Halloween 2014 - the year of the Hearse

On October 30^th I lay awake trying to sort out in my mind what I was going to do for Halloween. I am so excited I can't sleep anyway. I had the ultimate Halloween prop, the hearse, this was our first year together.

I decided on a couple of different plans, I had hoped that I would be able to fold myself up at the bottom of the casket, hopefully being completely hidden by the second lid. I could also hide in the back of the hearse and come exploding out… or I could crouch down at the front of the car and run to the back when there were Trick or Treaters.

Finally morning came and then , I kept saying to hubby, "Hey, hey, guess what?" He would dutifully say, "what?"and then I would say, "TODAY IS HALLOWEEN." He would then say, "yes dear, you've told me 500 times today." Then I had to wait ALL DAY for it finally to be the “witching hour” when the Trick or Treaters would arrive. Seriously I think I am more excited than the kids.

I parked the hearse catty corner in the drive way so Trick or Treaters could see the side of the car. I put the purple lights in around the top and on the door. Harvey and Mildred my skeletons were in attendance. Harvey was sitting in one of the camp chairs, and Mildred was sitting in the back of the hearse as she often does at the car shows.

Malice placed many of her Living Dead Dolls on the table. We couldn’t find the usually candy bowl/cauldron this year, so I cleaned out all my sewing projects from the one cauldron and it was filled with candy. We had three 245, piece bags, and we went to the store for more that morning, by the end of the night we were OUT!

Next it was time to pull the casket out of the hearse and put it on the ground behind it. In pulling the casket out of the hearse and opening it fully we discovered that someone had already lain in the casket (with dirty shoes) and that the hinge for the bottom lid was busted, and someone had used a cotter pin to secure it to the top.

So with the crumby hinges, I wasn’t going to be able to swiftly open the lid at the appointed time to scare the kiddies. So begrudgingly I agreed to just lie in the casket and when Malice uttered the words, “don’t be afraid of the skeleton” I would pop up and reach out. I thought this was never going to work, I’d be instantly be made by anyone.

I laid down as the first group came, as I suspected no one was scared. I could also hear myself breathing in my mask, it was so loud! I don’t know how anyone else couldn't hear it! The next group came and lo, I did scar some, one poor little, little kid that was dressed like a foot ball player.

As the night wore on I hit some and some made me as soon as they walked up. I learned a couple new things… When you make yourself into a prop you don’t get to eat candy and drink booze while ooing and ahing over the Trick or Treaters costumes. I also learned that some parents are mean! So often they would tell their kids to come over and look at me and I would pop up and scare them!

Some neighbors that had been driving by wanted to come over and see the set up, they made me as soon as they walked up. We offered them shots and they stood around talking to Malice and Dragon. I was sitting up as well getting a drink. I had my mask up, I saw some kids coming so I lay down, assuming that they saw me.

So I lay still and hear people around me, and then a little boy says, “hi, skeleton.” I assume I’ve been made so I sit up and reach out for the boy, I think I even brushed him. He took off running and made it passed the neighbors house to the stop sign before his parents were able to yell for him to stop! Of course we are all evil and started laughing.

About 8:10pm a couple older kids came by, and they made me of course. They were given a couple big hand full’s of candy. They then said they had to put on a show, so the proceeded to do a choreographed sword fight! They were pretty good!

Malice’s kids were over and her grandson and son in law assisted me with a good scare. They poked me and said that nothing would happen. Then when I heard someone close I sat up, scared a couple.

It was a fun night, and now I feel like one does after opening all their Christmas presents… 365 more days to go until I get to do this again! Ugh... Oh well on to Krampusnacht...

Woe to the Woad

For me, woe to the woad all began when I was watching Highlander (the TV series), and one of the immortal characters was using eyeliner to draw blue markings on herself. I thought to myself, "I wonder why they didn't have her using the original paint, instead of something modern." Later, I met someone who was also interested in the Celts that told me woad was made of seven different ingredients, and a recipe could be found in an ancient Welsh manuscript. I began researching from there, but could find no such manuscript. I began to doubt the existence of woad, until recently. A theory that I feel has credibility has been brought to light.

