Type Bee says “Boo!” Not as a crowd boos a performance, but to startle or frighten you. Yes! It’s almost Halloween—time for ghouls, skeletons, and terrifying pumpkinheads. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Working for Treats
Halloween starts at sunset and ends at midnight on October 31st. Also known as All Hallows’ Eve, it is the evening before All Saints’ Day on November 1. Young costumed ghosts and goblins are planning to stalk their neighborhoods with paper sacks, canvas shopping bags, and other eco-friendly receptacles, expecting treats to be freely given. It’s called Beggar’s Night for a reason. I’ve even seen teenagers carrying king-size pillow cases. There was a time when trick-or-treaters had to earn their treats by providing a little entertainment for the households they visited. It would be a fine custom to revive, because it’s a great lesson to teach: “the more you give, the more you receive.”
Last year at this time I had the great pleasure of being in Salt Lake City. Every year, the City of Murray hosts a family-oriented jaunt through “haunted” Murray Park, one of David Archuleta’s favorite local haunts. Survivors receive hot chocolate and doughnuts. If you live nearby or plan to visit between October 26th and 28th, you may purchase tickets at the concessions stand near Murray Park Pavilion #5. (Phone 801.264.2614 for more info.) This photo is of me having a little macabre fun at the “graveyard,” where gravestones bore funny epitaphs. Click to enlarge if you dare. Warning: I’m a fright!
On a side note: did you know? The main colors of Halloween, orange and black, are also the school colors of Murray High School, which David Archuleta attended.
BOOword
guising
In Scotland and parts of northern England, trick-or-treating is called ‘guising,’ a practice dating to the Middle Ages. The word comes from the disguises or costumes worn by the children. Children must earn their treats by performing. They might sing, tell a ghost story, or recite a funny poem.
Our BOOword used in a sentence:
If David Archuleta went guising in his neighborhood, he would receive the most treats, because there is no disguising his exceptional vocal talent.
If you are brave enough to enter a Haunted House, perhaps you have what it takes to recite a long passage from Shakespeare’s Macbeth this Halloween. Not for the faint of heart…
Buzz-phrase
“The Witches’ Spell” by William Shakespeare
from Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I
written between 1603 and 1606
A dark cave. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches.
Witch 1: Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Witch 2: Thrice and once the hedge-pig whin’d.
Witch 3: Harpier cries ’tis time, ’tis time.
Witch 1: Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under the cold stone,
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Witch 2: Fillet of fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adders’ fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Witch 3: Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangl’d babe,
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab;
Add thereto a tiger’s chauldron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Witch 2: Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
Enter Hecate to the other three Witches:
O, weel done! I commend your pains,
And everyone shall share i’ th’ gains,
And now about the cauldron sing
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
Witch 2: By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes….
Source: MIT.edu
If you have memorized this poem, haha!, you can read last week’s “Type Bee”.
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Tags: Halloween · Murray City Park · Shakespeare · Witches' Spell
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Ok Minna, You just made me afraid! The wind is whistling through the trees this evening making the leaves crackle up against the fence. Howling now is coming from cats on the fence looking for shelter. Do I have my days mixed up! Saturday is Halloween! All I need now is some Witches Brew! Ooooooo! Where are the trick or treaters!!!
Wonderful Card… perfect for the occasion. But, with my David’s Christmas songs playing in the background I want it to be Christmas already!
I heard it through the grapevine – or perhaps from a buzzing bee – that the witching hour is fast approaching!
An interesting thing to note about the famous scene with the witches in Macbeth is that many scholars believe it was inserted into the play at a later date and was not written by Shakespeare. They arrive at this conclusion because the language used and the style of writing doesn’t fit with the rest of the play or with Shakespeare’s writing in general. Just think of the line from the following children’s song: One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong!