouldn't cut the felt, so the edges of these pennants are just straight.
These little guys are made from scraps I had left over. They came out pretty awesome, for being all kinds of random. I did sort the triangles generally by size, and then stacked them so the littlest ones would be closest to the ends. Just overlap the triangles a little bit as you feed them through the machine and they come out strung together. I made little loop hangers for the ends out of pieces of felt, and stitched them onto the end triangles.
You could make the little doorway garlands from the notebook paper sized pieces of felt you can get at the craft store. I bought a little more than 2 yards of felt from JoAnns when it was on sale. About 6 dollars invested in it, tonight we used up less than 1/4 of my felt stash.

I am jazzed by how easy this little project was, once I brought my sewing machine down from the attic and got it all set up on the dining room table. Now that it is ready to go, I might have to round up some more colors of felt and make decorations for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween. Halloween's origins date back about 2,000 years, to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts lived in the cold parts of Northern Europe — in Britain, Ireland, and the north of France — and so for them, the new year began on November 1st, the end of the fall harvest and the beginning of winter. The night before the new year, on October 31st, the division between the world of the living and the world of the dead dissolved, and the dead could come to earth again. This was partly bad and partly good — these spirits would damage crops and cause sickness, but they also helped the Celtic priests, the druids, to tell the future, to make predictions about the coming year. The druids built huge bonfires, and regular people put out their own fires in their homes and crowded together around these fires, where they burned sacrifices for the gods, told each other's fortunes, and dressed in costumes — usually animal skins and heads. At the end of the celebration, they took a piece of the sacred bonfire and relit their own fires at home with this new flame, which was meant to help them stay warm through the long winter ahead.

First the Romans co-opted Samhain and combined it with their festivals, and then the Christians co-opted both the Celtic and Roman celebrations. In the ninth century, the pope decided that these pagan festivals needed to be replaced with a Christian holiday, so he just moved the holiday called All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. All Saints' Day was a time for Christians to honor all the saints and martyrs of their religion. The term for All Saints' Day in Middle English was Alholowmesse, or All-hallowmass. This became All-hallows, and so the night before was referred to as All-hallows Eve, and finally, Halloween.



What are you doing for Halloween? Here at Edgehill House, I am staying home to hand out candy and carve my pumpkin and Keith and Delia (and several of our friends) are going house to house. It is supposed to warm up a little bit, thank goodness. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Trick or Treat.
Also, I wish all the pagans out there a Happy New Year. We remember our ancestors at this time of year (and other loved ones who have left this world), so I'll be sending a shout out to Grandpa, and Aunt Jo, and Grandma Bea, and PopPop, and all those who came before and went back again.