Anyone who has an interest in Celts or Picts has probably heard of woad and the warriors it was applied to. Visions of nude blue warriors running through the mist adhere themselves to the psyche, especially when woad has been featured in such movies as Brave Heart and Arthur. What was this mysterious blue concoction?

Most re-enactors, pagan, Pictophiles and Celtophiles, will tell you it is a plant; woad Isatis tinctoria, mixed with various substances from fat to distilled cow urine. Woad itself produces a dark blue to black color like indigo. In fact, woad was the predecessor to indigo. We do know woad was used to dye cloth, however it did not turn blue until it contacted air. This causes a problem if one is mixing it with fat; air contact would be minimal and would take some time to occur. Another problem I see is that indigo is nearly black and a contemporary writer, Julius Caesar, states the color is virtrum I believe that is a blue like lapis or perhaps a Ginseng Arizona iced tea bottle. Pliny observed, women were said to paint their bodies blue like Ethiopians before festivals. Curiously, woad plant seeds didn't show up in Britain until the late Iron Age (the Iron age ranged about 400 B.C.- 400 A.D.), so the Picts and/or Celts probably would not have been painting themselves blue with the woad plant for centuries as some believe. They had to be using something different to paint themselves.

I have spoken with some people who have tried to re-created the woad mixture; all of them said that it didn’t work. Other substances had to be mixed with the fat or some such binding agent. This could smear, or it would just dry and flake off. I have also been told some of the woad re-creations smelled pretty bad (I could imagine if anything near urine was used. I have also read that the indigo plant doesn't smell very good itself whether or not that pertains to woad, I couldn't say).

Unknowingly the idea of using eyeliner put forth from the Highlander TV episode offers some clues. Some of the ingredients of eyeliner include: Ferric ferrocyanide and iron oxides. Ferrocyanide pigments are known to create colors such as Iron blue, Prussian blue and Chinese blue among others. Iron oxide would most likely produce a red to orange color. We know the Celts mined and worked metals. They could then, of course, have easily gather the metal oxides and used them to create body paint.

Of course we don't have a living breathing immortal to tell us what woad was, but we do have a witness of sorts, Lindow Man. In 1984 in Lindow Marsh, Cheshire, UK two peat cutters discovered a well formed human foot, which led to the discovery of a mummified body of Lindow Man a few days later. Lindow Man has been dated to about 2 B.C.-119 A.D. some time in the middle of the Celtic Iron age. What is very interesting is that the skin testing of Lindow Man (along with other bog bodies) found iron, copper, ferrocyanide oxide and clay based paints but no plant based paints. "All test for indigotin (the colorant in woad) were negative; the test itself is very sensitive." Lindow Man: Body in the Bog pg 41.

There are a few scattered writings from contemporary peoples that really only give faint clues as to the composition of the body paint used by the Celts or Picts. The bog bodies can give mute testimony to the use of metal oxides. Only future research may give us certainty as to what components were in the body paint. If the woad plant or indigo created such a superior blue color, why is it not used in cosmetics today? Clearly in centuries we have found nothing better than metal oxides.

Contributing texts and web links:
The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar
The Picts and the Scots by Lloyd and Jenny Laing
Lindow Man: The Body in the Bog by I.M. Stead, J.B. Bourke, Don Brothwell
The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe

Links
http://www.cyberpict.net/sgathan/essays/woad.htm
http://www.hippy.com/albion/woad.htm
http://home.columbus.rr.com/herneswood/Fashions%20of%20the%20Peat%20Bogs.htm

Opening Post

Not to be to cliché, but here we are again. My fledgling first post THEN I'll come back later and put substance in here.

A little about me I suppose... I think I'm getting better at writing this stuff...

If you have gone to any of the major pagan events in Phoenix, you may have seen me there, I'm the woman with the mohawk. I am also the crazy cat lady... the dreaded piper and that girl with the hearse.

What's going to be on this blog? Probably posts about the stuff I just mentioned.

...and my traditional closing for the first post, "last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off."