The Growing Trend Of Halloween Decorating

Gerard Arduino, author of “Holiday Love and Madness”, is the original ‘holiday lover.’ Arduino’s impressive collection of vintage holiday decorations and his love of family inspired him to write his first book. A New Jersey native, born and raised in Bloomfield, Arduino now resides in Cedar Grove. He is a distributor of vintage Halloween and other nostalgic holiday decorations. Visit http://www.gerardarduino.com/.


Enthusiasm for Halloween Memorabilia Now Rivals Christmas in Popularity


CEDAR GROVE, NJ –In recent years, Halloween has been bouncing back into the holiday limelight. In fact, memorabilia for this centuries-old holiday now rivals Christmas in popularity. Halloween decorations that dot front lawns and porches in the county have become frightfully sophisticated. Electrified and inflatable, today's monsters, ghosts and goblins soar through the air, light up the night, shriek on cue and wave to passersby.
If all this scary technology leaves you feeling a bit nostalgic for a cardboard skeleton and a few honeycomb tissue paper pumpkins, you're not alone. Original vintage Halloween decorations from the 1920’s through 60’s are ‘in demand’ because they are near impossible to find.
“Vintage Halloween images are most memorable because they were meant to scare. And for this reason finding such decorations in today’s marketplace especially near-mint condition, is fast becoming a rarity,” says Gerard Arduino, author of “Holiday Love and Madness”. These vintage decorations include one sided paper cutouts, or die-cuts, of classic images such as scary witches, spooky black cats and Jack-O-Lanterns, plastic pumpkin candy holders and honeycombed-tissue decorations.
“About 10 years ago, there was a resurgence of the old stuff really coming back,” he said. “I thought (Halloween) is really catching on again. I got into it myself then. It became a passion of mine.”
“Unlike Christmas decorations that were passed down from generations and would be packed away carefully, regarded as family heirlooms, Halloween decorations were generally used once to decorate a themed party and then discarded without a thought,” continued Arduino. “For this reason, today, an original 1930’s jointed skeleton paper cutout, in mint condition, could be worth as much as $150 or more compared to its original price of a mere five or ten cents.”
Arduino explains that the Internet has allowed for many of the vintage Halloween decorations to resurface. “Thanks to the Internet and sites such as eBay it has become much easier to find classic images. In comparison to the Halloween decorations of today, the timeless decorations of the past are much scarier and, for us ‘baby boomers,’ they bring us back to a time when life was simpler and no one thought twice about letting children “trick 'or' treat door-to-door.”
“The decorations have character. They remind everyone of their childhood. People will see them and say “I had that when I was a kid” or “I remember those.” I get all of that kind of feedback,” he said.
The Beistle Company of Shippensburg, Pa., and The Dennison Manufacturing Co., now known as Avery Dennison and based in Pasadena, Calif., produced some of the most popular collectible Halloween items.

Beistle is still in business and with the recent popularity of its vintage items, has reissued some of its holiday creations for today's buyers.
“Beistle made party hats, lanterns…a bunch of things that were party-themed,” Arduino added. “All of it was made in the United States and sold in 5- and 10-cent stores. I remember going to Woolworth's and buying these cutouts and Halloween costumes. You don't see that anymore.”
What have been selling well in today’s market according to Arduino are “the traditional ‘Classic’ cutouts.” The ones that look and feel spooky! In addition he added the ‘Gothic’ line of indoor/outdoor lawn and durable decorations are popular sellers as well.
If you’re looking to start your own Halloween collection and prefer the “retro images” of days gone by, then here are some tips to help you keep up with the ever growing trend of vintage Halloween decorating:
What to look for:
The names Beistle and Dennison are usually printed on the cutouts.
The scarier the imagery, the older the item.
Older cutouts have one-sided images with a thick card board backing.
Halloween Bogie Books, once published annually by Dennison were magazines that served as the primary sales and marketing tool for the company’s Halloween line. Finding them today is rare, but they can help collectors determine the manufacture date of vintage decorations.
The more delicate the article, the more rare, and of course, the more valuable.
Where to find them:
Local garage sales are an excellent place to find vintage holiday items.
Antique/collectible shows are another source; although they can become pricy, depending on how much you are willing to spend.
Look for distributors who sell vintage recreations which will cost far less than the originals. These are a must have for Halloween aficionados.
Small, local party stores often sell Beistle recreations, and may even have some old cutouts in storage that may be for sale.
If you choose to purchase authentic vintage decorations on the Web, generally avoid dealers who provide photos of their items for sale taken from catalogs or other sources. Its buyer beware. Always make sure that you are viewing the actual item you are purchasing.

Fantasy novel or Animated Film?

The Halloween Tree is a 1972 fantasy novel by American author Ray Bradbury.
A group of eight boys set out to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, only to discover that a ninth friend, Pipkin, has been whisked away on a journey that could determine whether he lives or dies. Through the help of a mysterious character named Moundshroud, they pursue their friend across time and space through ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures, Celtic Druidism, Notre Dame Cathedral in Medieval Paris, and The Day of the Dead in Mexico. Along the way, they learn the origins of the holiday that they celebrate, and the role that the fear of death has played in shaping civilization. The Halloween Tree itself, with its many branches laden with jack-o'-lanterns, serves as a metaphor for the historical confluence of these traditions.
The novel originated in 1967 as the screenplay for an unproduced collaboration with animator Chuck Jones. In 1992, Bradbury wrote and narrated a feature-length animated version of the novel for television, for which he won an Emmy Award. A longer "author's preferred text" of the novel, compiled and edited by Donn Albright, was published in 2005. This edition also included both the 1967 and 1992 screenplays.
The Halloween Tree is illustrated by Joe Mugnaini, one of Bradbury's many collaborators over the years. Joe Mugnaini has illustrated many novels with Bradbury, and Bradbury also owns many examples of Mugnaini's artwork.
It is dedicated to Man'Ha Dombasle (1898–1999), a French writer and translator who was the maternal grandmother of the actress and singer Arielle Dombasle and the wife of Maurice Garreau-Dombasle, a French ambassador to Mexico.

History Of The Jack-O'Lantern
Pumpkin carving is a popular part of modern America's Halloween celebration. Come October, pumpkins can be found everywhere in the country from doorsteps to dinner tables. Despite the widespread carving that goes on in this country every autumn, few Americans really know why or when the jack o'lantern tradition began. Or, for that matter, whether the pumpkin is a fruit or a vegetable. Read on to find out!
People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."
In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Pumpkin Facts:

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pumpkins But Were Afraid To Ask...

- Pumpkins are fruits. A pumpkin is a type of squash and is a member of the gourd family (Cucurbitacae), which also includes squash, cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.
- The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in 2005 and weighed 2,020 pounds.
- Pumpkins have been grown in North America for five thousand years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere.
- In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding "gros melons." The name was translated into English as "pompions," which has since evolved into the modern "pumpkin."
- Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, and sodium and high in fiber. They are good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, and iron.
- The largest pumpkin ever grown was 1,689 pounds. It was grown by Joe Jutras of North Scituate, Rhode Island.
- Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.

Halloween Comes to America.....

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.
It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

The History of Halloween....

Halloween Myths and Legends

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday--with luck, by next Halloween!--be married.

In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girls future husband.

(In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
Of course, whether were asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same spirits whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly. Ours is not such a different holiday after all!

The Nightmare Before Christmas.... Halloween Song Video

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Some jokes to put a smile on your faces :)