Boo! Hello again! So several people asked me if I had a few more “Spooky Season Tidbits” to share. Enjoy!

Rooted in the Scottish and Irish practices of souling and guising, trick-or-treating has been a North American Halloween tradition since the 1920s. The tradition gained widespread popularity after the Second World War.

In Bantu folklore, gourds will sometimes grow into huge, ravenous monsters. Such malevolent plants often are created where evil sorcerers or ogres were killed. The Devouring Gourd of Usambara grew to the size of a house, uprooted itself, and ate a whole village!

Korreds - These Elvin creatures always appear to be male. They have hairy bodies, spindly legs, and bird-like arms, but sport huge heads in comparison. They’re the faery guardians of the dolmens (stone altars) and standing stones of Celtic Brittany. Faery lore says that it was the Korreds themselves who brought the stones to Brittany and erected them.

According to folklore, the veil that separates this world and the spirit world, is at its thinnest on Halloween. It was believed that otherworldly beings would enter the world of the living, and bonfires were lit to ward off spirits and ghosts.

Norwegian gnomes (nisser) are known to be mischievous pranksters that love to have a good laugh at the expense of others. Sometimes they set up tripwires, and they laugh hard for hours when they see people slip and fall on the ice.

In Shropshire, an infamous male witch “the farmer of Child’s Ercall” was reputed to possess the evil eye; able to fix people to the spot & make others go against their own intentions. Some say he acquired this power through hand to hand combat with the devil.

There’s an old Greek belief that a dead werewolf can come back as a wolf or hyena that prowls battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers. In some parts of Eastern Europe, a dead werewolf was said to return as a vampire unless its corpse is dealt with.

Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs which was created and concealed from slave-owners by enslaved Africans in North America. Hoodoo evolved from various traditional African religions and practices, and in the American South, incorporated various elements of indigenous botanical knowledge.

Huldrafolk - These dark Elves are known not only because of their dark coloring, but also because of their nasty personalities. They have the ability to blight humans with deformities, especially with very small ones such as baldness or a crooked nose. They cause these deformities with a lick of their dark brown tongues. To be touched like this will eventually turn a person against the world of mortals.

Carman or Carmun is the Celtic goddess of evil magic. She prowls around with her three equally evil sons Dub (“darkness” in Irish), Dother (“evil”), and Dain (“violence”), and their mission is always to cause destruction and devastation.

Khonsu, the Traveller, is the Egyptian god of the moon and his name probably refers to the idea that the moon travels through the night sky. He was part of the Theban triad and he’s also called “Embracer” or “Pathfinder”. He is usually depicted as a mummy.

Willow branches on the side of a grave drive away mean spirits or troublesome ghosts. They also stop the deceased’s ghost rising and attract protective spirits of the dead.

The Maskim were the Seven Sumerian demons who are great princes of Jinnestan, considered to be among the most powerful of all. Maskim means “ensnarer” or “layers of ambush.” The Maskim vary in form, and take the forms of the South Wind, a dragon with its mouth opened immeasurably wide, a leopard that drags away infants, a monstrous serpent, a wolf that does not flee, a nondescript creature (the tablet is illegible), and an “evil wind.”

The Demon Ammit: Ammit was a demoness and goddess in ancient Egyptian religion with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile—the three largest “man-eating” animals known to ancient Egyptians. Ammit was not worshipped; instead, she embodied all that the Egyptians feared, threatening to bind them to eternal restlessness if they did not follow the principle of Ma’at.

Chort is considered to be a demon of total evil, with horns, hoofs, skinny tail, and a pig-face in Slavic mythology. He is the son of the Slavic god Chernobog and the goddess Mara. In Ukraine, he is also known as haspyda, didko, irod, and kutsyi. In folklore, his physical appearance is same as that of Greek god Pan. In folk Christianity, he is considered a minion of Satan.

Horses were used to locate vampires. Brought to a graveyard, the horse was led around the graves in the belief it would hesitate, refusing to cross the body of a vampire.

Baobhan sith is a type of female vampire from the Scottish Highlands. She appears as beautiful young woman and seduces her victims before draining their blood. Sometimes several baobhan sith appear together, typically to attack groups of men. In many stories, the baobhan sith has hooves instead of feet, and therefore wears a long dress to keep her hooves hidden. The dress is usually green.