Happy Halloween!

Halloween, (All Hallows Day) Is a holiday of pure fun, celebrated on the 31st of October.

-It is largely a secular celebration, but some Christians and pagans have expressed strong feelings about its religious overtones.

-The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Celts believed that on October 31st, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.

-On All Hallows’ eve, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off the embodiment of superstitions

-Rituals of October 31st.

Traditionally, children (and some adults) dress up in costume for Halloween.

Children "trick or treat" (The word "trick" refers to a threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given) to gather candies and prizes from neighboring homes.

Also, Halloween parades and such are performed.

And in teenage cases, "rolling, or tipeeing yards" with toilet paper and toothpicks thrown into trees as a trick to the property owners occurs.

Haunted houses and mazes, carving pumpkins, horror tales&movies, ghost tours, and candied foods also take place.

Info from Wikipedia.

Have a SAFE and Happy Halloween!!!

Autumn

Now, It is officially Fall!

Generation Swap's favorite time of the year.

You have to admit, it is beautiful, the leaves changing, it not be 100 degrees outside and such. You get to wear long sleeves and eat pumpkins, and squash.

You get Halloween, where you get to dress up and watch the little children in their costumes, searching for sweets and looking adorable... and Thanksgiving, when you can give thanks to the Indians and Pilgrims and your family for all the awesome food(*cough*...tofurky...) which later morphs into my favorite holidays, Christmas and New Years!

Oh, just how wonderful of a world we live in (nature wise anyways.)

Enjoy!

The story of Labor Day

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City.

[1] In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

[2] Cleveland was also concerned that aligning a US labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair.

[3] All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.

The holiday is often regarded as a day of rest and parades.